"Learned a lot from that one": George Clooney reflects on the Batman & Robin failure that shaped his career

George Clooney takes another look at Batman & Robin, the 1997 superhero movie that continues to face harsh criticism in the genre. At the Los Angeles premiere of his new film, Jay Kelly on November 11, Clooney spoke to PEOPLE and other media about how the experience changed his approach to making movies.

Clooney called the project a turning point in his career.

"Batman & Robin! I learned a lot from that one," he said, thinking back on how people received the film and what it taught him.

Critics slammed the movie, which received 11 Razzie Award nominations and now holds a poor 11% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Reflecting on its legacy, Clooney added,

“You don't learn from succeeding — you learn from failing, and then you have to figure it out along the way, so it’s helpful.”

Over the years, Clooney has publicly acknowledged his dissatisfaction with his performance as Batman/Bruce Wayne. In 2019, he told The Hollywood Reporter,

“I wasn’t good in it, it wasn’t a good film,” he shared. "What I learned from that failure was that I had to relearn how I was working. Now, I wasn’t just an actor getting a role, I was being held responsible for the film itself. So the next three films I did were Three Kings, Out of Sight and O Brother, Where Art Thou?” He emphasized that this shift was deliberate, saying, ”That was a very specific choice for me to find better projects.”

Clooney reflects on his Batman past and how his family views the film

Clooney has also shared that his wife, Amal Clooney, has her own stance on the Batman & Robin film. Speaking in 2021, he noted, per Variety, that she "won’t let me watch" Batman & Robin. He joked about the reason, adding,

"There are certain films I just go, ‘I want my wife to have some respect for me.’"

The couple has two kids, Alexander and Ella. Even though he struggled earlier, Clooney went on to win praise from critics. His role in the 2005 movie Syriana won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. When he gave his thank-you speech, he said,

“It's a funny thing about winning an Academy Award, this will always be sort of synonymous with your name from here on in,” before humorously adding, “It will be: Oscar winner George Clooney, Sexiest Man Alive 1997, Batman, died today in a freak accident."

Clooney’s latest project, Jay Kelly, a comedy-drama directed by Noah Baumbach and featuring Adam Sandler, Laura Dern and Billy Crudup, is currently playing in theaters.