Michael Keaton breaks down his take on Batman

Michael Keaton has opened up a bit about how he originally approached Batman for the 1989 film and how he felt the suit got him there.

Michael Keaton sat down with GQ and went through some of his biggest roles over his career. The conversation kicks off with his turn as Batman and how he approached it.

When you hear a lot of actors talk about playing Batman, it feels as though Bruce Wayne is approached as the costume Batman puts on. For Keaton it seems he very much took an approach of Bruce Wayne first. "To be honest, was I never thought about Batman. It was always Bruce Wayne. Who's Bruce Wayne? You start with that," said Keaton.

"He witnesses the murder of his parents. You know? That's a lot to start with. Especially the Frank Miller approach, which is what we took. And also determining with Tim that he was so not cool. Kinda odd, you know, an odd dude," Keaton continued.

The interview delves more into how he approached the role as well as other high points of his career.

4 comments

Ravager

March 29, 2024

I do like the take that Bruce is not very well adjusted and can only hide it to an extent, it makes alot of sense for who he is, but I think only the Burton and Reeves Batmen were depicted that way.

ChE_MovieFan
March 30, 2024
I'm not gonna say they got the idea "straight from the comics", but one of the comic inspirations for Burton's Batman was Batman's first year in comics from Detective #27 to around Batman #4 (according to Michael Uslan), and, of course, Bob Kane was a creative consultant on Burton's movies. Looking back on those comics - and I'm not saying this was THE key - Bruce Wayne can read in a manner that's more reclusive and neurotic.
So I don't think it's an unprecedented take on the character, in terms of the comics. That said, and maybe this is the difference between Keaton and Pattinson as performers, but Keaton made it interesting while Pattinson brought the movie to a screeching halt any time he was outside of the batsuit. I'm not saying I didn't like that movie, but I didn't like that part of that movie. Bruce can still be interesting even when he's a reclusive oddball. He can still have a personality. Keaton brought that energy to it, and he was fun to watch. Pattinson was just a bore as Bruce Wayne.
1. Ravager
  March 31, 2024
  Keaton's Batman and Bruce were two distinct people almost, but Pattinson was Batman all the time, suit or not. I guess this is appealing to some people more than others. I think your statement that it was boring and slowed down the movie is hyperbolic, because I do feel that the movie is paced well and I enjoyed Pattinson's performance overall. The fact that Pattinson's Bruce is awkward and brooding makes the small emotional gains he makes during the movie (with Alfred in the hospital) really stick out.
  1. ChE_MovieFan
    April 11, 2024
    I actually thought he (Pattinson) had more life to his performance as Batman than as Bruce Wayne. I don't think they did a good enough job of making me care about Bruce Wayne for those emotional beats to land. It didn't help that Batman Begins accomplished the same character development within its first 45 minutes that The Batman achieved in nearly 3 hours, and Batman Begins' progression seemed naturalistic. Didn't seem crammed or rushed. The Batman felt like the story was parsed out sparingly over a runtime of mostly plot. Lots of long stretches where not much of consequence happens for the character.

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Michael Keaton breaks down his take on Batman

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