Michelle Pfeiffer’s role as Catwoman in Batman Returns has been hailed as one of her best performances

Batman fans have hailed Michelle Pfeiffer’s portrayal of Catwoman as the best live-action performance of the DC Comics character to date. With her iconic black leather suit and undeniable chemistry with Michael Keaton as Batman/Bruce Wayne, it’s hard to imagine Michelle Pfeiffer in any other role in the Batman films. Yet, he was initially meant to play a different character in Tim Burton’s Batman.

An interview with Michael Uslan, executive producer of the 1989 Batman film, in The Hollywood Reporter, reveals that Pfeiffer was initially up for the role of Vicki Vale after Blade Runner’s Sean Young, intended originally to play Batman’s love interest, was incapacitated in a horse-riding accident.

However, Pfeiffer’s casting as Vicki Vale was vehemently opposed by Michael Keaton, as Michelle Pfeiffer and Keaton had previously dated and then split up. Keaton had also tried to get back together with his ex-wife while working on Batman. Michael Wuhl comments. “At the time, Michael told me he was trying to get back together with his ex-wife. Keaton was adamantly, I stress adamantly, opposed to Pfeiffer being in it, he and producer Jon Peters had a falling out.” As a result of the dispute, Pfeiffer was replaced by Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale.

The final decision not to cast Pfeiffer as Vicki Vale was a blessing in disguise, as Pfeiffer probably wouldn’t have played Catwoman in Batman Returns if she had already been Batman’s mistress. Pfeiffer is also hard to imagine in the role of Vicki Vale. Her pre-Batman roles include Elvira Hancock in 1989’s Scarface and Sukie Ridgemont in The Witches of Eastwick. Pfeiffer’s performances in these roles show that she can play femme fatales and does not fit the character of Vicki Vale, a mild-mannered journalist.

Catwoman is arguably the best part of Batman Returns, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role other than Pfeiffer. His alliance with Danny DeVito’s Penguin and his vendetta against his boss Max Shreck make him morally grey enough to deserve villain status. Still, his romance with Bruce Wayne and his tragic origin story makes his character sympathetic enough for audiences to root for him.

Pfeiffer’s involvement in Tim Burton’s Batman films helped usher in the darker era of the Batman franchise and set the standard for Catwoman as a character in subsequent movies, TV series and comic books. While Batman fans will never know what Pfeiffer could have brought to the role of Vicki Vale, it is clear that she was a good choice as Catwoman in Batman Returns, both in terms of Michelle Pfeiffer as an actress and Catwoman as an iconic character in DC Comics.

Source: vervetimes