Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy are still the bane of Batman’s existence.
Say “freeze”! Nearly 30 years after teaming up to battle George Clooney and Chris O’Donnell’s dynamic duo in 1997’s Batman & Robin, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Uma Thurman are Bat-together. The actors — who played the cold-as-ice Mr. Freeze and the toxic Poison Ivy opposite the late Robert Swenson’s Bane — can be seen striking a froze in a selfie posted to Instagram. “Freeze and Ivy, reunited,” Schwarzenegger captioned the post, adding a chilling warning: “Watch out, Batman.”
The viral photo comes months after Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, who played the Penguin in 1992’s Batman Returns, taunted former Dark Knight Michael Keaton while on stage together at the 2024 Oscars.
Schwarzenegger and Thurman portrayed the DC Comics villains in the pun-filled 1997 movie, which also partnered Alicia Silverstone’s Batgirl with the Dark Knight and the Boy Wonder. Despite underperforming at the box office and being widely considered to be the worst Batman movie, Schwarzenegger had nothing but ice things to say when he reflected on his role as the Batman villain in a 2019 video for GQ.
“Interestingly enough, my motivation there was originally to work with [director] Joel Schumacher,” Schwarzenegger said. “I felt that his style of directing was just so brilliant, and there was a certain kind of intensity there in his movies, but also a certain casualness. I watched him one time on the set directing and I saw his style, and I loved it when he always said to the actors, ‘Let’s do one for the artist.’ Meaning, ‘Do your own take, whatever you want to do.’ And I thought that was just fantastic, because every actor kind always wants to do kind of his own way, a take, rather than being directed or controlled. And Joel Schumacher provided that.”
Schwarzenegger went on to praise Clooney’s caped crusader, adding the “up and coming” ER star was ” brilliant to work with. He was very, very nice, and a sweetheart of a guy to work with.” The actor’s only complaint was wearing the LED-lit Mr. Freeze suit, which took “five hours in makeup and getting all these outfits on every single day,” Schwarzenegger said. “So it took a lot of discipline and a lot of hard work.”
Thurman similarly praised the director in a 2022 interview with Entertainment Tonight, remembering the campy Batman & Robin as a “fantastic experience.”
“I had to wear lots of rubber suits,” the Kill Bill star said. “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.”
Batman & Robin is currently available to stream on Max.
