George Clooney explains why he told Ben Affleck not to take the role of Batman

George Clooney has revealed how his portrayal of Batman in the 1995 flick, Batman & Robin, lead him to advise Ben Affleck not to play the Dark Knight in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Clooney opened up about the impact the film flop had on his career during a discussion on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast.

“I actually did talk to him about it. I said, ‘Don’t do it,’” Clooney recalled about Affleck, who he worked with as a producer on 2012's Argo. “It was only from my experience, which is, you know …”

“He did great, though,” Clooney added in reference to Affleck going ahead and taking on the film despite his advice.

Affleck also starred as the superhero in 2017's Justice League, but ET confirmed in January that he would not be reprising the role for Matt Reeves' standalone film, The Batman.

Clooney also went into detail about his tainted experience on Batman & Robin, which has frequently been described as one of the “worst” films ever made. It made $238.2 million worldwide, the lowest-grossing live-action Batman film to date.

Clooney's qualms included taking the weight of the film’s heavy critical backlash.

“[Arnold] Schwarzenegger was paid, I think, $25 million for that, which was like 20 times more than I was paid for it, and, you know, we never even worked together! We worked together one day,” Clooney said. “But I took all the heat,” Clooney said. “Now, fair deal -- I was playing Batman and I wasn’t good in it, and it wasn’t a good film.”

“But what I learned from that failure was, I had to rethink how I was working,” he continued. “Because now I wasn’t just an actor getting a role -- I was being held responsible for the film itself.”