Nicole Kidman Loved This 1 Attractive Feature That Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer Shared as Batman
The Batman movies have included a variety of love interests over the years, including Nicole Kidman in Val Kilmer’s Batman Forever. While performing with Kilmer, she noticed there was one feature about both her Batman Forever co-star and Michael Keaton she felt was important to play Batman.
What Nicole Kidman felt Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer had in common
Kidman starred as criminal psychologist Dr. Chase Meridian in the 1995 feature Batman Forever. It was a role that was initially for veteran actor Rene Russo, but scheduling issues allegedly caused the recast. But Kidman was someone that the film’s director Joel Schumacher was already eager to work with. Batman Forever presented a perfect opportunity for the two to collaborate.
“I know, I know, she doesn’t look anything like a criminal psychiatrist,” Schumacher once told Entertainment Weekly. “But it’s my Gotham City and I can do what I want. I’ve had my eye on her since Dead Calm. You meet a lot of beautiful people in this business, but there’s something almost luminous about her. I wish I had a clause in my contract that said Nicole Kidman had to be in every one of my movies.”
The role would see her paired up with Kilmer’s Batman. But Kilmer wasn’t the only Batman actor she ended up working with. Before Forever, Kidman was Michael Keaton’s love interest in the Ron Howard film My Life. After making out with both Kilmer and Keaton, Kidman quipped there was one thing they had in common. Which she felt was essential to playing Batman.
“You’ve got to have great lips,” she said. “Michael and Val both have great lips.”
Why Nicole Kidman was envious of Val Kilmer in ‘Batman Forever’
Kidman has often shared that she enjoyed playing Batman’s flirtatious doctor, although she agreed that her role was very much exaggerated.
“She wears black slinky dresses, has perfect hair, perfect red lips, and talks in a deep, husky voice. It’s definitely a heightened reality. Really over-the-top,” Kidman said.
Years later after Kidman became a more established movie star, she looked back on her Batman Forever days fondly. But the Being the Ricardos actor conceded that she would’ve liked having as much to do as her co-star.
“I remember going, ‘I wish had more of a role, though,’” Kidman once told Yahoo. “It’s great being the girl in the Batman movie. But I’m an actor and you go, ‘Gosh I want more to do.’ So I would still love to do some sort of superhero movie where I get to do the cool stuff.”
Nicole Kidman recently returned to superhero movies with ‘Aquaman’
Kidman would return to superhero movies years later for Aquaman, in a role where she was very much a part of the action. The role was much different from her Batman Forever character, and saw the actor playing the queen of Atlantis. Kidman was mostly attracted to the project because of the film’s director James Wan.
“I knew James Wan was going to do something really interesting and really fun and I’ve wanted to work with him since he started out in Australia in low-budget horror, and I’ve followed his career,” she said in a Variety interview. “I do this with directors, I follow certain directors. So I’ve been following James.”
What really sold her on the Aquaman feature was Wan’s passion.
“And then he showed me some of the drawings [he was] doing, and he said, ‘See this is why you have to be in the movie, because I’ve drawn her to look like you,’” Kidman recalled.
