“I would have done it”: the two iconic ’90s roles Annette Bening turned down
The 1990s were a great time to be Annette Bening, as it was the decade she first became a mainstay in Hollywood and earned her first Oscar nomination in 1991 for her performance in The Grifters.
As the era wore on, her profile continued to rise, and more and more prestigious parts fell into her lap, but, as is the case with every superstar, she also missed out on some characters that would have changed her life forever, and one of the biggest roles from this era that Bening passed up on was a part of Tim Burton’s 1992 movie Batman Returns, and if you know anything about that movie, you’ll know that there’s only one female character of note in the entire thing: Selina Kyle.
Yes, Bening could have played one of the most iconic comic book characters of all time, but something else got in the way, or I should say someone else.
“I would have loved to have played Catwoman, but I got pregnant,” she told Mind Food, “When you come down to those kinds of choices, they don’t even come close, and I had my first baby”.
This would have been Bening’s first child with screen legend Warren Beatty, to whom she has been married since 1992. A number of other big names were considered to replace her, including Susan Sarandon, Raquel Welch, and Madonna. Sean Young famously turned up to Burton’s office in a homemade Catwoman costume in an attempt to land the part. She didn’t, and instead, as we all know, Michelle Pfeiffer got it instead, reportedly earning $2million more than Bening was initially offered. This character made her world famous, but it did also nearly kill her.
This wasn’t the only big ’90s movie that Bening missed out on due to her kids, as she was originally set to play Meredith Johnson in Barry Levinson’s gender-based workplace drama Disclosure. The role would have seen her file a lawsuit against one of her colleagues, Michael Douglas’ character, after failing to seduce him. Once again, however, Beatty and her became pregnant, and she had to pull out (stop giggling).
“I think that was a scheduling thing, or I would have done it,” she said of Disclosure, “Usually, when I’ve turned things down, it was because of the kids. But I don’t walk around thinking, ‘Oh, I wish I’d done that’. It’s good to have time off. It’s really good to be away.”
With Demi Moore in the lead role, Disclosure went on to gross $214m on a $55m budget. This had to sting, but ultimately, Bening’s career wasn’t harmed too badly, as by March 2000, she would be a two-time Oscar nominee, having been recognised for her performance in American Beauty.
The work she did in the 1990s helped put her on the map and secure the legacy that she very much finds herself with today. She also went on to have two more children with Beatty, to whom she is still married; now that’s what I call a work-life balance.
