Actor Michael Biehn revealed that he almost got the part of Batman in Tim Burton’s Batman.
On the podcast Just Foolin’Around, Biehn discussed that he was in serious contention for getting the role in 1989. He met with director Tim Burton twice. He was even going to be potentially paired up with Robin Williams as the Joker. Ultimately, the roles went to Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson.
And I was going to do this and I was going to do that, and sometimes some of the dialogue would slip in ya know. I’ve done that many many times. So I did that with Tim Burton. Tim Burton I guess liked me quite a bit. […] This was for Batman, this was for the original Batman.
So Tim Burton, had me in again and it was an important enough meeting that Lamato [Biehn’s agent] came with me. Ed Lamato came over there with me at Warner Brothers. We sat and we talked to Tim Burton for about an hour, and of course, he ended up casting Michael Keaton in that role and Jack Nicholson. But Lamato told me that he had two choices and it was either that choice or me and Robin Williams. Robin Williams [would] play the Joker. And that he [Burton] was making up his mind about that.
No Regrets from Michael Biehn
Michael Biehn is most well-known for his memorable roles in Aliens and Terminator. So he was fairly well-known during the late 80’s. However, don’t feel too bad for Biehn for not getting the part. He treated it like any other role and moved on. He also confessed that he did not have any particular affinity for Batman or even knew who Burton was before meeting him.
I didn’t know who Tim Burton was. I didn’t f—ing […] Batman, I didn’t care. You know, I just went on to the next thing. It seems like everybody who’s ever played Batman has always b—-ed and moaned and groaned about how f—ing difficult it was to play Batman and the suit and the whole thing.
Although THE Batman you know the movie THE Batman, did you see it? I fucking love that movie. I thought that was extremely extremely well done, I like that one a lot.
You can listen to the entire interview about Batman in the podcast video below.
Source: fictionhorizon.com
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