Jack Nicholson’s strange ‘flop’ advice to Michael Keaton on set of Batman | Films | Entertainment

Keaton feared for his career, knowing that Batman could make or break it all for him, which is where Nicholson’s peculiar advice cropped up.

Keaton shared: “Jack says, ‘Keats, if this thing’s a hit, you can go out and do four or five flops and not even worry about it’.”

Essentially, Nicholson was saying that Keaton could ride out the success of this film and not worry about his reputation as much in his next few projects. 

In the interview, Keaton noted that the Hollywood landscape is no longer like that, saying “You’ve got one miss, which is f****d up”.

But the film was incredibly successful, earning almost ten times its $48million (£40million) budget at the box office.