Look, I don’t want to start off the new week on the wrong foot or anything, but sometimes harsh truths must be told. Despite whatever actors might claim during junket interviews, these thespians don’t always (or even usually) sign on the dotted line of major blockbuster roles out of some deep, abiding childhood love of a character and iconography. Robert Downey, Jr. wasn’t some lifelong Marvel fan before being cast as Tony Stark, “Star Wars” actors are under no obligations to brush up their Wookieepedia trivia in order to play a guy who swings a laser sword around, and “Eternals” actor Kit Harington recently went so far as to admit that he only joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe because, well, you just don’t say no to that kind of opportunity. Oftentimes, a job is just a job … and that’s perfectly okay!
All of this is to set the stage for perhaps the most shockingly honest quote you’ll read today. I wouldn’t blame you for forgetting, but last year, Michael Keaton put on the cape and cowl for the first time in decades to reprise his role as Tim Burton’s Batman in “The Flash,” a blatantly nostalgic move that did absolutely nothing to stop the troubled production from tanking both cinematically (for his next trick, maybe Barry Allen could travel back in time to save us from its digital puppeteering of certain actors and the ghoulish resurrections of others who are long dead) and at the box office. Though this was essentially just a one-off appearance, the original plan was for Keaton to also cameo in the since-canceled “Batgirl” movie, which Warner Bros. claimed to be “unreleasable.”
In a new profile, Keaton is finally commenting on that corporate-induced travesty — but he’s not exactly broken up about it, either.
For Michael Keaton, it pays to be a movie star (literally)
The thing about being a billionaire like Bruce Wayne is that it comes with an unimaginable amount of privilege, and that apparently extends to those playing Batman, too. GQ published a lengthy profile about Michael Keaton earlier this morning, and buried more than halfway through the article, the actor is asked about the legacy of Tim Burton’s “Batman” films and, finally, his reaction to seeing his role in “Batgirl” erased into the digital ether as a tax write-off. But those looking for a cathartic dose of righteous anger directed at our tech-minded overlords will have to keep waiting. When asked if he was disappointed by what happened with “Batgirl,” the star had a wry remark at the ready, saying, “No, I didn’t care one way or another. Big, fun, nice check.”
But before anyone paints the star as some heartless, uncaring monster, he does follow that up with a bit of empathy directed towards the directors of the project, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who saw all their hard work end up for naught:
“I like those boys. They’re nice guys. I pull for them. I want them to succeed, and I think they felt very badly, and that made me feel bad. Me? I’m good.”
In context, I’d interpret this as Keaton basically just stating the obvious. For someone as successful and established as he is (and who viewed his grand return as a paycheck gig, which it was), it’s not exactly the end of the world. Still, it’s worth noting this disturbing trend of entire movies becoming shelved as tax write-offs can’t become normalized, for the sake of filmmakers like Adil and Bilall and actors like Leslie Grace.
