Warner Bros. Pictures
When people discuss which actor was the worst Batman of all time, they either name Val Kilmer in 1995’s Batman Forever or George Clooney in 1997’s Batman & Robin.
You really can’t go wrong either way because both of their performances and the films they appeared in were atrocious.
However, there is no arguing the fact that Clooney’s version of Batman is to this day the least commercially successful live-action Batman film ever made. (And there have been a LOT of them.)
So, when Ben Affleck was filming Argo, which Clooney produced, the two of them had a little chat about playing the Caped Crusader.
Speaking on the on The Hollywood Reporter’s “Awards Chatter” podcast, Clooney admitted, “I actually did talk to him about it. I said, ‘Don’t do it.’ It was only from my experience, which is, you know…”
Yes, we do know. Nice nipples.
Warner Bros. Pictures
Considering the fact that most people were baffled from the get-go as to why Affleck was chosen to play Bruce Wayne, and the fact that all three movies Affleck appeared did not meet expectations both at the box office as well as with critics, AND the fact that he ended up pretty much being shown the door after Justice League, Affleck probably should have taken Clooney’s advice.
Clooney also spoke more about his experience filming Batman & Robin back in 1997, including some very hard lessons he learned about how Hollywood works.
“Schwarzenegger was paid, I think, $25 million for that, which was like 20 times more than I was paid for it, and, you know, we never even worked together! We worked together one day. But I took all the heat,” Clooney recalled. “Now, fair deal; I was playing Batman and I wasn’t good in it, and it wasn’t a good film, but what I learned from that failure was, I had to rethink how I was working. Because now I wasn’t just an actor getting a role, I was being held responsible for the film itself.”
As for what Clooney thought of Affleck’s portrayal of Batman? “He did great.”
Listen to Clooney’s first-ever podcast interview, and in particular, the discussion of Batman around the 18:40 mark, and his talk with Affleck around the 50:30 mark, below.
[protected-iframe id=”acf4f1de68c2b239c6f77f97e5fa0d32-97886205-92827192″ info=”https://app.stitcher.com/splayer/f/126261/60656107″ width=”640″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”]