The actors of the DC Universe are just as diverse and interesting as the characters that they portray.
Each one has their own unique story to tell, and they are all super interesting, that’s for sure.
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Check out these 10+ interesting facts about DC actors that fans didn’t know. From Battfleck to Bat-nipples, these are some of the lesser-known secrets of the DCU.
Absolutely nobody wanted Michael Keaton to play Batman in the Tim Burton film.
Fans everywhere were absolutely up-in-arms over Keaton getting the nod. Many feared that Batman would become a campy shadow of the 1960s TV show.
Critics and fans couldn’t have been more wrong!
Gal Gadot was pregant while she was filming scenes for *Wonder Woman*.
We’re not talking a little bit pregnant either. Gal was 5 months along when she started doing her reshoots for the film!
I guess that’s why they call her Wonder Woman .
Will Smith was a famous rapper before becoming an actor.
Way before Will Smith ever fired his first rifle as Deadshot in Suicide Squad , he was rapping about how ” Parents Just Don’t Understand .”
The song’s video is a glorious ode to 80s fashion faux pas.
Connie Nielson, who plays Queen Hippolyta, is a polyglot.
The Queen of the Amazons speaks an astounding seven different languages, and is fluent in each of them:
“I understand that for an American, it seems almost crazy, but it’s normal for me.”
Jason Mamoa’s signature scar over his left eye was caused by a bar fight.
Momoa recalls the fight in an interview :
“It was crazy. A guy smashed a pint glass in my face. I got a little over 140 stitches in my face.”
Henry Cavill was almost cast as Superman in *Superman Returns*.
The role ended up going to Brandon Routh .
At the time, the production team was opting for a more “classic” look. Superman Returns is essentially an ode to Christopher Reeve, the first Superman .
Ezra Miller stuttered as a child and had to undergo speech therapy.
“I’d rather be broken than having someone trying to fix me all the time,” the actor reportedly once told his family.
Miller supposedly hated speech therapy with a passion.
Ray Fisher, who plays Cyborg in *Justice League*, gained 20 lbs of muscle for the role.
Talk about an incredible body transformation!
Ray was working out five days a week for upwards of two hours a day! I would never be able to do such a thing.
J.K. Simmons has been the voice of the yellow M&M in the commercials since 1996.
It’s one of the longest-standing roles in the history of Hollywood.
J.K. has been Yellow for over 22 years . I wonder if he gets free M&Ms?
Marlon Wayans was originally supposed to star as Robin in Tim Burton’s *Batman Returns*.
“I was cast, I was paid and everything. I still get residual checks. Tim Burton didn’t wind up doing three, Joel Schumacher did it and he had a different vision for who Robin was. So he hired Chris O’ Donnell.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze costume in *Batman And Robin* nearly killed him.
Apparently, the LED light caused all kinds of problems:
“When you put it in Arnold’s mouth, Arnold’s saliva would creep into the seams of this thing and attack the batteries . The batteries would immediately start disintegrating and start putting out battery acid into Arnold’s mouth.”
Tim Burton was apparently terrified of Christopher Walken and was hesitant to cast him in *Batman Returns*.
It goes without saying that if you can unnerve the great Tim Burton , Master of the Macabre, then you must be one seriously creepy dude yourself.
Margot Robbie had to learn to hold her breath for over five minutes in *Suicide Squad*.
There were a number of underwater scenes that required the actress to be able to push her lungs to the very brink!
That takes a lot of work, so good for her!
Jack Nicholson’s *Batman* contract made him an incredibly rich man.
Originally, production couldn’t afford to meet Nicholson’s salary demands. Jack ended up taking a 40% pay cut in exchange for a royalty deal.
He ended up making more than 10 times what he would’ve off of salary alone.
Ben Affleck is the only actor to portray both Superman and Batman on-screen.
Ben starred as George Reeves in Hollywoodland . Reeves is the real-life actor who portrayed Superman in the original 1950s TV show.
