How Michael Keaton Once Said Starring in ‘Batman’ Was Going to Ruin His Career: ‘I’ll Be Bankrupt’

Playing Batman was a once-in-a-lifetime role for Keaton. Despite the controversy of his casting at the time, Keaton went on to impress many with his dark take of the character. However, before Batman hit theaters, Keaton gave a detailed prediction of how the movie could do more harm to his career than good.

Michael Keaton once shut down any talk about ‘The Flash’ to avoid spoiling the movie

As many know, Michael Keaton is set to reprise his role in the upcoming movie The Flash. The film follows Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen as he journeys through DC’s vast multiverse. With the film wrapped in secrecy, many are curious about Keaton’s role.

But Keaton is often very coy about his role as Batman and has been known to deflect questions about it. When the Sunday Times asked Keaton to provide some details on The Flash, the Birman star was very blunt in his response.

“I’ll be frank,” Keaton said according to Independent. “I don’t want to talk about it because it takes the fun away.”

The only thing he did reveal was that he didn’t immediately jump at the chance to don the cape and cowl again. Keaton asserted that the role just hadn’t been in his consciousness at the time.

“When it was, it was a question of them calling when they had something,” he shared.

How Michael Keaton thought ‘Batman’ would ruin his career

Keaton’s casting as Batman was an unconventional decision at the time. But Beetlejuice director Tim Burton cast Keaton in the role exactly because he didn’t look like the conventional action stars of the 80s.

“They’re somebody who’s intelligent and kind of screwed up,” Burton told Hollywood Reporter. “And Michael has such an intensity that it’s like, ‘Yeah, I could see that guy wanting to dress up as a bat.’ It’s all rooted in psychology, Jekyll and Hyde and two sides of a personality, light and dark, and he understood that.”

But although certain fans had their doubts about Keaton playing Batman, Keaton himself also had concerns about the role. In a resurfaced interview with Rolling Stone, Keaton describes the exaggerated way his career could go left after starring in Batman.

I’ll have to keep expanding the bat suit because I get fatter every year,” Keaton quipped. “I’ll be bankrupt. I’ll have a couple lawsuits going. I’ll be out opening shopping malls, going from appearance to appearance in a cheesy van. I’ll kind of turn into the King, into this bloated Elvis, smoking and drinking a lot.”

But as history tells it, nothing of the sort happened to the star. Keaton was able to build up a respectable career away from Batman. Films like Spotlight and Birdman solidified Keaton as a performer people want to see whether he was in a Batsuit or not.

Michael Keaton once let out a massive spoiler about ‘Batman’

Keaton nowadays may not want to dish out too many details about Batman, but that wasn’t always the case. There was a moment in time where Keaton was a bit too talkative when it came to the caped crusader. This led to him revealing a massive spoiler on television in front of a live audience. Keaton stopped by on Late Night with David Letterman to promote Batman before its release. Letterman inquired Keaton how it was like working alongside Jack Nicholson.

“He’s one of a kind,” Keaton told Letterman.

Letterman later asks Keaton what Nicholson’s Joker did to “irritate” Keaton’s Batman. It’s here Keaton slips up.

“Bruce Wayne witnesses the murder of his parents when he was a kid,” Keaton shared.

Letterman asked if the Joker was the one who killed Wayne’s parents, Keaton casually confirmed the detail.

“Yeah, but he doesn’t know it until later,” Keaton shared.

Keaton then realized “I’m kind of blowing the plot, here.”

After spoiling this significant detail of the film, an audible groan could be heard from the audience. But both Letterman and Keaton played off the reveal with jokes.

“Yeah, like, nobody’s gonna’ go see it now,” Letterman quipped. “Screw that. It’s Raiders of the Arc again or whatever.”