It’s no secret that Batman & Robin is not one of the more beloved live-action Batman movies… ok, let’s be real, it gets a lot of hate. George Clooney has leaned into that over the years by repeatedly apologizing and making fun of his performance as Bruce Wayne, including when he trolled an interviewer about the 1997 movie last month. That being said, Clooney can understand the value of Batman & Robin now following a cute moment he had with his son.
While talking about his Golden Globe-nominated work in Jay Kelly, his Netflix subscription-exclusive movie that premiered in November, Clooney’s conversation with W Magazine briefly turned to Batman & Robin, which he starred in alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman, Chris O’Donnell and Alicia Silverstone. When asked if his eight-year-old twins, who've had trouble believing he's famous, like Halloween, the actor answered:
Halloween’s a big holiday. My son went as Batman. He hadn’t seen Batman yet. I always say to him, ‘You know I was Batman.’ He’s always like, ‘No.’ I don’t know that he knew how profound it was when he said I wasn’t Batman. A couple of weeks ago, I finally showed it to him. It wasn’t great for grown-ups, but it’s great for 8-year-olds, so he loved it.
This is a heartwarming story, but it becomes hilarious when you remember that is a 180 turn from how George Clooney’s son felt about his dad being Batman two years ago. But hey, we’re allowed to change our minds! Like Clooney said, Batman & Robin can definitely be a more entertaining watch at that young of an age rather than as an adult… mainly because it functions as an overblown toy commercial, but that’s besides the point. However, I imagine when Clooney’s son gets older, he’ll probably pick a different favorite Batman, like Christian Bale or Robert Pattinson’s version.
Wearing that nippled Batsuit may have been painful for George Clooney, but at least now he knows it was for a good cause. And while Batman & Robin was received so poorly that it killed the original Batman film series, the silver lining is that it for Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. Clooney also had the fortune of being able to leave things on a slightly better note with Batman thanks to The Flash, as he cameoed as Bruce Wayne at the end of the movie after Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen changed the timeline again.
If you now feel the urge to revisit Batman & Robin, just fire up your HBO Max subscription and press play. Looking to the future, George Clooney is gearing up to reprise Danny Ocean in Ocean’s 14. That doesn’t have a release date yet, but you can also look forward to The Batman: Part II bringing Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne back to the big screen on October 1, 2027.
