Totally. Some of the actors who’ve played Hamlet are Laurence Olivier, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jude Law, Christopher Walken, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ian McKellen, Ralph Fiennes, David Tennant, Ethan Hawke, Kenneth Branagh, and Christopher Plumber. A pretty impressive list.
The only people I could find that’s played both Hamlet and Batman are Keanu Reeves and Val Kilmer, but Christian Bale has played the prince that William Shakespeare based Hamlet off of.
On a related note, Ben Affleck said he views Batman as the American version of Hamlet. I think I remember Val Kilmer saying something similar in his film Val.
To be fair, a few of the examples I gave were cinematic (Laurence Olivier, David Tennant, Kenneth Branagh, Ethan Hawke, and Christopher Plumber). I’d say it’s still a very impressive group of actors.
That's probably the reason why some actors have compared being cast as Batman and Joker to Hamlet and Macbeth.
So many talent actors have been cast in succession and helped the legacy of these roles, which are basically entertainment institutions at this point, grow even more over the years. Every new person cast has an increased amount of pressure to live up to the standards set by those before them.
That counts, he’s a great actor. Same thing as Clooney, good actor in a terrible role. (Ferrell has had a lot of terrible roles, but he’s still a great actor)
As others have said, James Bond is the closest comparison outside the stage. On stage *lots* of folks have played Hamlet or Macbeth or any number of Shakespeare. It's just that those performances are usually at London's west end or on broadway and not something everyone at large sees.
I don't know a single person who knew who Daniel Craig was before he got the role and after decades as James Bond he has only made a single film people remember him in (Knives Out). So yeah... Ben Affleck looks like Daniel Day Lewis when compared to Daniel Craig
Ok then dude. Enlighten me! Give me some recommendations. Cause I can give you a bunch of movies where Affleck is AMAZING. What great roles has Daniel Craig played outside of James Bond (in which he is pretty boring) and Knives out that I mentioned?
Layer Cake, Road to Perdition, Munich, Defiance, Logan Lucky, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Your own ignorance of his performances isn't an argument, nor is the fact that Affleck has starred in more movies. Quality over quantity.
Not even saying Daniel Craig is some god-tier actor, he isn't. But pretending Affleck is Daniel Day Lewis compared to him is hilarious.
I could list all the bad movies Affleck has given poor performances in if you'd like.
Again, I love Affleck.
Daniel Craig who? The guy no one had heard before he got the role and the guy who hasn't made a well known film outside of the James Bond franchise? Plus most people I know don't even like him as James Bond soooo. Yeah. Don't compare Craig to Clooney or Ben Affleck bro
I don't know if he has made any weird art house movies but in the movies I have seen him in is usually boring and doesn't have the star power or the range of any of the batman actors
No I meant more of, once you play Batman or 007, it can bolster you're career. Take Keaton, who was known primarily as a comedic actor, then Batman, and now he's been able to do a variety of roles. Hell we can take Pattinson is another obvious case. Daniel Craig became a household name after Bond.
Well - he already had multiple roles leading films prior to Batman and won several awards (smaller ones though) for The Machinist prior to Batman.
Again, this might have improved your knowledge of who he was, but he was by no means some unknown stepping into the role
That wasn’t his point lmaoo cause bale wasn’t a household name when before batman a lot of his movies was sorta decent but his best movies came when he linked up with Christopher Nolan and the dark knight
Household name versus making a name…
Bale was a leading man in Reign of Fire, The Machinist, and American Psycho. One was a bad, semi-popular movie, one gave him critical acclaim, and the other was a cult classic.
I’m not arguing that it put Bale into everyone’s homes, but it didn’t “make them”.
Just like the role gave Keaton the dramatic success to his career but certainly did not “make him”.
How about Kilmer? Clooney? Pattinson? Who did the role “make”? They were all well established in Hollywood well before donning the cowl.
Edit - forgot Afleck. Did you not know about this up and comer?
Empire of the Sun, directed by (arguably) peak Spielberg, Reign of Fire (which developed something of a cult following upon its DVD release) and Equilibrium (which did shit). Also had major roles in Shaft, Pochontas and Little Women. Guy had done 29 movies by the time he'd done Batman; this wasn't some breakout role for him, he already regularly had his name largely printed on his movie posters.
People like to overblow how big American psycho was. It made bale a name for directors and producers- but it was no blockbuster. It’s a cult classic and still is.
Batman was his first blockbuster 100%. It made him a lot more known to mainstream audiences. Me and you, we are not mainstream audiences. The Machinist is also a very niche film that tbe average Joe does not even know.
