Madonna Regrets Passing On An Iconic Batman Role

During her heyday as one of the biggest musical icons in the world, Madonna seemingly had it all. In the 21st century, Madonna has become something of a legacy act, with bigger names like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift taking over as female pop icons. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s, however, Madonna had the world gripped by her every move. And like Beyoncé and Swift, she confidently jumped from one medium to another, appearing in films like "Desperately Seeking Susan" and "Dick Tracy," the latter of which paired her opposite Hollywood legend Warren Beatty as a riff on the classic femme fatale archetype in Beatty's comic strip adaptation.

That 1990 film from Touchstone Pictures is worth keeping in mind for this story for a couple of reasons. While Dick Tracy was not a character or intellectual property that had been captivating audiences in the previous decade, it was chosen as the linchpin of Disney's Summer 1990 lineup precisely because of what had been the biggest movie of the previous summer: "Batman."

Seeing as we've had a heaping helping of actors playing the Caped Crusader over the last few decades, it may be easy to forget or simply not realize that when "Batman" was released in June of 1989, it was a mammoth success beyond measure, turning Michael Keaton into a bona fide movie star and making Tim Burton a director who could push forward more personal projects on the studio level. It also naturally led to other studios attempting to harness some amount of the success of "Batman" for themselves. That's why Touchstone made "Dick Tracy" (a great comic adaptation in its own right), and why Disney released "The Rocketeer" the following summer. It's also why Warner Bros. wanted to make a new "Batman" movie soon, and loop in other established names. 

And that's where Madonna comes in, because she was offered a plum role indeed: none other than Catwoman in "Batman Returns."

Yes, it's true — that is, assuming Madonna wasn't telling a lie when she spoke to Jimmy Fallon on his NBC late-night talk show back in October of 2021. In that interview, Fallon trotted out one of his many bits that he indulges in when talking to celebrities: unearthing and potentially debunking persistent rumors about his interviewees. As it turns out, the idea that she had been offered the role of Catwoman in what would become the 1992 sequel "Batman Returns" wasn't just some scurrilous and unverified report. Rather, Madonna acknowledged that she could've played the role of the mousy secretary Selina Kyle, who is transformed into the sultry and intense Catwoman, and regretted not doing so, saying that it would have been "pretty fierce."

Mind you, there's no question that Madonna playing Selina Kyle would have felt perfectly logical, at least from the outside in. Here was one of the biggest, most famous celebrities in the world — someone who may well have been known less for her acting than for her music and how she flaunted her looks as part of her performances to audiences at her live shows. But considering that Jack Nicholson felt like he stole focus from Keaton in the first "Batman," having Madonna do the same in a sequel would have only been fitting.

It's also a sign, per that interview, that Madonna really was one of the biggest names in the world at the time because of how she acknowledged some of the other films that she turned down. Granted, one of them, the 1995 Paul Verhoeven cult classic "Showgirls," would likely not have been the biggest feather in her cap. Still, it speaks to her ability to allure people with her looks and how she plays with expectations on stage. Aside from these two drastically different roles, she noted in the same segment that she'd also turned down an unknown part in the 1999 sci-fi classic and box office smash hit "The Matrix." Though she doesn't say as much, it seems fairly likely that she would've played some version of Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), a character that would have been more than a mild departure for the flamboyant multi-hyphenate.

Is it possible that "Batman Returns" would have been a better film with Madonna playing Selina Kyle instead of Michelle Pfeiffer? Well, if you accept that anything in life is possible, then ... sure. But in the end, it's likely for the best that Pfeiffer played that role. 

Unlike when Madonna played the moll-esque Breathless Mahoney in "Dick Tracy," there had been a fair few actors, like Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt, who had already played Catwoman on television. Pfeiffer did have something to live up to, but more than surpassed it with her sexy, dominant, and standout performance. Just as Nicholson stole focus from Keaton in the first "Batman," that's what Pfeiffer did in the sequel — not just because of how she looked, but also because of her deft, dexterous line delivery and the believable shift from Selina's weak-willed side to the secret depths of strength she displays. Though Madonna is a better actor in the right roles than some people may believe (the same summer as the "Batman" sequel, she proved as much in the ensemble of the baseball comedy "A League of Their Own"), she may well have been out of her depth as Catwoman.

A story like this can sometimes turn. If a movie or a character feels as if it's a missed opportunity, we can always wonder about what might have been if a different person had played the lead or someone else had directed the film. In the case of Madonna and the role of Catwoman, though we can potentially imagine that she may have fit into the distinctive ethos set forth by director Tim Burton, it's awfully hard to separate the reality that Pfeiffer did such an excellent, amazing job in the role that she redefined what people expect from Catwoman. Eventual Oscar winners Halle Berry and Anne Hathaway dared to don the catsuit in very different films in the 21st century, and came away with mixed results. (Hathaway is quite good in "The Dark Knight Rises," but also vastly different from Pfeiffer.) 

If Madonna had played Catwoman, who knows what "Batman Returns" would have looked like? We might not even consider it a fine sequel these days if that had been the case. Better that Madonna passed on this one.