LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Ray Liotta had played a variety of roles in his illustrious Hollywood career before he breathed his last at the age of 67 last year. The late actor was best known for his portrayal of Henry Hill in the film 'Goodfellas' in which he shared screen alongside Robert De Niro.
However, the Golden Globe Award nominee claimed that he was surprised that he did not accept one role which he probably regretted doing till the last day of his life. In a newly released Deadline interview, which was completed in 2019, around the time he appeared in 'Marriage Story,' Liotta revealed that he had an opportunity to meet Tim Burton for a role in 1989’s 'Batman' which he turned down.
Why did Ray Liotta turn down the 'Batman' role?
"I’ve been able to hang on to keep doing these movies because it’s been hard for me in my head to go. ‘Now let me be the bad guy in a comic book movie,'" Liotta said of his later career roles according to Fox News.
Liotta was quick to accept his blunder when asked why he never appeared in a superhero movie as he replied, "Because I was an idiot." He said following his breakout role in "Something Wild" with Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels, "My agent called me up and said, ‘Tim Burton would like to meet you. He’s doing a movie, Batman.’"
"There were never any superhero movies then. That was pretty much the first one. I said, ‘Are you f*****g nuts? Batman?!’ I’m going, ‘No, that’s stupid.’ Who was stupid? I was stupid because I didn’t know", Liotta said at the time.
Although the late actor did not mention which role he was offered to play, Liotta played Shoeless Joe Jackson in 'Field of Dreams' alongside Kevin Costner that same year. "I read it and I said, ‘This is the stupidest f*****g movie I’ve ever read. He’s got a cornfield, and he’s going to put in a baseball field, and he hears voices?’" Liotta recalled his first reaction to the film.
"That wasn’t my mentality. I was still not seasoned enough to really get it. But Kevin Costner was in it", he added. "When I first started out, Kevin, Andy Garcia, Steven Bauer, we all played paddle tennis, and we were all auditioning. None of us had gotten a job yet. Kevin was the first one. It just so happened that we all became friends and things happened."
Ray Liotta credited Griffith with helping him land the role in 'Something Wild'
"When I moved to LA, I stayed at her house, and she took my place in New York. My parents were involved in politics, so they’ll call anybody for favors," Liotta said laughing. "But I didn’t want to do it that way. Still, I called Melanie up and said, ‘Do you think you can get me an audition for 'Something Wild'?’"
The actor continued, "She said, ‘Yeah, sure, Ray.’ I didn’t know then, but the year before, the actor who played her husband in a movie was, like, an a*****e, so she wanted to have approval to the guy who was going to play her husband."
Ray Liotta received a posthumous Emmy nomination for his role in the Apple TV+ miniseries 'Black Bird' this year.
