MOVIE NEWS – There are movies you’d happily bury forever, until your kid turns into a full-blown Batman superfan and forces you to dig up the one title you’d rather pretend never happened. George Clooney has now shared what it was like showing his son Batman & Robin for the very first time, and the story is predictably hilarious.
Whether he wants it to be or not, 1997’s spectacular flop Batman & Robin will always be part of George Clooney’s screen legacy. Ridiculed at release and still widely ranked among the weakest modern superhero films, Joel Schumacher’s blockbuster put Clooney in the Batsuit (yes, with those infamous design choices) and threw him at three Gotham villains: Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze, and Robert Swenson’s Bane.
It was only a matter of time before Clooney had to introduce the film to his kids, especially since his eight-year-old son Alexander is obsessed with Bruce Wayne’s alter ego. Speaking to W while promoting his Netflix film Jay Kelly, Clooney said he finally took the plunge just recently.
“Halloween is a big holiday. My son went as Batman. He hadn’t seen Batman yet. I always tell him, ‘You know I was Batman.’ He’s always like, ‘No.’ I don’t think he understood how deep it was when he told me I wasn’t Batman.”
“A couple of weeks ago, I finally showed it to him. It’s not great for grown-ups, but it’s great for eight-year-olds, so he loved it. My daughter, meanwhile, went as a witch. She’s not into the princess stuff. She likes being the evil witch.”
How do other Batman & Robin stars feel about the movie?
Clooney’s at-home screening arrives just as two fellow Batman & Robin stars, Chris O’Donnell (Robin) and Alicia Silverstone (Batgirl), have also weighed in on the infamous production. “It is what it is”, O’Donnell told Entertainment Weekly. “Some work out and some don’t. Then you start getting the feedback and you realize it’s going off the rails. When it came out, the hatred was massive. It was like, ‘Oh my God.’ And you still have to do your job and promote it… I remember at one point Joel Schumacher just waved the white flag. He was like, ‘I’m out. I can’t do this anymore.’ He was devastated, really heartbroken.”
Silverstone, who became a teen idol after appearing in several Aerosmith music videos, also recalled how intense and messy the shoot was. “I remember a lot of things not making sense. We’d be in this huge warehouse with tons of extras and so much happening… [Clooney] was genuinely like a big brother in those moments. So cool. He defended me and stayed reasonable when things weren’t. And getting that costume on took so much time and effort. Once you had it on, you couldn’t go to the bathroom for ages. These weren’t easy outfits. You had to cover your body in baby powder to even get into it. The whole thing was a massive production.”
In the end, Batman & Robin arguably improved Clooney’s career trajectory. While accepting his AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, Clooney was asked which movie influenced his career the most, and he didn’t hesitate. “It’s really easy to pick: Batman & Robin. That’s not a joke. Before that, I was just an actor trying to get work. After that film failed creatively, I learned I needed control over the movies I made, not just the role. My next three films were Out of Sight, Three Kings, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
Source: MovieWeb
