A lot of well-established actors have taken up the iconic role of Batman in the past and most of them have not failed to amaze fans with their portrayal of the billionaire vigilante, Bruce Wayne. More than a dozen famous actors have played the iconic role of the Gotham Billionaire. However, not every actor was cast in multiple movies to play the iconic role. Unlike Michael Keaton and Christian Bale who played the role in multiple movies, a lot of A-listers like George Clooney and Val Kilmer had to give up the role of the Caped Crusader after appearing in only one movie.
Val Kilmer only played the role of Batman in one movie, Batman Forever, back in 1995, and had absolutely no idea why people were so obsessed with the character.
Val Kilmer felt no pressure in succeeding Michael Keaton as Batman in Batman Forever
Val Kilmer‘s portrayal of Batman might go down in history as one of the most underrated performances in the history of cinema. Although the actor played the role of Gotham City billionaire in only one movie, he captivated the fans with his acting and his perfect voice for Batman. The actor once revealed in an interview that he did not even read the script for the movie before the start of filming.
“Well, virtually every aspect of it was different than anything I’ve experienced in a movie because of the size of the character and its endurance. He’s 50 years old as a character and still entertaining. I was in Africa at the time, researching a movie I’m writing so I didn’t even read the script.”
Source: ScreenSlam
Kilmer further added that he felt absolutely no pressure in succeeding Michael Keaton as Batman. He said,
“I didn’t feel any pressure in relation to what was created before very consciously wanted to do something different. I think more in the tradition of Bob Kane’s original conception of the story and Robin is in this story so it really in a sense is the first story and they understand Bruce Wayne and the story really kind of begins with this one.”
Michael Keaton played the role of Batman before Val Kilmer in 2 movies, Batman and Batman Returns.
The Top Gun actor had no idea why people loved Batman so much
Val Kilmer revealed in the interview that he had no idea why people loved Batman so much until he played the role himself. The actor revealed that he had never followed the character’s storyline as such, so he was absolutely clueless about the depths of the character of the Dark Knight. He said,
“I didn’t read the comic books as a kid or watch the television show so my exposure was mainly from the movies. He is a very intriguing character. Some primal reason that readers and audiences would be interested in him for 50 years. There’s something about the image of the Bat that’s attractive and active. Also being able to play two different people at the same time was fun.”
Batman Forever was a massive success at the box office but received mixed reviews from critics as well as fans. And despite the success of the movie, Val Kilmer was replaced by George Clooney in the next Batman movie, Batman & Robin.
Batman Forever is currently streaming on HBO Max.
Source: ScreenSlam
