ABC told ‘Batman’ actor Burt Ward to take pills to “shrink” his bulge

Holy shrinkage, Batman! There’s method acting, and then there’s… whatever this is.

Burt Ward, who played Robin in the camptastic Batman series which ran on ABC from 1966-1968, has waited over five decades to reveal just how far he was asked to go for the part. The famously-tight fitting costumes were apparently too tight in the lower regions, so much so that the Catholic League of Decency filed a complaint with ABC.

And rather than take the costume out, the studio took Ward in. “They thought that Robin had a very large bulge for television,” Ward told Page Six. “With Adam they put Turkish towels in his undershorts,” he added, before explaining that he was sent to a doctor who prescribed pills “to shrink me up.”

“I took them for three days and then I decided that they can probably keep me from having children,” he said. “I stopped doing that and I just used my cape to cover it.” Last week, Ward unveiled a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame which he called an “amazing experience.”

Here’s Ward’s 1965 audition for Robin:

Via Queerty