Michael Keaton gave a very succinct answer when asked by an interviewer as to why he decided not to do a third Batman movie.
"It sucked."
With the awards season among us and with Keaton still in the conversation thanks to his turn as McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, the veteran actor sat down for The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter Podcast this week to do a career retrospective.
However it was when discussing the roles he turned down that Keaton was at his most candid and interesting.
"There were all kinds of reports at the time which have been questioned since..." the interviewer began before Keaton interrupted him.
"It's so great to hear about speculation because I can simplify it for you - it sucked." Keaton said.
Keaton went on to elaborate that he wasn't happy with the script and that he and director, Joel Schumacher couldn't see eye to eye on their vision for the character.
"The script never was good. I never understood why he [Joel Schumacher] wanted to do what he wanted to do."
"I knew it was in trouble when he said, 'Why does everything have to be so dark?'"
During the podcast, Keaton also touched on his reasons for turning down another high profile role, Jack Shepard on Lost. He was originally offered a cameo where he would play Jack but be killed off in the last few minutes of the pilot. Keaton says that he was really interested in doing it and working with JJ Abrams but that when the offer changed and he was being asked to star in an open ended TV series then he decided he just couldn't commit to it.