With Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck gearing up to reprise their roles as Batman in The Flash, George Clooney is making his feelings on his own time as the Caped Crusader very clear.Clooney spoke with Variety at a recent press junket for his film, The Tender Bar, which stars Affleck. When asked why it took so long for Clooney to collaborate with fellow Dark Knight, he replied, "I didn’t want to work with him for the obvious reasons." The actor-turned-filmmaker paused before adding, "He screwed up the Batman franchise that I had made so solid."
This self-deprecating act of sarcasm is the latest in a long line of acknowledgments and apologies from Clooney regarding the perceived shortcomings of his brief stint as Batman in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin. He succeeded Val Kilmer, who accepted the role after Keaton left the franchise alongside director Tim Burton, whom Keaton credits as the progenitor of modern superhero cinema.
Unlike Clooney, Keaton was keen to step back into the role, stating, "Frankly, in the back of my head, I always thought, 'I bet I could go back and nail that motherfucker." When faced with the opportunity, Keaton could not turn it down, arguing, "Well, now that they’re asking me, let me see if I can pull that off." Despite his continued presence in comic book films over the years, Keaton admitted that the ongoing prevalence and popularity of superhero movies baffles him, with the actor himself not having seen any of them in their entirety since 1989's Batman.
Source: Twitter