ReturningBatmanactorMichael Keatonrecently joined a Q&A for Empire magazine surrounding his impending return to the role inThe Flash. The conversation was a revealing oneaccording to EW,with Keaton discussing the early character choices for his emergent 1989 superhero role that have since become standard in the canon of dark knight characterizations to come. In particular, Keaton explained the “gravely” Batman voice that he developed in the cross from comic epistemology to film.
“He’s got two personalities. The guy is not psychotic, but not far from it. Controlled psychosis. In order for me to justify all this, I can’t be changing the oil on the Batmobile and then saying, ‘Well, I have to kill some people.’ So he probably ends up going into some deep, deep trance, which is a scene [we made] that I don’t think ever made it in.”
Keaton’s casting in the darker, 1989 Tim Burton revival of Batman for the firstBatmanfilm was a risky and unusual one–and one that allowed Keaton to make several creative decisions in the creation of a cinematic Batman. Critics at the time knew Keaton solely as a comedy actor; Mark Hamil in fact cited Keaton’s ability to ‘tear down typecasting’ amidst “great controversy” as his own inspiration for later taking up the Joker role. Keaton’s earlier collaboration with director Tim Burton on the dark comedyBeetlejuicehad established a trust between them in envisioning theBatmanfilm and role. Burton stated that he couldn’t “imagine anyone would want to make” the upcomingBatmanmovie he aspired to, and approached the actor following the success of Keaton’s 1988Beetlejuicerole as the self-serving, supernatural anti-hero of the show.
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Michael Keaton Instigated The Summer of Batman.
The dark, complex, but often deadpan character amidst the vaudevillian that ensued in 1989’sBatmanresulted in an unprecedented blockbuster, merchandising, and pop culture sensation come to be known as the ‘Summer of Batman’. The classic hero’s emergence from that camp, decadent legacy wrapped in a gravely, film noirish demeanor and minimalist black steel batmobile was purified, late 20th-century modernity (complete with an updated femme fatale in the sequel to boot). And the logo was everything–a mask of simplicity over a deeply transmuted psychology.
Director Matt Reeves said about his most recentThe Batmanfeaturing Robert Pattinson, for example, that he wanted to convey a young character who psychologically “is majorly struggling, and this is how he’s trying to rise above that struggle. […] But that doesn’t mean that he even fully understands, you know. It’s that whole idea of the shadow self and what’s driving you, and how much of that you can incorporate, and how much of it you’re doing that you’re unaware of.”
Keaton’s problem-solving paid off and the gravely “Batman voice” stuck–a mantle that has been taken up alongside the rubber suit and cape by Batman actors since. “How do you justify the voice?” Keaton asked rhetorically in his Q&A. “It’s cheesy but I figured once he’s in [that] trance, he doesn’t think like he does like Bruce Wayne, doesn’t act like he does. So the voice came out of that, it was a really practical thing.”
Keaton returns as the metaverse’s original Batman in Warner Bros. upcomingThe Flash, set to release June 16.
