George Clooney has revealed the advice he gave to Ben Affleck over taking on the Batman role – don’t do it.
Clooney infamously played the Caped Crusader in 1997’s Batman & Robin, which was panned by critics and is regularly cited as one of the worst superhero films ever.
Before Affleck signed on to play the Dark Knight in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Clooney admitted he tried to talk him out of the film.
Clooney told The Hollywood Reporter: “I actually did talk to him about it. I said, ‘Don’t do it’.
“It was only from my experience, which is, you know…”.
Affleck returned as Batman in 2017’s Justice League, however he will not be reprising the role in the next Dark Knight film, set for release in 2021.
Batman & Robin was directed by Joel Schumacher and also starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as the villain Mr Freeze.
Clooney, whose career recovered from the critical drubbing dished out to the film, said the experience changed how he approached roles.
He said: “Schwarzenegger was paid, I think, 25 million dollars for that, which was like 20 times more than I was paid for it, and, you know, we never even worked together! We worked together one day. But I took all the heat.
“Now, fair deal; I was playing Batman and I wasn’t good in it, and it wasn’t a good film, but what I learned from that failure was, I had to rethink how I was working.
“Because now I wasn’t just an actor getting a role, I was being held responsible for the film itself.”