Tim Burton Couldn't Understand Jack Nicholson's Voice on 'Batman' (original) (raw)

Tim Burton‘s 1989 “Batman” film may be a dark interpretation of the superhero, but the true abstract element was Jack Nicholson‘s voice.

Director Burton revealed to Empire (via Slash Film) that he had trouble understanding Nicholson in character as Joker opposite Michael Keaton’s Batman. And while later iterations of the Caped Crusader got flack for speaking in deep growls under his cowl, it was Nicholson’s vocal turn as the iconic baddie that proved to be more puzzling than one of the Riddler’s games.

“Jack has a very abstract way of speaking. So he would say things to me and I’d go, ‘Yeah, I get it,’ and then I’d go to someone, ‘What the fuck was he just talking about?'” Burton said. “So there was this weird communication: non-linear, non-connective. But it was very clear to me. I felt like we had a good sort of caveman-style communication.”

Burton added that Nicholson “protected” and “nurtured” him as a young up-and-coming director on set. “[He] kept me going, by just not getting too overwhelmed with the whole thing,” Burton recalled. “I felt really supported by him in a very deep way. I was young and dealing with a big studio, and he just quietly gave me the confidence to do what I needed to do.”

Turns out Nicholson’s voice did resonate with Burton: “Him being a voice of support had a lot of resonance with the studio,” the director said. “It got me through the whole thing. It gave me strength.”

Keaton previously revealed that “The Shining” alum imparted acting advice on set for balancing out his career. Almost 30 years later, Keaton opened up about walking away from the Batman franchise with 1995’s “Batman Forever” due to director Joel Schumacher’s vision for the character. Burton was boosted from the director’s chair following “Batman Returns,” which the studio deemed “too dark,” according to the auteur.

“To me, I know the name of the movie is Batman, and it’s hugely iconic and very cool … and because of Tim Burton, artistically iconic, [but] I knew from the get-go it was Bruce Wayne,” Keaton said on the Backstage podcast. “That was the secret. I never talked about it. [Everyone would say] Batman, Batman, Batman does this, and I kept thinking to myself, ‘Y’all are thinking wrong here.’ [It’s all about] Bruce Wayne. What kind of person does that?…Who becomes that?”