Tim Burton's Batman Returns has long been hailed as one of the most intriguing titles in the Batman catalog, but it may have been a totally different movie if Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman hadn't been in it. The actress recently revealed that it had been a lifelong dream to play the character on the big screen, but when she found out it was happening in Batman Returns, the movie had already signed on another actress in the role. That actress was none other than Annette Bening. Pfeiffer said:
As a young girl, I was completely obsessed with Catwoman. When I heard that Tim was making the film and Catwoman had already been cast, I was devastated. At the time, it was Annette Bening. Then she became pregnant. The rest is history. I remember telling Tim halfway through the script that I'd do the film, that's how excited I was.
It has come out prior to this that Annette Bening originally landed the Catwoman role in Batman Returns, but it's not something we really talk about all that often, and we'd definitely never heard Michelle Pfeiffer's take on what happened. Apparently, the actress really wanted the gig, even though she had to be vacuum packed into her super tight costume. The things we do for the jobs we love.
It's still hard for me to imagine Annette Bening in that sort of gig. I always see her as the uptight mom in American Beauty or as the drunk mom in The Kids Are All Right. Earlier in her career, she played up her sexuality a bit more with roles in The Grifters and the ridiculously plotted Love Affair. Her version of Catwoman doubtless would have been different than Pfeiffer's, but fate intervened.
As for Michelle Pfeiffer, she also told THR that she was so pumped for the Batman Returns gig that she threw herself into training immediately. If you've caught the flick, you know that Selina Kyle is really into the whip and those scenes in Batman Returns took a lot of dedicated training, which is not dissimilar to what actors playing superhero movie characters go through today. It wasn't all fun and games though:
I trained for months with the whip master. On our first day together, I caught his face with the whip and it drew blood. It completely shattered me.
A few steps in a different direction, and Annette Bening could have been the one drawing blood while training with the whipmaster. It's funny where life takes you--and doesn't take you--sometimes. Batman Returns recently celebrated it's 25th anniversary. However, if you are pumped for more Batman to come, Justice League is expected to hit theaters on November 17. Here's what else is coming up.
