George Clooney to Ben Affleck on playing Batman: ‘Don’t do it’

Hollywood buds who played Batman on the big screen, George Clooney and Ben Affleck, both agree that having portrayed the Caped Crusader was a bad idea.  In fact, Clooney, who played the Bat back in 1997’s “Batman & Robin” advised Affleck against assuming the mantle.

. . . [Clooney] revealed he did give some words of wisdom to Affleck when the two worked together on Argo before Affleck would take on The Dark Knight in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. (Clooney was a producer on Argo.)

“I actually did talk to him about it. I said, ‘Don’t do it.’” Clooney said. “It was only from my experience, which is, you know… He did great, though.”  ~ per Entertainment Weekly

Although many movie-going fans enjoyed both actors’ takes on the character as well as the films, most film critics and the more hard-core fans panned both characterizations.  It didn’t help that both Clooney’s and Affleck’s efforts bombed at the box office.

At a recent interview and podcast hosted by The Hollywood Reporter, Clooney talked about how badly his “Batman & Robin” film did – and how he took most of the heat for that superhero and cinematic failure.

E-online quoted Clooney as saying, “[Arnold] Schwarzenegger was paid, I think he was paid $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 for one day. But I took all the heat.  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 that 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.” 

And although this writer and at least a few other fans appreciated Affleck’s Batman, critics did not. Nor did the box office.  Obviously, Affleck did not heed Clooney’s advice from back in 2012 and assumed the guise of The Dark Knight in “Batman v Superman” and “Justice League.”  Both films did so poorly, that the “Justice League” sequel was cancelled. 

The DC Universe will be going with a new and different actor for upcoming Batman roles and will be going with a younger version of the character.  Affleck, appearing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in February also shared that his Batman days are over.

“I tried to direct a version of it and worked with a really good screenwriter but just couldn’t come up with a version — I couldn’t crack it and so I thought it’s time for someone else to take a shot at it.” ~ Ben Affleck

For more on Clooney and Affleck as Batman, see the video accompanying this article.

~ Written by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter

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