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Adam West was worried about taking on the role of Batman
"Batman must be played with utter conviction," said West.
Today, playing a character like Batman is quite an undertaking, but the role didn't have quite the connotation in the 1960s that it does today.
Still, however, Adam West once told an interview that he was actually nervous to star in the title superhero role. West wasn't necessarily nervous that he wouldn't live up to the expectation of the role, but rather that he'd get saddled with the bat-image for the rest of his career. Luckily, these woes were quickly assuaged.
"I was worried at first," West said in an interview with the Orlando Evening Star. "I was afraid that my own identity might be submerged in the trappings of a freak in tights. But then I realized I should be able to make the craze work to my advantage. Before, I was limited to playing leads in low-budget movies.
West was aware of what a hit the Batman series would become, and had faith that future directors would see him as an actor, instead of the character he played. "The series has given me the exposure - God knows - so that perhaps I would now be considered for important pictures, which is what I'm after," said West. "Unless the thinking of the major producers has become senile, they can perceive that I'm not Batman."
West approached playing the character with serious dedication. "Batman must be played with utter conviction," he said. "There is a thin line which I must follow, between satirizing the character and playing it dead serious. He can't be tongue-in-cheek or cutie-pie, because that would alienate the young audience which believes in Batman. Nor can he be the complete hero, because the more sophisticated viewers would ridicule him. The main thing I strive for is to overlay with style which is basically a pretty square character. You might say I'm trying to invest Dickensian surroundings with an Oscar Wilde flavor."
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