Original Catwoman Julie Newmar no fan of Batman’s `darker direction`

New York: Julie Newmar, the actress who played the original Catwoman in the 1960s ‘Batman’ TV series, laments the fact that the film franchises drift away from fun and are more towards the serious and the gloomy visions of Tim Burton and Chris Nolan.

Newmar, who played the personification of sexy evil, portrayed Catwoman from 1966 to 1968. The 78-year-old introduced the sophisticated villainess to a wide audience as the original Catwoman on the campy ‘Batman’ television series from the 1960s. But this Gotham City icon isn’t thrilled with the direction the franchise took post-Adam West. In an interview for Yahoo’s ‘The Yo Show’, Newmar lamented that recent Batman interpretations lack the fun cheeriness of the original program. “It’s dark,” the New York Daily News quoted her as saying. “I think we had so much fun in the ‘60s, 1966 to 1968. And then Vietnam came and things sort of got darker and darker and darker,” she said. According to the Los Nageles times, Newmar made Catwoman’s original black skin-tight cat burglar outfit iconic. She even modified it by putting a gold belt around her hips to accentuate her hourglass figure. But she isn’t impressed with the contemporary Batman outfits either. “What with all the costumes that they have to wear now, there’s a lot that you can’t see anymore. You know, when you have everything sort of padded out and very macho and all that kind of thing. It’s as if the costume acts for you,” she said. Newmar isn’t far from the truth as Michael Keaton, who played Batman in the Burton-directed films, recalled in an interview that Jack Nicholson, who played the Joker, once said that they had to just let the costumes do the acting. She does not have a favourite Catwoman from the other versions of Batman, but had kind words for two of them. “I do admire Michelle Pfeiffer as an actress. And, I haven’t seen the new show. I haven’t seen Anne (Hathaway) yet, and I’m sure she’s divine,” she added. ANI