Actor and filmmaker George Clooney knows a thing or two about the perils of taking on a fan-favourite role, which is why he suggested his good friend Ben Affleck to turn down the offer to play Batman on screen.
The 58-year-old actor famously took up the role for 1997’s ‘Batman & Robin’ but he failed to deliver on the expectations of fans with the film proving to be a major critical and commercial failure.
During his appearance on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, George Clooney recalled his experience working on the film and how it taught him an important lesson.
“(Arnold) 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 said.
“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,” he added.
The actor said when he was working with Affleck on their 2012 Oscar-winning film ‘Argo’, he advised him to decline the offer to play Batman in Zack Snyder’s ‘Batman v Superman – Dawn of Justice’.
“I actually did talk to him about it. I said, ‘Don’t do it’. It was only from my experience, which is, you know,” Clooney said. The actor, however, believes Affleck did a “great” job with the part.