‘I was terrified’: Tim Burton on what he had to do to convince Jack Nicholson to take the role of Joker

When director Tim Burton met Jack Nicholson to discuss the possibility of him playing the the Joker in the 1989 Batman film, Burton claimed he was terrified. However, it wasn’t because of Nicholson himself — rather, it was something Nicholson didn’t know Burton was afraid of.

Batmania took over in the summer of 1989 thanks to Warner Bros. showering the world with ads and merchandise, creating Bat-fever in anticipation of the film’s release. Then, when the movie turned out to live up to the lofty expectations, everyone became batty.

It’s highly unlikely that any of that would have happened — at least, not to the extreme extent that it did — if Jack Nicholson had not been cast as the Joker. When Nicholson agreed to do the film, it created big news, and it also made people take the film seriously. Of course, he nearly stole the show, enhancing the experience in a way that no other actor would probably have been able to in 1989. Playing opposite Michael Keaton, whose crazy-behind-the-eyes Batman created the perfect protagonist rival, Nicholson laughed his way to a critically acclaimed performance.

Everyone involved in making the film agreed that Jack Nicholson should be the man for the role. However, the question still remained: How were they going to convince the legendary actor to join a Batman movie? The filmmakers’ determination to land Nicholson could be that, at the time, Batman was still looked upon by many as a campy character akin to the 1960’s TV version. This was despite Batman comics turning much darker in the mid-80’s, resulting in many of those comics being amongst the best of all-time in the long running Batman series.

Nicholson’s favorite Batman villain was the Joker — so did that mean he wouldn’t like the new direction of the character? This wasn’t going to be the 1960’s Joker, a role Cesar Romero owned. Director Tim Burton patterned his story from those darker comics. He knew Nicholson was right for the role, but he had to convince Nicholson that the role was right for him.

In a segment from the Batman documentary Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight from 2005, Tim Burton and co-producer Paul Guber tell the Nicholson story.

Guber recollects that when he and Tim Burton went to see Nicholson, that the actor spontaneously decided to go horseback riding.

There was just one problem. Tim Burton was too frightened to ride a horse. In fact, Burton even said, “I don’t ride,” to which Paul Guber responded, “You do today.”

Tim Burton recalls, “I was terrified. There I’m out with Peter Guber and Jack Nicholson on horseback up in Aspen.” Burton adds, laughing, “I didn’t realize horseback riding was in my job description.”

Guber noted that Burton may not have liked it, even adding that his fear so evident on his face that it looked like “he discovered God.” However, he also noted, “he was not a happy camper, but he did it.”

As they rode along, Jack and Tim hit it off, and seemed to see eye-to-eye on how the role of the greatest Batman villain of all-time should be portrayed.

“Jack committed to the project,” Guber stated. “I don’t know if because of the horse riding, but I think they had a good bonding and that moved the project further ahead.”

Tim Burton then expressed why Nicholson was so important. “Once somebody like him gets involved, it just raises the bar of everything else and just creates a buzz about it, an excitement that just permeates everything.”

What about Nicholson himself?

He appears in the documentary, and even explains at one point how the merchandise sales were actually not as good as they should’ve been. On being cast as the Joker, Nicholson suggested that he wouldn’t want to do it if it was the 1960’s Batman version. That version was portrayed by Adam West, who once admitted that he cried for an hour when he realized he was not wanted for the role that he made famous on the small screen.

Nicholson, however, was delighted about the role, and said, “I thought this was a very strong — in every way — transitional movie about the genre, and really why they wanted me in there. In other words, on a superficial level, in that moment, it gave it, ‘Oh, this is not just another cartoon movie.’”

Coincidentally, horseback riding was the indirect reason why actress Sean Young had to forfeit her role as Vicky Vale, which Kim Basinger then took over.

Tim Burton, who was happy that Nicholson agreed to do the movie, but was not necessarily fond of remembering riding a horse alongside him, sums up his terrifying experience by saying, “That was a surreal moment.”