Fans got the message loud and clear when George Clooney said he had no interest in playing Batman again.
Clooney starred as Bruce Wayne in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin (1997) and surprised fans this summer when he donned the cape again for a cameo in The Flash.
But his brief appearance in the DC Extended Universe film was a one-and-done.
In fact, Clooney shut down any talk of him reprising the role during a red carpet interview promoting his new directorial feature The Boys in the Boat.
When Entertainment Tonight asked Clooney last week if he could be persuaded to play Batman again, he replied:
“I do not think there’s enough drugs in the world for me to go back."
You can watch the segment here.
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The Flash was the first live-action film to feature three different Bruce Waynes.
Clooney's brief scene in the DCEU film was preceded by Michael Keaton, who was the titular character in Tim Burton's Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992); and Ben Affleck, who played the Caped Crusader in Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017).
The final moments of The Flash shocked audiences when a dramatic reveal following a climactic courthouse scene showed Clooney as Bruce Wayne after the actor had been vocal against reprising the character ever again.
In 2020, Clooney told Howard Stern that he could never watch his work on Batman & Robin because of how terrible it was.
The film was famously panned for being one of the worst superhero films of all time.
“The truth of the matter is, I was bad in it," admitted Clooney.
"Akiva Goldsman—who’s won the Oscar for writing since then—he wrote the screenplay. And it’s a terrible screenplay, he’ll tell you."
"I’m terrible in it, I’ll tell you. Joel Schumacher, who just passed away, directed it, and he’d say, ‘Yeah, it didn’t work.’"
"We all whiffed on that one.”
Moviegoers were okay with his stance.
Commenting on his The Flash cameo, Clooney sarcastically remarked:
"I thought there was such a clamor for me to come back as Batman as you know."
"I actually said, 'Where are my rubber nipples?'" he said, referring to the unflattering nipples on his Batsuit in Batman & Robin.
He added:
"And they were like, 'Can we do it without the rubber nipples?'"
"I was like, 'Well, it's not really my Batman, is it?'"
Clooney's new biographical sports drama The Boys in the Boat opens in theaters on December 25.
Based on the eponymous novel by Daniel James Brown, The Boys in the Boat was co-produced and directed by Clooney. It follows the true story of University of Washington rowing team's journey to winning the gold medal in the 1936 Summer Olympics games in Berlin.
