For many actors, playing a superhero is something they’ve always dreamed of. In reality, however, very few will ever actually get the opportunity. At the same time, though, there are several actors who have been given the chance to play a superhero and decided to turn it down. The legendary Ray Liotta is among them. What many people don’t know is that at one point in his career, he had the opportunity to play Batman. However, in a shocking turn of events, Liotta chose not to take advantage of the moment. Even if you’re not a big Batman fan, this is still a great story. Keep reading to learn more about h Ray Liotta could’ve been Batman.
Why Did Ray Liotta Pass Up On Batman?
When Ray Liotta started his acting career in the late 1970s, it didn’t take him long to establish himself as a talented young star. Throughout the 1980s, he became a fixture on the big screen and he started to attract the attention of big names in the industry. In fact, after his first major movie role in the 1986 film Something Wild, Ray Liotta was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. According to Cheat Sheet, Liotta said,
“The first movie I did was a movie called Something Wild. Right around that time they were thinking of doing Batman, and Tim Burton was the director of it, and I got a call from my agent that Tim Burton wanted to meet me for the role of Batman. At that time — it was 1986 or 87 — it was really the first comic book movie that I know of that was coming out”.
For lots of actors, saying yes to playing Batman would’ve been a no-brainer. After all, superhero movies are almost always guaranteed to be box office hits, and being attached to them often results in more opportunities down the line. However, Ray decided to decline the offer. He went on to say, ” I always regret it, because I think Tim Burton is such a great, great director, and I’ve always regretted not going to meet him. Just to meet him, just to talk, — whether I agreed with playing it — because I couldn’t wrap my head around and understand. To play Batman, that seemed silly. So, I regret that, that I didn’t go out and meet him.” Despite the fact that Ray Liotto regrets turning down the opportunity, he also shared that he finds most superhero movies to be “horrendus” and not something he wants to be a part of anyway. When sharing his thoughts on superhero movies he said, “It’s one-note. They don’t seem to care a lick about story. It’s just jumping from one set-piece to another. But you could really make an intelligent superhero movie – kind of like they did with the Batman that Christian Bale did. There was a little more story going on”. Needless to say, it seems highly unlikely that we’ll ever see him in one. At the end of the day, though, there are lots of people out there who would’ve loved to see Ray Liotta play Batman.
Batman Wasn’t The Only Chance Ray Liotta Had To Be Part Of The DC Universe
Turning down a major role can be a very risky decision for an actor, and sometimes it can lead to a lack of other opportunities in the future. However, that wasn’t the case for Ray Liotta. In fact, Tim Burton was also considering Ray Liotta to play the Joker or Harvey Dent in the movie. As we all know, however, none of those roles panned out.
Saying No To Batman Didn’t Hurt Liotta’s Career
Fortunately for Liotta, he went on to have a very successful career and he is now one of the most respected actors of his generation. In 1989, which was the same year Batman was released, Liotta appeared in Field of Dreams which turned out to be a huge success. The following year, he played a major role in Goodfellas which ended up changing the trajectory of his entire career. Throughout the 90s and 2000s, Ray Liotta continued to land major roles in movies. In the mid-2000s, he also began taking on more TV roles. He has now been a consistent presence on our screens for more than 30 years, and he isn’t showing signs of slowing down any time soon. Ray currently has a handful of projects in the works that are set to be released over the next couple of years. On top of his success as an actor, Ray has also done some work from the other side of the camera.
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