Michael Keaton on the peculiar advice Jack Nicholson gave to him after ‘Batman’
The actor who took up the role of the caped crusader in Tim Burton’s Batman movies, Michael Keaton, has revealed the unusual piece of advice given to him by Jack Nicholson after the release of the original 1989 superhero movie.
Speaking in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Keaton, who is soon to return as Batman in the upcoming DC movie The Flash, revealed that The Shining actor told him to sign up for several box office “flops” to ride out the success of Burton’s film.
“In the old days, I remember I was in London with Jack Nicholson, we were doing Batman, and he was going somewhere, and he said, ‘Come along with me,’ which is an experience in and of itself,” Keaton stated, whilst taking part in a roundtable conversation with the likes of Oscar Isaac, Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson.
Continuing, he adds: “So, we’re in the car and he’s talking about the movie. And we all knew it was a huge risk, and if it goes down, [I’d be] going down in flames and that’s going to be a big, hard recovery”. Fearing the worst for Batman, Keaton also recognised that if the movie was a success, it could change his Hollywood “landscape”, leading him onto bigger and better projects.
“So Jack says, ‘Keats, if this thing’s a hit, you can go out and do four or five flops and not even worry about it.’ And maybe it wasn’t four or five, but it used to be you got away with three and it didn’t matter,” Keaton explained, before adding, “Not now, man,” he said. “You’ve got one miss, which is fucked up”.
Michael Keaton is due to once again don the Batman cape in the upcoming release of the DC movie The Flash, starring Ezra Miller, Ben Affleck and Sasha Calle.
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