Uma Thurman Has Surprisingly Wholesome Feelings About Batman & Robin

Joel Schumacher's 1997 superhero film "Batman & Robin" is one of the more notorious — and perhaps one of the most important — entries in the whole of Batman media. Schumacher infamously ratcheted up his film's camp factor, including super-corny dialogue, ultra-cartoonish action sequences, garish neon colors, and the silliest characters seen in a Batman film in eight years. This was a dramatic flip from Tim Burton's Batman films from 1989 and 1992, which were shadowy, tragic, and dour. Schumacher had already introduced his more kid-friendly Batman aesthetic with "Batman Forever" in 1995, but "Batman & Robin" was one toke over the line. Critics hated it, audiences rejected it, and it bombed so hard (its $238 million box office was considered small at the time) that another Batman film wouldn't be released in theaters until 2005. 

Uma Thurman played the snarling villainess Poison Ivy in "Batman & Robin," and she was one of the few to escape from the film unscathed. She seemed to understand that the film was silly and campy, and chewed up scenery with abandon. Thurman cracked out her best Mae West impersonation and used her poisonous lips to kiss people to death. She got to yell lines like "Curses!," making her feel more like a character from Leslie Martinson's 1966 "Batman" than anything contemporaneous. 

Thurman also has no hard feelings toward "Batman & Robin." Despite its widespread infamy in the Millennial geek community, she has long taken a pragmatic view, noting that the film was clearly made for kids, and knows children who have connected with it (notably, Kelly Clarkson's kids, as was revealed in a 2024 interview with EW). A few years earlier — on the film's 25th anniversary in 2022 — Thurman said to Entertainment Tonight that she just loved working with Joel Schumacher, and that she didn't mind having rubber appliances glued to her face. 

Thurman thinks of "Batman & Robin" as an experience with a director she loved, and the fun makeup she got to wear. Joel Schumacher — who died in 2020 — was a prolific, fun, and versatile director who made fascinating hits and thudding duds with equal frequency. He began his film career in the early 1970s as a costume designer, and wrote scripts for films like "The Wiz" and "Car Wash." His first film as director was the terrible "The Incredible Shrinking Woman" in 1981. He and Thurman only ever worked together on "Batman & Robin," but they had a good rapport. Thurman also joked about the prevalence of rubber on the set. She said: 

"Oh my goodness, that's amazing. [...] I was just talking about Joel Schumacher, the director who is a friend I love so much. I loved Joel Schumacher. [...] That was a fantastic experience. I had to wear lots of rubber suits. [...] I did not have a rubber mask, I had my own face. But I had some rubber appliances on my face sometimes. That was about as much rubber as I've ever worked with, personally."

One can see in the photos above that Thurman had to wear small rubber leaf "eyebrows" as part of her supervillainess outfit, and was seemingly relieved that it didn't cover more of her face. Batman and Robin also infamously wore rubber costumes that sported rubber nipples, which were widely derided upon the film's release. The rubber fetish, however, is the only indicator that "Batman & Robin" isn't for a very young audience of children. It seems that any young child into Batman (and that's likely most children) can watch the PG-13-rated "Batman & Robin" and enjoy how silly it is. Some have said it's in the same spirit as a Mexican luchador film. And that's no reason to hate it, it's a reason to love it.