He later appeared as Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and again in Justice League .
Laurence Fishburne lied about his age to get his first big acting break.
Fishburne appeared in Francis Ford Coppolla’s Apocalypse Now . At the time, he was only 14 years of age.
The actor would celebrate two subsequent birthdays before filming wrapped.
Michael Shannon was extremely skeptical about the CGI scenes in *Man Of Steel*.
“It takes a lot of faith , because the first day you’re there and you wanna go home and cry, because you think no one’s ever gonna take this seriously.”
Jesse Eisenberg was just as surprised as the rest of us over being cast as Lex Luthor in *Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice*.
“I view myself in the narrowest possible terms […] So I’m kind of shocked any time somebody hires me and even more shocked any time somebody hires me to play a character like Lex Luthor .”
Viola Davis (who plays Amanda Waller in ‘Suicide Squad’ is the real-life cousin of ‘Luke Cage’s’ Mike Colter.
It’s a small world after all!
The cousins have apparently never actually met in person but Colter said that he’s “sure our paths will cross at some point.”
Michelle Pfieffer wasn’t Tim Burton’s first choice for Catwoman in *Batman Returns*.
“At the time, it was Annette Bening . Then she became pregnant. The rest is history.”
Can you imagine how differently the film might have turned out had Michelle not been cast?
Michael Keaton cut out a substantial amount of Batman/Bruce Wayne’s dialogue in *Batman*.
” Michael Keaton would go through the script and say, ‘Hey, that’s a great line, but you gotta cut it. This is a good speech, but you gotta take it out.’ He wanted to have very minimal dialogue, especially in the Batsuit.”
The iconic tunnel scene from *The Dark Knight* was filmed entirely using scale models.
You can watch the entire “Making Of” process in the video below.
I’d kill to get my hands on that model Tumbler! How cool.
Heath Ledger kept a dark diary to help him get into the mind of The Joker in *The Dark Knight*.
The late actor reportedly rented a hotel room and isolated himself from the rest of the world for close to a month.
The iconic theme from *Batman* almost didn’t happen.
Danny Elfman was incredibly skeptical about the inclusion of Prince in the film.
“I didn’t wanna end up being just an orchestrator for someone else’s tunes, which is what would’ve happened if I went along with that.”
Ben Affleck is a collector of retro video/arcade games.
Battfleck is the proud owner of a vintage Millipedes game, as well as a working Ms. Pac-Man .
It makes me happy to know that, deep down, Batman is a gamer!
At first, Gal Gadot had no idea that she was auditioning for the role of Wonder Woman in *Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice*.
“It was weird because I didn’t know they were auditioning me for ‘ Wonder Woman .’ I knew I was auditioning for this ‘secret project.’”
Both Adam Driver and Joaquin Phoenix were offered the role of Lex Luthor in *Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice*.
Joaquin supposedly passed on the project outright, but Driver declined due to a scheduling conflict.
Adam was also rumored to star as Nightwing .
Joaquin Phoenix lost an incredible 52 lbs for his role as Arthur Fleck in *Joker*.
“I felt like I could move my body in ways that I hadn’t been able to before. And I think that really lent itself to some of the physical movement that started to emerge as an important part of the character.”
Christian Bale had to gain 100 lbs in *Batman Begins*.
Prior to Batman, Bale was working on The Machinist , a film that required him to lose 60 lbs .
He had to regain all the weight he lost, plus add another 40 lbs of muscle.
Ezra Miller is completely and totally obsessed with *Harry Potter*.
He campaigned hard to be included in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them .
Watch this video to learn the depths of Ezra’s nerdcore love affair with Hogwarts’ favorite wizard.
While filming *Man Of Steel*, Henry Cavill bought a dog and named him Kal-El.
Kal-El is Superman/Clark Kent’s Kryptonian name. I personally think it would have been way cooler to name the dog Krypto, but that’s me.
Kal has become the star of Henry’s Instagram account.
