Batman & Robin co-star Vivica A. Fox thinks it’s “sad” George Clooney got so much flack for playing Batman.
This article contains spoilers for The Flash…
It’s not often that George Clooney gets some love for his outing as Batman / Bruce Wayne in 1997’s Batman & Robinbut sometimes all it takes is a well-timed cameo for one of his minor co-stars to come to his defense.
Speaking with ComicBook.com, Vivica A. Fox – who played the assistant to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze, Ms. B. Haven (get it?!) – praised George Clooney and his take on Batman, saying, “It’s sad, because he tried! He did a good job…I don’t know, maybe just toward the end, they were tired of the franchise.” Still, Fox added, “But I had a great time filming it with him and Arnold. It was awesome.” Even today, Fox admits that she often gets asked to sign photos of her character. “I think that was the most popular aspect of the movie — they liked my costume, and Uma’s.” Sure, but we bet neither one of those could fetch at least $40,000 at auction!
Vivica A. Fox’s comments come after getting wind of George Clooney’s surprise cameo in The Flash, returning after Barry Allen aka The Flash tinkers with the timeline a little too much, with Clooney appearing in place of Ben Affleck’s version. It’s definitely one of the movie’s highlights, and no matter how much guff Clooney gives himself over Batman & Robinit shows he continues to have a sense of humor about the movie.
George Clooney would later say that playing Batman in such a mess of a movie – in which he took the brunt of the criticism since he was the lead – helped him work on becoming a better actor. “I realized after that…I was going to be held responsible for the movie itself not just my performance or what I was doing. So I knew I needed to focus on better scripts, the script was the most important thing. You can’t make a good film out of a bad script, it’s impossible. You can make a bad film out of a good script.”
More than 25 years after its release, what is your opinion of George Clooney in Batman & Robin? Have you stuck up for the movie before? Let us know in the comments section below!