Ray Liotta sadly passed away last May, leaving behind an extensive body of work, including his iconic turn in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, and his most recent role in Apple TV+'s Blackbird, for which he won a posthumous Emmy Award.
Liotta never appeared in a superhero movie, but did famously turn down the opportunity to play Batman early in his career. Now, Deadline has shared a previously unpublished piece on the actor that will serve as his final interview.
In it, Liotta is asked about declining a meeting with director Tim Burton shortly after playing the volatile Ray in Something Wild.
"Something Wild came out, so I was getting attention from that. My agent called me up and said, 'Tim Burton would like to meet you. He’s doing a movie, Batman.' There were never any superhero movies then. That was pretty much the first one. I said, 'Are you f*cking nuts? Batman?!' I’m going, 'No, that’s stupid.' Who was stupid? I was stupid because I didn’t know.
Liotta has previously expressed his admiration for Jack Nicholson's performance, which led to some confusion that he was must have been courted to play the Joker, but Nicholson was Burton's first choice for the role (well, after Warner Bros. declined his suggestion of Brad Dourif, as the story goes).
Michael Keaton is still widely viewed as the best big-screen Caped Crusader yet, but do you think Liotta would have been a good choice for the part? Drop us a comment down below.
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Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.