Tim Burton Says He and Jack Nicholson Had a "Caveman-Style Communication" While Working on BATMAN

I remember the first time that I watched Tim Burton’s Batman on the big screen. I was 11 years old, it was at the Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd, and I was completely blown away! As an 11-year-old kid… it was the greatest movie ever! I’ve come to appreciate that movie more over time, and it’s always interesting for me to learn new things about it and hear behind-the-scenes stories.

I’ve got a good one for you today that I just learned about! It involves the working relationship between Tim Burton and Jack Nicholson. Burton was only 30 years old when he directed Batman, and it was only his third feature film after Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice.

The pressure was on as Burton found himself at the helm of one of the biggest budgeted movies ever at the time, and he had to deliver! There were also a lot of jobs on the line. On top of that, Burton found himself working with Jack Nicholson, one of the biggest movie stars at that time, and the filmmaker had no idea what to expect.

During a recent interview with Empire, Burton explained how shy he was at the time, saying: "Back in the day, I could barely string several sentences together. I had real trouble communicating." As you might imagine, that didn’t really help him while he was trying to direct one of the biggest movies ever, and also have to work and communicate with Nicholson.

When Nicholsen signed up for the film his contract included stipulations that he would shoot all his scenes in a three-week window and that he would be allowed to leave to watch Los Angeles Lakers home games. He also agrees to lower his standard $10 million fee to $6 million for a cut of the film's box office and merchandising, which made him a lot of money! Oh yeah! He also got top-billing on the film over star Michael Keaton. Only Nicholson could have pulled that off.

When the shooting began and Burton started working with Nicholson, there was an interesting way of communicating with each other. Burton couldn’t understand the actor, and he needed someone to help translate what Nicholson was saying. He went on to explain that they had a “caveman-style communication.”

"Jack has a very abstract way of speaking. So he would say things to me and I'd go, 'Yeah, I get it,' and then I'd go to someone, 'What the f*** was he just talking about?' So there was this weird communication: non-linear, non-connective ... But it was very clear to me. I felt like we had a good sort of caveman-style communication."

Regardless of the communication difficulties, Nicholson had Burton’s back, and he felt supported by the actor. He says he found having "one of the greatest actors of all time" present and in his corner comforting:

"[Nicholson] protected me and nurtured me, kept me going, by just not getting too overwhelmed with the whole thing. I felt really supported by him in a very deep way. I was young and dealing with a big studio, and he just quietly gave me the confidence to do what I needed to do. And him being a voice of support had a lot of resonance with the studio. It got me through the whole thing. It gave me strength."

Nicholson gave Burton exactly what he needed to get through the experience and make a great film. The director went on to say: "I worked six days a week and exhausted myself because I feared I wasn't doing a good job. I still have amnesia about some of it."

In the end, everything worked and Burton made a freakin’ great Batman movie that was a huge hit!