Quotes

[after interviewer Michael Parkinson commented on his birth name being Michael Douglas] Yeah, I had to change my name because there were two other actors registered at Equity with that name. One of them is doing quite well from what I understand, the other is making cheap porn movies--like Basic Instinct (1992).

[comparing making Batman Returns (1992) to the first Batman (1989) film] In some ways this one was harder, because I felt like I was doing an impersonation of myself. Which, aside from being nearly impossible, is really weird.

[on his decision not to reprise his role as Batman in Batman Forever (1995)] I was waiting in line for another movie and just kind of poked my head in . . . watched about 10 minutes. I saw enough to know that I made the right decision.

[When asked what he thought of Batman Begins (2005) before its release] My prediction, I don't know anything about it, but I feel this way about it. It's gonna be good, because he's a really good actor [Christian Bale] and that's a really good director [Christopher Nolan]. And they've had years and years and years, and hundreds of millions of dollars, or at least tens of millions of dollars to figure it out. I say it's gonna be good. I picture it's gonna be good. And also, I swear to God it's not an "I told you so", it's maybe an interesting thing, that when I didn't like the third script . . . I just said "I really don't like this, and I don't want to do it", 'cause what I wanted to do, is what I'm told and I don't know if this is true yet so don't hold me to this until I see it, but I'm told it's more a prequel. And that was what I thought would've been a hip way to go the third time. This guy is so endlessly fascinating potentially, why not go and see how he got there.

[when asked if he was ever offered a villain role in a superhero film] No, but it would be fun. I don't think I'd take Jack's [Jack Nicholson] stance on it. I think it'd be fun because those are the roles where you get to chew it up. I'll always stand by the first "Batman". Even for its imperfections, people will never know how hard that movie was to do. A lot of that still holds up.

[on filming Batman (1989) in London] It was a lonely time for me, which was great for the character, I suppose. I would run at night in London just trying to get tired enough so I could sleep. I didn't talk to people much. My little boy was a toddler, and the woman I was married to at the time, we were not together but we were trying to figure it out and get back together. It was me in London, alone, and my sleep during that whole movie was never right. As often as I could, I was getting on the Concorde and trying to get back to spend some time with my kid . . . It was an extremely difficult undertaking and [Tim Burton] os a shy guy, especially back then, and there was so much pressure. We were in England for a long time shooting at Pinewood and it was long, difficult nights in that dank, dark, cold place, and we never knew if it was really working. There was no guarantee that any of this was going to play correctly when it was all said and done. There had never been a movie like it before. There was a lot of risk, too, with Jack [Jack Nicholson] looking the way he did and me stepping out in this new way. The pressure was on everybody. You could feel it.

[2011, on his work ethic] I played a lot of sports when I was a kid so I get in that ballgame mindset of being really, really respectful, but at same time saying to yourself, "Don't back down a single inch, hang with these guys if you can." If they throw it high and tight you have to stand in there, you can't take yourself out of that moment.

[2011, on Night Shift (1982)] The character I invented was a combination of some people I knew and some things I made up, and afterward there [were other projects and offers] that would have meant trying to repeat that over and over, to be the "glib young man", whatever that is, but that held no interest for me. I literally thought the idea of all this, when you do it for a living, is to play a lot of different things. If you do the same thing over and over, that will eventually start to close in on you.

[2011, on Beetlejuice (1988)] From an art perspective, I don't know how you get better than "Beetlejuice". In terms of originality and a look, it's 100% unique. If you consider the process of taking something from someone's mind--meaning Tim Burton]--and putting it on the screen, I think that movie is incomparable.

[2011, on playing Beetlejuice] I wanted him to be pure electricity, that's why the hair just sticks out. At my house, I started creating a walk and a voice. I got some teeth. I wanted to be scary in the look and then use the voice to add a dash of goofiness that, in a way, would make it even scarier. I wanted something kind of moldy to it, too. [Tim Burton] had the striped-suit idea and we added the big eyes. I think that movie will go forever because it's 100% original.

[2011, on filming Batman Returns (1992)] We got to be back home [filming in Burbank] so that made me happy. It was quite the cast with Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito and everyone. It wasn't as satisfying to me when I saw it, but maybe that's because the bar was set so high on the first one. I think I only watched it one time. I knew we were in trouble in talks for the third one when certain people started the conversation with "Why does it have to be so dark?" "Why does he have to be so depressed?" "Shouldn't there be more color in this thing?" I knew I was headed for trouble and that it wasn't a road I was going to go down.

[2011, on Clean and Sober (1988)] The subject matter was so difficult, but oddly everyone really had fun on the shoot. One great thing about being an actor, too, is that if you have a pulse you learn something. That's one of the great joys and bonuses of it. You're forced to ask certain questions.

[2011, on Much Ado About Nothing (1993)] That's a movie where I said, "I can't do this" and it ended up being probably one of my top five experiences ever. I had to find a way in; I didn't really know what to do, quite frankly . . . In the end, [Kenneth Branagh] didn't get scared off by my unorthodox approach, he embraced it and was really hands-on, thankfully. It was literally like acting in another language. I had taken maybe one two-day Shakespearean class in my life, so I had no knowledge.

[2011, on filming The Paper (1994)] It's an awful lot of fun to be in an ensemble, especially when you're talking about Glenn Close, Robert Duvall and that level of actor. It was also the first time I met Duvall. People were nervous on the set when he was coming in; he's a presence, somebody to [reckon] with. I just loved it. I had a ball being there with him. It felt like the first time I acted with Jack Nicholson. These guys are in their very nature larger-than-life personalities, and then they're great actors on top of that and then they're iconic on top of that.

[2011, on his life as an actor] I never saw what I did for a living as who I am. But if there's a job in the world where that can get blurry, this is the one. The line gets really blurry for a lot of people, and for understandable reasons just as you go through life and this business. You don't have to be especially weak to become extremely self-involved in this business, and I just never wanted to go down that road . . . Alan Arkin said to me once that he wanted to have a really big life and a really good career. And I think that's really sane.

[on the backlash over his casting in Batman (1989)] When they hung me in effigy, that was, for me, harsh.

[on Michelle Pfeiffer] What impressed me about Michelle is that she's a California beach chick, no elevated education, but when you're smart you just get smarter.

[on being asked if he got jealous when other actors played Batman] No. Do you know why? Because I'm Batman. I'm very secure in that.

[Paying tribute to Michael Gough] To Mick--my butler, my confidant, my friend, my Alfred. I love you. God bless.

I never really thought about being famous. I always wanted to be good. That's all I really ever wanted to be, was good at what I did. When I go to work, I want to see how good I can get. And that's the great thing about my job - it's a never-ending quest.

I've taken movies for the money in order not to have to take movies for the money.