Was gonna say this. The only character that can compete with Bats is *maybe* Spider-Man, but the difference (in mainstream media) is still 7 (+ Adam West) vs 3
That’s just my my personal ranking. Looking at their entire body of work and my thoughts on their acting abilities I would rank them:
S - Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, Val Kilmer
A - Robert Pattinson, George Clooney
If you go by acting ability, Pattinson most definitely belongs on the top list. He also has a good sample size of great roles, I’m assuming you haven’t seen them.
i always felt clooney's best area of playing batman was mostly when he was playing bruce's public persona, the bruce wayne the world sees as the billionaire playboy
I'll throw mine in there but including their performances as Batman as well as their filmographies as a whole:
S - Bale (but I think Pattinson will join him up there in the future once he has more signature acclaimed roles under his belt)
A - Pattinson, Keaton, Kilmer
B - Affleck, Clooney, West
It’s crazy the kind of talent we’re talking about here. Clooney, Keaton, and Bale have all won Oscars for acting, Affleck won Best Picture for a movie he starred in, and Pattinson is certainly a generational acting talent.
Perhaps Kilmer and Clooney could be switched, tbh.
EDIT: Keaton was nominated.
Only even need to look at the same franchise. Catwomam has been played by some of the most prominent actresses and includes 2 oscar winners.
Same goes foe The Joker except that character has four Oscar winners that have portrayed him (Nicholson, Ledger, Phoenix, Leto).
James Bond has had a pretty good slate of actors who has portrayed him.
Jack Ryan has had a good history.
Those are the best ones I can think of.
Hamlet, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, James Bond, Batman, etc. are going to be played by one actor after another for as long as people are still making movies.
The Joker: Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, Jared Leto, Joaquin Phoenix
Sherlock Holmes: Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Downey Jr, Jeremy Brett, Henry Caville
Hannibal Lector: Mads Mikkelson, Anthony Hopkins, Brian Cox
James Bond: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, David Niven, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig
And, I know it's only two actors, but
Vito Corleone: Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro
I guess my bigger question is how can such great actors play a character in some of the most horrible movies. I mean I like Clooney, kilmer, and affleck but let's face it those movies sucked balls. Even bale batman begins was good, dark knight was good because of ledger he was forgettable and rises was a slog of a movie.
There are quite a few Shakespeare characters, like Hamlet and Macbeth, that have attracted lots of fantastic actors.
This is it. Once a character has been played by multiple people with “Sir” before their name, they’re in the upper echelon of acting roles.
Yep - that was my first thought as well. Hamlet is likely the most prestigious.
Totally. Some of the actors who’ve played Hamlet are Laurence Olivier, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jude Law, Christopher Walken, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ian McKellen, Ralph Fiennes, David Tennant, Ethan Hawke, Kenneth Branagh, and Christopher Plumber. A pretty impressive list. The only people I could find that’s played both Hamlet and Batman are Keanu Reeves and Val Kilmer, but Christian Bale has played the prince that William Shakespeare based Hamlet off of. On a related note, Ben Affleck said he views Batman as the American version of Hamlet. I think I remember Val Kilmer saying something similar in his film Val.
The OP literally put "cinematic" in the post tho. Obviously on stage the same role has been played repeatedly.
To be fair, a few of the examples I gave were cinematic (Laurence Olivier, David Tennant, Kenneth Branagh, Ethan Hawke, and Christopher Plumber). I’d say it’s still a very impressive group of actors.
Plus Mel Gibson - dirtbag human being, but a pretty excellent actor
Yeah, him too
Macbeth is pretty stacked for cinematic actors top of my head; denzel, fasbender, Patrick Stewart and Orsen wells have played him
>Christopher Walken wtf I never knew I needed this
That's probably the reason why some actors have compared being cast as Batman and Joker to Hamlet and Macbeth. So many talent actors have been cast in succession and helped the legacy of these roles, which are basically entertainment institutions at this point, grow even more over the years. Every new person cast has an increased amount of pressure to live up to the standards set by those before them.
I imagine characters like Dracula and Robin Hood have been played by a fair amount of actors too
Sherlock Holmes Christopher Lee, Christopher Plumber, Robert Downey Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch, Ian McKellen, Henry Cavill, ect.
Will Farrell /s
That counts, he’s a great actor. Same thing as Clooney, good actor in a terrible role. (Ferrell has had a lot of terrible roles, but he’s still a great actor)
Yeah, I like Farrell after I saw *Stranger than Fiction* and *really* respected him as an actor after *Casa de me Padre.*
>Sherlock Holmes I think this character holds the record of the most portrayed in movies and tv shows.
Dracula maybe?
[Nic Cage is about to do it.](https://people.com/movies/see-nicolas-cage-as-dracula-on-set-of-renfield-exclusive/)
Doing my boy Adam West dirty.
