Michael Keaton Opens Up and Talks About Why His Portrayal of the Caped Crusader in BATMAN RETURNS Felt So "Strange"

The 1989 film Batman was a major gamble for director Tim Burton. Fans were unsure of his choice of Bruce Wayne, as Michael Keaton was widely known as a comedic actor, and Batman is anything but funny. But as fans saw, Keaton pulled it off in a big way. He embodied the moody superhero, and made a smash hit in the box office.

So a couple years later, Burton was ready to return for a sequel, as was the studio, and Keaton had his reservations. He had never played the same character twice, and wasn’t sure how to execute it. But he accepted the challenge, and unfortunately, this film was as well-received as its predecessor.

In a recent interview in the Shadows of the Bat featurette, Keaton talked about the experience in retrospect, saying:

“The only challenge I thought of before I started it was the mere fact that I had never done a character twice. So I was interested in doing it. What I hadn’t anticipated was, in my second or third day, I realized something seemed a little off. And what I think I was doing was imitating myself. You’re playing the same character. So I had to keep thinking, ‘I’ve played this character. So what does he do here?’ And I excluded any other possibilities.

So I found myself saying, ‘Okay, it seems like what he would do here. But it doesn’t sound right, and it doesn’t feel very right.’ So I found myself doing an impersonation of myself, which was first of all impossible. And second of all, really strange. So I just dropped that and said, ‘No, no, no. You’ve got to just open up like it’s the first time and trust that the character will be there.’”

He was asked back for Batman Forever, but this time he passed on the experience, with Val Kilmer stepping into the role. This was famously the biggest flop of the franchise.

Fans hoped for decades to see Keaton back in the cape and cowl, and then we found out last year that he would be returning as the dark knight in DC’s movie The Flash. But the 2023 film is now on the rocks after the legal trouble that the film’s star, Ezra Miller has found himself in. So we will have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully Miller gets it together and is able to move forward so we can see his story and Keaton’s Batman back on the big screen!

Via: Cheat Sheet