Interview with ScreenSlam - June, 1995 - video Dailymotion

Chris O'Donnell Fans

Chris O'Donnell interviewed by ScreenSlam about Batman Forever

Transcript

00:00Chris, how did this project come to you?

00:04Agent called me up and said, you got the part.

00:08Pretty easy, the good way. Yeah, I had met with

00:12Joel Schumacher months before, just on a general meeting

00:16and he said he'd been a fan of mine, he'd love to work with me at some point.

00:20But never really talked specifically about Batman.

00:24And then I was just kind of offered the part.

00:28Originally, it was still Michael Keaton and they were talking about Robin Williams

00:32so it was kind of a different movie.

00:36I knew everything. I've been watching Batman and Robin since I was a kid.

00:40I watched the TV show all the time. I had the comic books.

00:44I had the toys. I was a big fan of them.

00:48Well, this Robin was

00:52he's very different. Obviously, they've created a new Robin for the film.

00:56He is kind of related to both of the other Robins.

01:00I mean, the story is similar to the comic books.

01:02You know, he comes from a family of circus performers

01:04and there's a whole tragedy of how he lost his family.

01:06But in a way, there's kind of a tribute to the TV show

01:08in that, you know, there's a line in the movie,

01:12a holy whatever it is,

01:14that's kind of, I think, what everyone remembers Robin and the TV show from.

01:18Well, Robin is, you know, Dick Grayson has kind of been living a life on the road,

01:24almost as a gypsy, being in the circus.

01:28He's tough, he's cocky, and he's dealing with a lot of, you know, real tragedy and the loss of his family.

01:38He's got a lot of, you know, he's angry and he wants revenge.

01:42And, you know, he just has to deal with all that.

01:46Very funny guy, yeah.

01:48Unfortunately, I didn't have that many scenes with Jim.

01:50I wish I did, because he's really, he's incredible.

01:53But it was, this was a really good cast.

01:55It was really, everyone worked real well together.

01:57And, you know, Joel Schumacher, everyone involved.

02:00It was a really enjoyable project to work on.

02:03Well, I mean, that's what this film is all about, is the technology.

02:06And it's the costumes and the sets and the special effects.

02:09It's not a, you know, an acting piece, really.

02:12I mean, there's acting going on, but that's kind of secondary to the rest of the elements.

02:19You know, I don't know.

02:20I never even noticed it until journalists started asking about me.

02:24I could care less to tell you the truth.

02:26It doesn't bother me if there's nipples or if there's not nipples.

02:29No, there's, you know, there's not a lot of rehearsing for a film like this.

02:32You kind of, it's pretty basic.

02:35I mean, there's a lot of choreographing the scenes, the fight sequences,

02:40and, you know, sticking in some pretty complicated shots.

02:44But Joel was, you know, you'd always communicate with him kind of one-on-one.

02:51Occasionally we'd do, you know, we'd do some read-throughs and stuff.

02:55I guess you'd go on rehearsals.

02:57It wasn't like we took, you know, a month beforehand to rehearsals.

02:59But, yeah, we, you know, we would go over things with Joel.

03:02And he, you know, always, he's very opinionated and, you know,

03:06has a lot of good input and everything and is very supportive of his actors.

03:10He always wants to make sure that you're in, kind of have the right atmosphere to work in

03:15and, you know, keeps everyone's spirits in a good mood.

03:19Toughest part, well, the most annoying part was wearing that mask.

03:23I hated it and it was glued to my face and, you know, when I was wearing the costume,

03:28I could take the costume off in between setups, but the mask had to stay on

03:32and it was hot and sticky and uncomfortable and I just did not like it.

03:35I did not like it.

Interview with ScreenSlam - June, 1995

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