Batman & Robin was released in 1997, 5 years after Tim Burton's critically acclaimed Batman Returns. The movie, starring George Clooney as the Dark Knight, was the complete polar opposite of what Burton had set out to do less than a decade earlier with 1989's Batman.
It also upped the campiness of 1995's Batman Forever—no easy feat—with filmmaker Joel Schumacher embracing the toyetic nature of the Caped Crusader's world. The result was a movie that's still widely considered one of the worst comic book adaptations ever. It was a commercial success but ended its box office run behind its predecessor.
Chris O'Donnell (Robin) and Alicia Silverstone (Batgirl) recently spoke with Entertainment Weekly, and the latter admitted that Batman & Robin proved to be an overwhelming experience.
"I remember a lot of things not making sense," she recalled. "We would be in a big warehouse and there was so many extras and so much going on. [George] really was like a big brother in those circumstances. He stood up for me and was reasonable when things were not. And to get the outfit on took so much time and energy. And once you had it on, you couldn't go to the bathroom for ages."
"These were not easy costumes. You had to put baby powder all over your body to get it on. The whole thing was a big production. I remember we finally got the things on and we're standing there on top of this platform in the warehouse, and I turned to Chris and George and I said, 'What do we do?' And they're like, 'Don't worry, you'll figure it out.' I was like, 'What do you mean?'"
"And then I hear over a big bullhorn, 'Throw the thing!' and I said, 'Chris, throw what at what?' He's like, 'Don't worry about it, you're overthinking it,'" Silverstone continued. "It's like, 'What do you mean? We don't even know what we're throwing!' because they added it all later."
Making Batman & Robin wasn't a particularly easy process then, but neither was the backlash that followed when the movie arrived in theaters.
"All of a sudden, you were starting to get the feedback, and you realize it was just going sideways," O'Donnell said. "There was so much hatred of the film when it came out. It was like, 'Oh my God.' And you want to do your job and promote the movie. I remember at one point [director] Joel Schumacher just threw up the flag. He's like, 'I'm out. I can't do it anymore.' He was so heartbroken and kind of bummed out about it."
The Dick Grayson star went on to explain that "it was a tough one for us to all do digest," but feels "we were lucky to be in the movie, and it was fun to be a part of it. It is what it is. Some work out and some don't."
Despite that, both O'Donnell and Silverstone remain grateful for the experience, with the actress saying that many of her gay friends have said it's their favourite movie ("it's very camp," she reiterated).
As for O'Donnell, he was just pleased to bring Robin to life on screen as, even now, he "still [has] the Batmobiles toys from when I was a kid."
Batman & Robin made only $238 million at the worldwide box office, leading to the franchise being shelved until Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins rebooted the Dark Knight in 2005.