Michael Keaton Explains Why He Left Batman Forever

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Michael Keaton is now promoting his new film The Founder and in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter he talks a bit about his time as Batman and why he left when Tim Burton stepped down as Director for Batman Forever.

WHAT HE FEELS ABOUT DIRECTOR TIM BURTON

“an artist and a visionary”

{In Regards to Batman 3 with Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher’s lighter vision}-“I he (Tim Burton) were to say let me experiment with this, I would have been on board”

WHAT HE FELT ON THE RISK WITH BATMAN RETURNS AND ITS DARK TONE

“If it went down, we were going down in a big way”

WHY HE DECIDED NOT TO DO BATMAN FOREVER

“It sucked,” Keaton says of the script he was shown. “I knew it was in trouble when he [Schumacher] said, ‘Why does everything have to be so dark?’ ”

“I (Michael Keaton) stayed on for multiple meetings, I just didn’t understand what he wanted to do with the character.”

The casting of Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman in 1988 was very controversial, even without the internet it was met with a huge backlash from fans who feared the Tim Burton film would be like the Adam West campy TV Series of the 1960’s, a tradition that continued when Heath Ledger was cast as The Joker and Ben Affleck as Batman, both being proven reasons why we should wait and see how well an actor will do before judging them.

You can listen to the full podcast where he discusses his career over at The Hollywood Reporter. If you want to start it where he begins discussing his time on Batman go to 29.20.

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