George Clooney insists on ‘painful’ turn as Batman changes his approach to acting

George Clooney looked at his career in a recent BAFTA interview and insisted that his questionable turn as Batman shaped his future acting work.

George, 59, played the caped crusader in Batman & Robin in 1997 – criticized by critics as one of the “ worst ” entries in the Batman saga. It was actually voted “worst movie of all time” in 2010 by readers of Empire magazine.

George described it as ‘painful’ – but thinks it changed the way he approaches his profession.

Speaking about the acclaimed film Out Of Sight, which he starred in after Batman & Robin, George said: ‘It had been a year since I got killed for doing Batman & Robin and I understood for the first time , because quite honestly, when I had Batman & Robin. I was just an actor getting an acting job and I was excited to play Batman.

“ What I realized afterward was that I was going to be held responsible for the film itself, not just my performance or what I did.

“So I knew I had to focus on better scripts, the script was the most important thing.

“You can’t make a good film with a bad script, it’s impossible. You can make a bad movie with a good script.

Batman & Robin was written by Akiva Goldsman, directed by Joel Schumacher and co-starred with Alicia Silverstone in Batgirl, Uma Thurman in Poison Ivy, and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Mr. Freeze.

George has criticized the film often – even advising Ben Affleck, who played the hero in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016 and then in two other films, to avoid the role.

His new project is The Midnight Sky, which he also directed.

He plays scientist Augustine Lofthouse, one of Earth’s survivors after an unidentified disaster wiped out most of the planet’s population.

Speaking about the role and his status as one of Hollywood’s idols, he said: “ Midnight Sky … I have this long beard and I look really old! ”

It has also weighed on the future of cinema – an industry that is enjoying great success thanks to COVID-19.

“I know there is this panic about cinemas because they are not supported by our governments, which is a huge problem for the industry,” he said. “We subsidize the oil companies, we could subsidize the cinemas for a while.

“ I’m not worried about our return, the cinema will still exist, we’re all going to be back together, you still have to go out for a little while, right? You still have to go to a concert, to see a movie. You want a collective.

George recorded the BAFTA: A Life In Pictures interview virtually in London and joined figures like Viola Davis, Nicole Kidman, Ridley Scott, Hugh Grant, Quentin Tarantino and Keira Knightley, who have been featured in the past.

The screen stars sit down with an Academy interviewer and discuss their careers at length, with George’s set to air on BAFTA YouTube channels at noon on Monday, January 18.