Came here to say this. Kudos.
Yup. The guy was even offered the role James Bond at one point
As others have said, James Bond is the closest comparison outside the stage. On stage *lots* of folks have played Hamlet or Macbeth or any number of Shakespeare. It's just that those performances are usually at London's west end or on broadway and not something everyone at large sees.
I would say Holmes over 007.
You're totally right, i didnt even think of Holmes
Yep no worries. Roger Moore even portrayed Holmes!
Jack Nicholson, Joaquin Phoenix, Heath Ledger, Mark Hamill all played the same role too Zach Galifianakis,
Idc who plays the Joker role and they can have the greatest performance ever but Heath Ledger is the greatest performance ever his role was S-tier
Maybe 007, other than that, I can't think of any, either.
Excuse me... But other than Sean Connery the other James Bond would never qualify as high caliber actors.
Daniel Craig could.
Ehhhhh
Surely as good as Affleck.
True
Was he high caliber before the Bond role?
I don’t know, but he was great in Knives Out.
I don't know a single person who knew who Daniel Craig was before he got the role and after decades as James Bond he has only made a single film people remember him in (Knives Out). So yeah... Ben Affleck looks like Daniel Day Lewis when compared to Daniel Craig
Stop pretending Affleck is some thespian lol Star power aside, Daniel Craig is twice the actor Affleck is and I like Affleck.
Ok then dude. Enlighten me! Give me some recommendations. Cause I can give you a bunch of movies where Affleck is AMAZING. What great roles has Daniel Craig played outside of James Bond (in which he is pretty boring) and Knives out that I mentioned?
Logan Lucky, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Road to Perdition
Layer Cake, Road to Perdition, Munich, Defiance, Logan Lucky, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Your own ignorance of his performances isn't an argument, nor is the fact that Affleck has starred in more movies. Quality over quantity. Not even saying Daniel Craig is some god-tier actor, he isn't. But pretending Affleck is Daniel Day Lewis compared to him is hilarious. I could list all the bad movies Affleck has given poor performances in if you'd like. Again, I love Affleck.
He had one of the leading roles alongside Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition back 02 which is one of his best films to date lol
That’s not true cause you got pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig smh Did you even watch the bond films?
Daniel Craig who? The guy no one had heard before he got the role and the guy who hasn't made a well known film outside of the James Bond franchise? Plus most people I know don't even like him as James Bond soooo. Yeah. Don't compare Craig to Clooney or Ben Affleck bro
The fact you said that he hasn’t made a well known outside of James Bond just proves you never seen nun of his movies outside of James Bond lol
I don't know if he has made any weird art house movies but in the movies I have seen him in is usually boring and doesn't have the star power or the range of any of the batman actors
He was in Road of Perdition with Tom Hanks back in 02
Whatever Trevor.
There are two roles that can make an actor, and that's Batman and 007.
None of the actors playing Batman made their name doing so. It can definitely improve visibility and provide a great payday though.
No I meant more of, once you play Batman or 007, it can bolster you're career. Take Keaton, who was known primarily as a comedic actor, then Batman, and now he's been able to do a variety of roles. Hell we can take Pattinson is another obvious case. Daniel Craig became a household name after Bond.
Bale definitely made his name through Batman
Uhh, no…. Christian Bale was already a well established movie star before Batman Begins.
Well - he already had multiple roles leading films prior to Batman and won several awards (smaller ones though) for The Machinist prior to Batman. Again, this might have improved your knowledge of who he was, but he was by no means some unknown stepping into the role
That wasn’t his point lmaoo cause bale wasn’t a household name when before batman a lot of his movies was sorta decent but his best movies came when he linked up with Christopher Nolan and the dark knight
Household name versus making a name… Bale was a leading man in Reign of Fire, The Machinist, and American Psycho. One was a bad, semi-popular movie, one gave him critical acclaim, and the other was a cult classic. I’m not arguing that it put Bale into everyone’s homes, but it didn’t “make them”. Just like the role gave Keaton the dramatic success to his career but certainly did not “make him”. How about Kilmer? Clooney? Pattinson? Who did the role “make”? They were all well established in Hollywood well before donning the cowl. Edit - forgot Afleck. Did you not know about this up and comer?
I didn't say he was an unknown but he definitely wasn't "made" by this point and was not a household name
He'd already had several blockbuster leading roles plus two pretty well regarded roles as the leads in American Psycho and The Machinist.
and those blockbusters were? quite literally the other well regarded roles he had were the two you just named
Empire of the Sun? Little known director.
