George Clooney was paid 1/25th as much as co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger on the much-maligned Batman & Robin. Following Val Kilmer’s single movie appearance as the Caped Crusader in Batman Forever, director Joel Schumacher continued his campy take on the DC character with Batman & Robin in 1997. This time around, George Clooney stepped into the role of Bruce Wayne alongside returning Robin Chris O’Donnell. The supporting cast was filled out with Alicia Silverstone (Batgirl), Uma Thurman (Poison Ivy), and Schwarzenegger (Mr. Freeze). Upon its release, Batman & Robin was slapped with scathing reviews, and to this day it only holds an 11% on Rotten Tomatoes.

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Batman & Robin finds the titular crime-fighting duo working together to stop Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze from taking over Gotham City. Though Schumacher’s Batman Forever has been viewed in a more favorable light over the years, Batman & Robin remains the worst received Batman movie yet. Fans were horrified at the overly campy style, which included a Gotham that looked incomprehensible, a Batsuit with nipples, and cringe-inducing puns from Mr. Freeze. At a result, the Batman franchise was stalled for years, with the next installment being Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins in 2005.

Over the years, Clooney has spoken openly about his distaste for Batman & Robin, even to the point of apologizing for it multiple times. In a new interview with Howard Stern, Clooney went even further in discussing the movie and revealed how much he earned for making it. Clooney was paid a mere $1 million salary, while Schwarzenegger received a hefty $25 million. Interestingly enough, the two actors never even worked on set together. “We never even saw each other,” Clooney said. “It’s a big, monster machine, and I just sort of jumped in and did what they said.”

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It might be strange to pay a Batman villain more than Batman himself, especially when Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze is often seen as one of the worst antagonists depicted onscreen. However, it’s worth mentioning that at the time of Batman & Robin‘s production, Schwarzenegger was an established action star who had already appeared in movies like The Terminator. Meanwhile, Clooney’s movie career was still in the early days; he was a bigger draw on television and still on ER when Batman & Robin came out. Therefore, it makes sense for Schwarzenegger to earn more, though Clooney probably could’ve scored a higher salary.

Of course, this might not do much to help Clooney’s opinion regarding Batman & Robin. The actor has clearly gone on to have a prolific career, so his stint as Batman didn’t hurt him too much. There have been numerous bad movies to get a more positive revisionist take, but Batman & Robin does not seem like one of them. Even Schumacher himself apologized for it years ago. At least Clooney has done enough since then to make up for those past mistakes, and it’s safe to say his paychecks have only grown.

Source: The Howard Stern Show

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Rachel Labonte
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Rachel LaBonte is a news, feature, and movie review writer for Screen Rant with a deep passion for film and television. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.

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