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The actor briefly took on his role as the Dark Knight during a bit in the telecast that featured Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
By Christy Piña
Associate Editor
Michael Keaton is sharing how his Batman appearance at the Oscars 2024 came to be.
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the actor-director explained that either Jimmy Kimmel or Oscars producer Molly McNearney reached out to him about the bit ahead of the awards show, and he thought it would be fun.
The bit saw Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito take the stage on Sunday night to present the award for best visual effects, which went to Godzilla: Minus One. But apparently, they weren’t reuniting as Twins co-stars but as Batman villains, with Keaton’s Dark Knight in the audience. (Schwarzenegger portrayed Mr. Frieze in Batman & Robin, which starred George Clooney’s Batman, and DeVito took on the role of The Penguin in Batman Returns.)
When Kimmel asked about his menacing look at the men onstage, Keaton joked that he could take on both of their villains any time. “You know what? You’ll be back when I tell you to come back,” he said, in reference to Schwarzenegger’s iconic line in The Terminator. He also admitted that DeVito is the villain he’d be afraid of, not the former governor of California.
“Danny is the one I’d worry about ’cause he’s sneaky,” the Knox Goes Away director and star said. “He’d creep up behind you, and he has the height advantage because he’s so [small]. You don’t know where he is. He’s always sneaking around. The other guy I would just put away. He’s too slow.”
Later in the conversation, Keaton recounted what it was like at the Dolby Theatre that night and how he was approached by a “great kid,” who urged him it was time to take his seat for the bit.
“So, you run down and you’re passing, like ‘hey Ryan Gosling,’ you’re running past all these famous people, and I love that panic you know where it might not work, it might work and they say, ‘Where is he gonna sit?’ This poor kid is sweating bullets,” he detailed. “And it just works perfectly.”
The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star also noted that he’s proud of himself for bringing an ascot to the Oscars that night for a wardrobe change, explaining, “I thought, if I’m going to do this, I’m going to Bruce Wayne it up a little bit.”
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