“I don't know what I was thinking…” Micheal Keaton recalls his Batman debut

The actor recounts the torrent of insults that his casting generated at the time and his relationship with Jack Nicholson on the set.

When Tim Burton decides to engage Michael Keaton to embody Batman on screen, the choice was far from unanimous. We are in 1989 and the actor has just come out of a crazy collaboration with the filmmaker, to Beetlejuice. Crazy and facetious, Michael Keaton is then not considered at all as a serious star, capable of taking on the darkness of the Knight of Gotham City. He is even known, at this stage of his career, as Mister Momsince the John Hughes comedy (1983).

SO Michael Keaton admits it: the choice of Tim Burton For Batman was “bold“, as he confided in an interview for GQ magazine. A casting which sparked very negative reactions among comic book fans at the time.

“When they told me that they were considering making Batman in the cinema, I immediately said that I was interested! And at the same time, the fact that Tim Burton said that he wanted me, that made a difference. There was a big backlash, and I must admit that people's overreactions, one way or the other, are always quite confusing. But it was a courageous decision on Tim's part. “

Michael Keaton says he always had “a good working relationship” with the director since Beetlejuice. “He felt that he and I could get along and work well together.” With Jack Nicholson – who played the Joker – the flow flowed less naturally. For example, he remembers a somewhat lunar exchange behind the scenes of filming:

“I was working out to get really fit. I was working out and one day Jack Nicholson walked by me and said, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'I'm doing bodybuilding.” And he said, “Why are you doing that?” I had no answer for him and he just left…”

Michael Keaton admits to having approached the physical aspect of the role poorly. “Because actually, it's better to be really small and lean and thin inside the Batman suit. You can move, you can breathe inside. I don't know what I was thinking…I stupidly told myself that as an actor, I had to do all that…”

Michael Keaton made two films Batman until 1992, before giving way to Val Kilmer. He returned to play Bruce Wayne as a guest star for The Flash in 2022.