Ray Liottawas once hesitant to take a role in a comic book movie.
“I’ve been able to hang on to keep doing these movies because it’s been hard for me in my head to go, ‘Now let me be the bad guy in a comic-book movie,’ Liotta said of his late-career roles in films like 2019’sMarriage Storyand 2021’sThe Many Saints of Newark.
When asked why he never appeared in any superhero movies as the genre grew more popular in the 1990s, the actor responded: “Because I was an idiot.”
“[1986’s]Something Wildcame out, so I was getting attention from that. My agent called me up and said, ‘Tim Burton would like to meet you. He’s doing a movie,Batman.’ “Liotta recalled in the interview.
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The actor went on to explain that at the time, he felt that taking on a comic book project would have been “stupid.”
“There were never any superhero movies then. That was pretty much the first one,” he told the outlet. “I said, ‘Are you f—— nuts?Batman?!” I’m going, ‘No, that’s stupid.’ Who was stupid?Iwas stupid because I didn’t know.”
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Liotta did not say whether Burton, now 64, was interested in casting him as Bruce Wayne/Batman or as another character in the movie, which became 1989’sBatman.Michael Keatonportrayed the iconic comic book character andJack Nicholsonplayed the Joker in the hit film.
Burton’s action film helped pave the way for subsequent popular Batman and superhero films through the 1990s and into the 21st century. Keaton, now 71, evenreprised the roleto appear in this year’sThe Flash.
Liotta’s Deadline interview was conducted three years before the actor’s death, at age 64, per the outlet.
The posthumous interview was not the first time the actor revealed he turned down the meeting with Burton. The late actor recalled the incident while speaking withIndieWire’s The Playlistat Savannah Film Festival in 2011.
Daniele Venturelli/WireImage; Everett
“I remember right after a movie I did,Something Wild, Tim Burton wanted to meet me for Batman,” he recalled at the time. “And at that time, I said, ‘What are you kidding me? I’m an actor.’ But now it’s changed; now it’s good because if you do that you get other movies.”
Liotta died in his sleep in the Dominican Republic on May 26, 2022.The actor is expected to make two final film appearances appeared inDangerous WatersandApril 29, 1992, which have not yet been released, according to hisIMDbpage.
source: people.com
