George Clooney won't let Amal watch 'Batman & Robin': 'I want my wife to have some respect for me'

George Clooney seems proud to have directed The Tender Bar.

He does not feel the same way about his role of Batman in the universally disparaged 1997 film Batman & Robin, and he is unsurprised that he wasn't asked to play Batman in The Flash along with Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton.

"They didn’t ask me," Clooney told Variety on Sunday at a screening of Tender Bar. "When you destroy a franchise the way I did, usually they look the other way when The Flash comes by."

Amal Clooney, George's wife of seven years, added that he won't let her watch Batman & Robin. 

"There are certain films I just go, ‘I want my wife to have some respect for me,'" the two-time Oscar winner explained.

Back in June, Clooney discussed how he experienced Batman & Robin in real time during a 90-minute conversation for BAFTA's "Life in Pictures" series:

"I'd gotten killed for doing Batman & Robin, and I understood for the first time because, quite honestly, when I got Batman & Robin, I was just an actor getting an acting job, and I was excited to play Batman. What I realized after that was I was gonna be held responsible for the movie itself—not just for my performance or what I was doing. And so, I knew I needed to focus on better scripts. The script was the most important thing. You can't make a good film out a bad script. It's impossible."

The script for The Tender Bar, written by William Monahan and adapted from J.R. Moehringer's 2005 memoir by the same name, holds much more promise. The film stars Affleck as Moehringer's Uncle Charlie, who ushers Moehringer through adolescence on Long Island as "he seeks out father figures among the patrons" at the bar Charlie owns.

"It was a really beautiful script, and Ben [Affleck] came on board really early on so we just thought we'd have a blast," Clooney added to Variety.

Moehringer is portrayed by Tye Sheridan, and Christopher Lloyd and Lily Rabe also star.

Affleck and Clooney last collaborated on Argo in 2012. Directed by Affleck, who also starred, and produced in part by Clooney, the biographical political thriller won three Oscars.

The Tender Bar is expected in theaters nationally Dec. 22 before hitting Amazon Prime Video on Jan. 7.