“I couldn’t stand what they were doing”: the iconic role Kurt Russell hated and why it’s still “one of the few things” he regrets not playing
He’s played a few iconic roles in his career, but Kurt Russell continues to regret that he didn’t get the opportunity to add one of the most iconic of them all to his filmic CV.
Most actors would be content with being Snake Plissken, Jack Burton, RJ MacReady, Wyatt Earp, and Stuntman Mike, and he is, but the actor continues to think about the what-if that could have pushed his career in an entirely different direction when it was starting to cool off for the first time.
Obviously, since he’s been booked and busy for over 60 years, Russell has never faded from the Hollywood spotlight, but the late 1980s were a tricky time. He went his separate ways with John Carpenter after Big Trouble in Little China flopped, Overboard under-performed, he was pushed out of Bull Durham, and Winter People tanked.
Tequila Sunrise and Tango & Cash made money, but Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone were the ones who took top billing, not him. He could have used a hit where he played the protagonist, and while he didn’t have to wait too long for Ron Howard’s Backdraft to give him that in 1991, he’s always wondered how things would have turned out had be been cast as Tim Burton’s Batman.
He’s definitely got the chin for it, that’s for sure, with the star admitting on the Bingeworthy Podcast that missing out on the ‘Caped Crusader’ remains “one of the few things I didn’t get” that he regrets. He had cause for concern, though, with the shadow of Adam West continuing to loom ominously over the superhero.
“There was a lot of talk, and I never heard anything real, but I was hoping, because I couldn’t stand what they were doing with Batman,” he explained. “Like, the comedy stuff. I couldn’t. Jack Nicholson had the great line, which is something like, ‘I’m crazy, but this guy who was dressed like a bat is fine?’ And it was like, ‘No, there’s a real story there, but it’s dark.'”
Seeing as the earliest iterations of the film that would ultimately become Tim Burton’s Gotham City-set blockbuster saw Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy being floated as a prospective Batman and Robin, it’s easy to see why Russell wasn’t entirely convinced that the industry would be ditching the ‘Dark Knight’ comedy synonymous with the West years in favour of something more serious.
Gibson and Pierce Brosnan both turned down the title role, but Russell didn’t even get an audition, with Michael Keaton’s casting leading to outrage from fans that Mr Mom had been hired to play their beloved Bruce Wayne and his costumed alter-ego, but it’s worth wondering if he could have pulled it off.
Could Russell have played the billionaire playboy side of Batman? Absolutely, he’s got charm and charisma for days. Could he have convinced as the tortured soul who weaponizes their trauma to dress up as a flying mammal and beat the shit out of people? That’s debatable, and he might have looked ridiculous in the suit, too.
