Pierce Brosnan reveals the ‘stupid’ comment that cost him Batman role over Michael Keaton

‘The best man got the job,’ Brosnan said

Pierce Brosnan could have added another iconic role to his repertoire – if it weren’t for a “stupid” comment he made.

The former James Bond actor appeared on The Tonight Show on Tuesday (11 October) where he revealed that he auditioned for Tim Burton’s Batman(1989).

“I went up for Batman way back in the day when Tim Burton was doing it. Obviously, I didn’t get the job,” Brosnan told host Jimmy Fallon.

He continued: “I remember saying something stupid to Tim Burton, I said, ‘You know I can’t understand any man who would wear his underpants outside his trousers.’ But there you go… the best man got the job.”

The role, of course, went to Michael Keaton who also starred in the 1992 sequel, Batman Returns.

Brosnan and Fallon were on the topic of superheroes as the former 007 will soon appear as Dr Fate in the upcoming DC Comics superhero movie Black Adam starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the eponymous lead.

Dr Fate – AKA Kent Nelson – is a powerful sorcerer who is gifted with “raw charisma”, the film’s director Jaume Collet-Serra recently told Vanity Fair.

“You need a special actor to play, basically, a legend,” she said.

“Dr. Fate is a very powerful being, so you need someone like Pierce who can play powerful without it being overly done. He can do it in a very subtle way. I mean, he’s one of the coolest people in the world – he was James Bond! But as a person, he’s magnetic, so warm with such gravitas.”

Black Adam is out in cinemas 21 October.