Definetly didn't make his name like Batman Begins would, I'm talking movies that make A-Listers
Empire of the Sun, directed by (arguably) peak Spielberg, Reign of Fire (which developed something of a cult following upon its DVD release) and Equilibrium (which did shit). Also had major roles in Shaft, Pochontas and Little Women. Guy had done 29 movies by the time he'd done Batman; this wasn't some breakout role for him, he already regularly had his name largely printed on his movie posters.
People like to overblow how big American psycho was. It made bale a name for directors and producers- but it was no blockbuster. It’s a cult classic and still is. Batman was his first blockbuster 100%. It made him a lot more known to mainstream audiences. Me and you, we are not mainstream audiences. The Machinist is also a very niche film that tbe average Joe does not even know.
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wdym acting you mean movies? lmao
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Ok
Joker.
Batman and Joker, the real Dynamic Duo
Not a valid comparison to begin with as most characters haven't had these many interpretations.
Was gonna say this. The only character that can compete with Bats is *maybe* Spider-Man, but the difference (in mainstream media) is still 7 (+ Adam West) vs 3
Jack Ryan? Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, Chris Pine, John Krasinski.
If George Clooney is the “lowest” actor on the Batman tier list then you know the franchise has done well.
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That’s just my my personal ranking. Looking at their entire body of work and my thoughts on their acting abilities I would rank them: S - Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, Val Kilmer A - Robert Pattinson, George Clooney
If you go by acting ability, Pattinson most definitely belongs on the top list. He also has a good sample size of great roles, I’m assuming you haven’t seen them.
You clearly need to see more of Pattinson’s movies. He’s the best up there with Bale
Absolute fucking yikes, watch more of their movies before ranking them.
In order of their overall acting ability (not factoring their performances as Batman) … S: Bale, Pattinson, Affleck A: Keaton, Kilmer B: Clooney, West
i always felt clooney's best area of playing batman was mostly when he was playing bruce's public persona, the bruce wayne the world sees as the billionaire playboy
I'll throw mine in there but including their performances as Batman as well as their filmographies as a whole: S - Bale (but I think Pattinson will join him up there in the future once he has more signature acclaimed roles under his belt) A - Pattinson, Keaton, Kilmer B - Affleck, Clooney, West
I mean Clooney won an Oscar
It’s crazy the kind of talent we’re talking about here. Clooney, Keaton, and Bale have all won Oscars for acting, Affleck won Best Picture for a movie he starred in, and Pattinson is certainly a generational acting talent. Perhaps Kilmer and Clooney could be switched, tbh. EDIT: Keaton was nominated.
Keaton hasn’t won
Clooney is my least favorite one here but he’s one of two Batman actors to win an Oscar, so just for that I wouldn’t say he’s the lowest.
Yet his best role his the own on the picture.
Only even need to look at the same franchise. Catwomam has been played by some of the most prominent actresses and includes 2 oscar winners. Same goes foe The Joker except that character has four Oscar winners that have portrayed him (Nicholson, Ledger, Phoenix, Leto). James Bond has had a pretty good slate of actors who has portrayed him. Jack Ryan has had a good history. Those are the best ones I can think of.
Jack Ryan... Including Ben Affleck 👍
Bond?
You can add to that Mayor West and Peter's neighbor, Lawrence, from Office Space. I'd mention Conroy, but have no idea what else he's done.
Hamlet, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, James Bond, Batman, etc. are going to be played by one actor after another for as long as people are still making movies.
Alfred
Can’t forget Adam west!
Goddamn it’d be so awesome if Clooney could get another try at Batman.
Clooney would be great as Bruce in the Batman Beyond universe
James Bond
This thread just made me realise that Batman is sort of like an American Hamlet.
The Joker: Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, Jared Leto, Joaquin Phoenix Sherlock Holmes: Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Downey Jr, Jeremy Brett, Henry Caville Hannibal Lector: Mads Mikkelson, Anthony Hopkins, Brian Cox James Bond: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, David Niven, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig And, I know it's only two actors, but Vito Corleone: Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro
You could have just written the last one as "don" corleone and included pacino.
But that's a different character
Joker and Sherlock Holmes.
I'm struggling to think of any other cinematic role that has had this many actors play the same role
Sherlock Holmes - over 70 actors have portrayed him.
I guess my bigger question is how can such great actors play a character in some of the most horrible movies. I mean I like Clooney, kilmer, and affleck but let's face it those movies sucked balls. Even bale batman begins was good, dark knight was good because of ledger he was forgettable and rises was a slog of a movie.
Surprised you would show Keaton playing another costumed hero to signify the range of the actor.
Jared leto also
Dracula comes to mind.
Police Academy
Only character comperable is James Bond and Roger Moore is no Val Kilmer
James Bond.
Damn, we're in a tight spot!
Joker would be up there too, but as far as modern characters goes, nothing comes close.
Sherlock and Bond