George Clooney opens up about how Batman and Robin almost ruined his career

George Clooney has finally spoken up about Batman & Robin, revealing how playing The Dark Knight in the ill-fated movie had a significant impact on his career.

Batman & Robin is viewed by many as an unfortunate product of its time, but that simply isn’t true. It was a product of a very different time; a product we’d already seen done in the ’60s with a smaller budget and higher-quality content.

The 1997 Joel Schumacher movie featured a who’s who of Hollywood talent, with George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman, Chris O’Donnell, Michael Gough, Pat Hingle and Elle McPherson all appearing, but it is considered one of the worst comic book movies of all time and, in some cases, among the worst movies of all time.

The film was reviled for killing the classic Batman franchise that Tim Burton started and Clooney took some of the brunt of that criticism – so much so that the film’s failure almost killed his movie career.

How did Batman & Robin affect George Clooney’s career?

More from Batman

• Batman: All 7 Batcycles ranked from worst to best
• Batman: All 11 Batgirl actresses ranked from worst to best
• All 31 animated Batman movies ranked from worst to best
• Batman may be about to kill The Joker in shocking DC twist
• Batman: Every version of Gotham City ranked from worst to best

Of course, Clooney’s career wasn’t ruined as he has gone on to become one of the biggest names in Hollywood but the veteran was concerned at the time. Speaking to The Sun on Sunday, he revealed that nobody wanted to work with him after that. He also spoke about how there was a prejudice about TV actors jumping to the big screen and that the failure of Batman & Robin didn’t help the ER star make the opposite case – something that led him to Steven Soderbergh’s Out Of Sight.

"“Steven was coming off a couple of flops and I was coming off Batman & Robin and we both needed a success. Our backs were against the wall, in a way… I was still doing ER at the time and there were always these conversations about whether you can go from television to film… It was a big deal — and I was losing that argument.”"

Regardless of how you felt about Batman & Robin, it’s great that Clooney managed to revive his career after it. No actor should be judged by one single performance and the veteran has proven himself to be a great performer throughout his career.

Furthermore, he was imperative in proving that TV stars could (and should) make the jump to the big screen if they wish to.

Needless to say, Clooney weathered that storm like only Batman could – and Hollywood was all the better for it.

Were you a fan of Batman & Robin? What do you make of Clooney’s comments? What’s your favorite George Clooney movie? Let us know in the comments below”