Mark Hamill’s role as the Joker in the legendary Batman animated series in the 90s would not have happened if Michael Keaton had not starred in Tim Burton’s film
You may not know it but one of the most famous actors to have played the Joker has been Mark Hamill, Actor known for playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise. Hamill first voiced the Clown Prince of Crime in the 1990s Batman animated series. Since then, he has voiced the character in countless series, movies, and video games, until 2020, which was the last time he voiced the character. in the series Scooby Doo and company, after 28 years doing it.
But none of that would have happened if Michael Keaton had not been chosen by Tim Burton to play Batman. This is how the actor explained it in a recent interview with Wired:
“There was a huge outcry that Michael Keaton was going to play Batman,” Hamill recalled. “’Oh, he’s Mr. Mom, he’s a comedy actor.’ I mean they hadn’t even seen it, and they didn’t realize how great it would become. But there was a big controversy.”
He continued: “So when I walked in, I was like, ‘Do you think they’re going to hire Luke Skywalker to play the Joker? The fans will lose their minds!’ He was so sure that he couldn’t be chosen, he was completely relaxed. The actor explained that there is usually performance anxiety going into an audition because actors want the parts they are reading for.
“Here I knew I couldn’t get the part, so who cares? And I walked out of the parking lot thinking, ‘That’s the best Joker you’ll ever hear, and it’s too bad they can’t cast me. Then once I got the part, my whole attitude changed. I was like, ‘Oh no, I can’t do this!’”
Hamill went on to say that Joker is one of his favorite characters to play. “He’s crazy, and because he’s crazy, he’s never boring,” he said. “It’s fun to play a character who creates chaos wherever he goes.”
You can watch the interview below
The actor will no longer lend his voice to the Joker
In an EM interview, Mark Hamill declared in January of this year that he would never play the Joker again after the death of Kevin Conroy, an actor with whom he shared the lead in the Batman animated series, Justice League, and many other series. , animated movies and video games of the caped crusader. This is what he said.
“They would call and say: They want you to play the Joker and my only question was: is Kevin Batman? If they said yes, he would say: I’m in. We were like partners. We were like Laurel and Hardy. Without Kevin there, there doesn’t seem to be a Batman for me.”
The actor does not stop, to his last appearances as Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian and later in The Book of Boba Fett, we must add many other projects, on May 26 he premiered in the USA the action comedy The Machine, Peter Atencio who stars alongside Bert Kreischer, Iva Babic, and Jimmy Tatro; and has pending release Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, The Blues Brothers Animated Series, new episodes of Masters of the Universe: Revolution and Invincible, and the series The Fall of the House of Usher among many other projects.
Michael Keaton will don the Batman cape and cowl again when The Flash is released on June 16.
