Michael Keaton may not have been the first actor to play Batman in live action, but he did kick off the DC Comics superhero’s run as a blockbuster film character. Three and a half decades after his debut as the Caped Crusader, he still ranks as one of the best Batman actors, if not in the #1 spot, depending on who you ask. But why did director Tim Burton want Keaton to be the man to don the cape and cowl for 1989’s Batman? He recently revealed the main reason, and it’s honestly not what I expected.
Burton and Keaton have been making the press rounds in the last several weeks for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, their fifth collaboration together which is now playing on the 2024 movies schedule. While Burton was speaking with The New York Times about this sequel to the 1988 original, he briefly addressed why it was important that Keaton be the one to play Batman all those years ago, saying:
When you just look at Michael in Beetlejuice or even Batman, he has this sort of look in his eye. That’s why I wanted him to be Batman, because you just look at him and go, ‘This is a guy who would dress up like a bat.’ You know what I mean? There’s something behind the eyes that’s just very intelligent, funny and dangerous and kind of crazy.
You have to remember Michael Keaton being cast to play Batman came at a time when he was chiefly known for his comedy work. Sure, he and Tim Burton had already had a rapport going from their time together on Beetlejuice, but there he was playing a wisecracking “bio-exorcist,” and the public also knew him from 1983’s Mr. Mom. Selecting him to bring Bruce Wayne to life was an unconventional choice, and a lot of comic book fans were displeased with that decision, even going so far as to send protest letters to Warner Bros. Pictures.
But from Tim Burton’s perspective, that look in Keaton’s eyes was more than enough to warrant him following Adam West’s live-action Batman footsteps, and having learned this, I can understand his train of thought. Naturally 1989’s Batman was a darker adaptation of this corner of DC Comics lore compared to the camp TV show and its 1966 tie-in movie, and Burton felt that there something about Keaton’s eyes that subtly reflected how this wealthy playboy secretly operates as a masked vigilante in Gotham City. Which, like the filmmaker indicated, isn’t exactly a sane thing to do, although at least Bruce Wayne’s disturbed mental state is being used in a productive way, as opposed to someone like Jack Nicholson’s Jack Napier, who became The Joker in Burton’s first Batman movie.
Batman and Batman Returns, as well as Michael Keaton’s return to the role in last year’s The Flash, can all be streamed with a Max subscription. The actor also reprised Gotham City’s Dark Knight in Batgirl, but since its release got scrapped from the upcoming DC movies schedule, we’ll never get to see how he did in that fourth DC outing. Still, given how many fans this version of Batman has attracted over the decades, they can be thankful that Tim Burton had an “eye” for what Keaton could pull off… I’ll show myself out now.
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