During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Pierce Brosnanreflected on his audition for Tim Burton's Batman film in the '80s.
"I went up for Batman way back in the day when Tim Burton was doing it," Brosnan said. "Obviously I didn't get the job." Fallon quipped back, "You had to settle for James Bond, sorry, yeah." After a laugh, Brosnan revealed what really lost him the part. "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, and you know, Doctor Fate and I were meant to meet on the same page, I think," he said.
This isn't the first time Brosnan has reminisced on the process of trying out for Batman, 33 years prior to his current entry into the DC Universe with Black Adam's Doctor Fate. In a 2014 Reddit "Ask Me Anything" thread, Brosnan echoed the underpants story and added a few personal anecdotes about his love for the Caped Crusader. "... I just couldn't really take it seriously, any man who wears his underpants outside his pants just cannot be taken seriously," he said. "That was my foolish take on it. It was a joke, I thought. But how wrong was I? Don't get me wrong, because I love Batman, and I grew up on Batman. As a kid in Ireland, we used to get our raincoats and tie them round our neck and swing through the bicycle shed..."
Batman Tends to Wear His Underwear on the Inside, Anyway
Ironically, despite Brosnan's comments on Batman's unique clothing choices -- which were originally inspired by the garb of circus strongmen, similar to Superman's -- the version of the character presented in Tim Burton's movie wore an all-black rubber suit with no trace of the so-called "underpants" visible. All subsequent live-action Batmen have followed suit, and the only actors to have portrayed Batman as wearing trunks on the exterior of his suit are Lewis Wilson in the 1943 Batman film serial, Robert Lowery in its 1949 follow-up Batman and Robin, and Adam West in the famous Batman 1966 television show.
Black Adam stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as the titular character, Brosnan as Kent Nelson/Doctor Fate, Aldis Hodge as Carter Hall/Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Albert Rothstein/Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Maxine Hunkel/Cyclone and Sarah Shahi as Adrianna Tomaz/Isis. The movie premieres in theaters Oct. 21.