Mark Hamill’s role as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series may not have happened if it weren’t for Michael Keaton’s Caped Crusader.
In a recent interview with Wired, the Star Wars actor explained that the controversy surrounding Keaton’s casting and his eventual success with it helped him feel more confident going into his audition than he would’ve been otherwise.
“There was this big 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 him, and they didn’t realize how great he would become. But there was great controversy.”
He continued, “So, when I went in, I thought, ‘You think they’re going to hire Luke Skywalker to play the Joker? The fans will lose their minds!’ I was so sure that I couldn’t be cast, I was completely relaxed.”
The Machine actor explained that there’s typically performance anxiety going into an audition because actors want the roles they’re reading for.
“Here I knew I couldn’t get the part, so, who cares? And I drove out of the parking lot thinking, ‘That’s the best Joker they’ll ever hear, and it’s too bad they can’t cast me.’” Then, once he got the part, his attitude completely 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 insane, and because he’s insane, he’s never boring,” he said. “It’s just fun to play a character that creates chaos wherever he goes.”
