Jack Nicholson Explained He Wanted His Joker in BATMAN To Scare Kids

I was eleven years old when I went and watched Tim Burton’s Batman on the big screen. I saw the movie at the iconic Chinese Theater in Hollywood and it’s one of those few fond moving-going experiences from when I was growing up that is seared into my memory, and it was a blast!

Michael Keaton was awesome as Batman, and Jack Nicholson was incredible as The Joker! I was a huge fan of Nicholson’s Joker, as he brought that villain to life in such a fun and playful way. As a kid I wasn’t scared of the character, I enjoyed the fact that he was so twisted and sinister.

But, when Nicholson set out to bring this character to life, one thing he wanted to do as the character is scare kids. Nicholson previously looked back on playing Joker, and how he was committed to a darker take on the Batman universe. He said:

“I was afraid because of my feel of the television series and the way movies tend to be done and talked about. I didn’t want this to go through the normal, ‘Let’s brighten it up for the kids.' I thought this was a very strong — in every way — transitional movie about the genre, and really why they wanted me in there.”

That transition to Batman from a campy vibe to a darker more gritty tone that was previously established in the comics. Burton was the right man for the job to make this happen and Nicholson wanted to bring that darkness to his version of Joker. When talking about wanting to scare the kids as Joker, he explained:

"My early experience in working for an audience full of children: the more you scare them, the more they like it. The worse you are, the better, because that was my response to the Joker. This is a hateful occurrence, this man, if you looked at it literally. Every kid loves this guy, I believe."

I guess that explains why I enjoyed his version of the villain so much!

Source: THR