8 Little Known Tics That Made Michael Keaton's Batman Awesome
4. The Bat Voice Was His Idea
Its the most obvious thing in the world, yet no actor before Keaton had thought of changing their voice when playing Batman. Keaton describes himself as a logic freak and he couldnt get past the idea that Bruce would use his normal voice while in the costume, as other characters would obviously recognise him. So the simple solution was to lower his register a little, thereby creating a separation between the two men. He explored other ways he could create a split between them, such as using contact lenses or filming a scene where he goes into a bat trance, which signalled the change from Bruce to Batman. In the end he and Burton decided that changing the voice would be enough. The voice concept was later adopted by The Animated Series and inspired Christian Bales infamous throaty growl in The Dark Knight Trilogy. George Clooney didnt really bother though.
