It’s been 31 years since Michael Keaton last wore the cape and cowl of the Dark Knight in Batman Returns. But after all this time, he’s back as Bruce Wayne in The Flash. As a way of celebrating his long-awaited return, Keaton was part of a special screening hosted by Empire Magazine of his 1989 Batman debut and the upcoming The Flash. At the Q&A, Keaton answered several questions about filming the original Tim Burton film, and how a certain iconic line was totally improvised on set. He explained the origin of “You wanna get nuts?? Let’s get nuts!” to the crowd.
“I don’t think ‘Let’s get nuts’ was in the script, that was me. That scene was never really that good as written, to be honest with you. That was one of the days when we went round and round. I think Kim [Basinger] is in it, me and Jack [Nicholson], nobody could ever find it. I thought, ‘Okay, pressure’s on, man. Pressure. Is. On.’ I thought he’d probably said, ‘Okay, I’m kind of cornered, I only have one way to go and I’d better let this character know that we’re gonna throw down.’
One of the other more famous things Michael Keaton invented for the big screen Batman is the idea that Bruce Wayne had a deeper, gravely voice when in costume. This was definitely not something Adam West did, and almost every other cinematic Batman has followed in Keaton’s footsteps here. Particularly Christian Bale in the three Christopher Nolan films. So what inspired the infamous Bat-voice? According to Keaton, it was really just logic.
“I actually bother people because I fall back to logic. And I remember standing there going, ‘Okay, how are we gonna do this?’ The scene was somebody standing right next to me and I said, this guy’s going to look at me and say, ‘Hey, it’s Bruce Wayne!’ It’s as practical as ‘How does the audience really believe that people don’t go, “clearly this is Bruce Wayne dressed up on a rubber suit…’ “
We are beyond excited to see Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader again The Flash. We can only hope it’s not the last time we see him in the black rubber suit. It’s an infinite multiverse, after all. And who wouldn’t want to see Keaton as “Old Man Bruce” in a live-action Batman Beyond project? To read more details on Keaton’s time making Batman, be sure to head on over to Empire Magazine for more.
