Nobody is more sorry about how Batman & Robin turned out than George Clooney, who at one point was even known to hand money over to people in compensation for how much they hated the movie. If he did that with everyone, the chances are high that he’d be broke by now, even though he’s a multi-millionaire.
The actor hasn’t been shy in repeatedly admitting that he gave a poor performance in an even poorer blockbuster, but it didn’t affect his career in the long run as many were predicting at the time, when the future A-lister and two-time Academy Award winner was still best known as Dr. Doug Ross from TV smash hit ER.
Clooney’s next directorial effort sees him teaming up with current big-screen Dark Knight Ben Affleck in literary adaptation The Tender Bar, which is coming to theaters nationwide on December 22, before hitting Prime Video on January 7, 2022. In a new interview with Variety, he joked that he was reticent to work with Zack Snyder’s Batman because he’d ruined the franchise Clooney had staked his name on.
“I didn’t want to work with him for the obvious reasons. He screwed up the Batman franchise that I had made so solid.”
The one-time Batman even warned Affleck about taking the role when it was first offered to him, advice that clearly wasn’t heeded when The Flash marks his record-breaking fourth live-action outing under the cape and cowl, even though none of those appearances include a solo film.