George Clooney told Ben Affleck not to take on the role of Batman.
The 58-year-old actor has admitted he tried to convince Ben not to accept the offer of playing the Caped Crusader in 2016’s ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’, because he had a bad experience with the role in 1997’s poorly received ‘Batman & Robin’.
George said: "I actually did talk to him about it. I said, ‘Don’t do it.’ It was only from my experience, which is, you know … He did great, though."
The Hollywood heavyweight went on to explain his issues with his own appearance in ‘Batman & Robin’, saying that whilst he knows he "wasn’t good in it", he doesn’t understand who he "took all the heat".
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter’s ‘Awards Chatter’ podcast, he added: "[Arnold] Schwarzenegger was paid, I think, $25 million for that, which was like 20 times more than I was paid for it, and, you know, we never even worked together! We worked together one day. But I took all the heat. Now, fair deal – I was playing Batman and I wasn’t good in it, and it wasn’t a good film.
"But what I learned from that failure was, I had to rethink how I was working. Because now I wasn’t just an actor getting a role – I was being held responsible for the film itself."
Ben, meanwhile, went on to play The Dark Knight and his alter-ego Bruce Wayne in 2017’s ‘Justice League’ and had a cameo the villain-led blockbuster ‘Suicide Squad’, before quitting the role.
The 46-year-old actor had initially been attached to both star in and direct ‘The Batman’, but opted to step down from his role behind the camera in 2017.
‘The Batman’ is now being helmed by Matt Reeves, and is set to show an earlier version of the superhero set in the 1990s, with a cast including younger versions of Batman, Commissioner Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth.
George Clooney told Ben Affleck not to play Batman
