Movies / TV

This ‘Batman’ Star Reveals a ‘Parental Dropping of the Ball’ on ‘Ellen’

Ellen DeGeneres had a star of "The Batman" on her show who revealed a major parenting faux pas.

by Melissa Mitas

Published on January 23, 2020

2 min read

‘The Batman’ coming in 2021

With Robert Pattinson of Twilight infamy in the title role of The Batman, the caped crusader has been previously portrayed by Christian Bale and Ben Affleck. Pattinson will be playing a young Bruce Wayne in the first chapter of the planned trilogy of films.

According to Heroic Hollywood, director Matt Reeves co-wrote the script with Mattson Tomlin. The highly-anticipated film features some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the Riddler, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, and Colin Farrell as the Penguin.

Farrell’s parenting faux pas

Farrell recently appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to talk about his role as the Penguin as well as some other topics, which is where he discussed watching a certain popular scary movie with his son.

Telling DeGeneres he allowed son Henry, who is now 10 years old, to watch the 2017 horror flick It, Farrell truly surprised the talk show host. “What is wrong with you?” she questioned the actor, according to People. “How old was he?”

Henry was 8 years old at the time of the viewing and clearly exhibiting signs of some distress during the movie. “That was a parental dropping of the ball of epic proportions,” Farrell admitted to DeGeneres. “We watched it at home and we watched half of it and, uh … I could discern a certain discomfort that was emanating from his 8-year-old body.”

Though they were able to watch the remaining part of the movie the following day, Farrell also revealed that they started watching the scary film right before bedtime. “We watched the second half the next day and then he was fine. We watched it before bed one night,” he told the audience who responded with groans, adding, “I know, I mean, I really dropped the ball.”

Playing the Penguin

Farrell also shared that Henry and his 16-year-old son James aren’t thrilled with their dad always playing the villain. “They’re sick of me being a bad guy,” he said. “Which apparently, reading between the lines, leads me to believe that they think I’m okay.”

The Batman star spoke of the upcoming superhero film and where he is currently at in the development. “I’m in the process of talking to Matt Reeves, who’s the director, who wrote the script, and wrote a really beautiful, dark, moving script, really gorgeous,” Farrell said in a recent Jimmy Kimmel Live appearance. “It’s a really beautiful script that he wrote and he has a real love for it, Matt. So, we’re in the process of finishing designing the aesthetic of the character.”

Farrell commented that the plot is being kept under wraps. “Yeah, yeah with a chain around my arm, cryogenically frozen script. It’s all very hush, hush,” he told Kimmel, according to Cosmic Book. “But it’s a really beautiful script that he wrote. He has a real love for it, man. So we are still in the process of just finishing the design, the aesthetic of the character.”