Hollywood Q&A

Q: I was watching the 1989 version of “Batman” and noticed that Jack Nicholson was mentioned in the credits before Michael Keaton, who played the main character. How is the order of the names in the credits decided?

A: There are a few factors that go into the billing order, and a couple of them came together to get Jack Nicholson top billing in 1989’s “Batman.”

Nicholson actually had it written into his contract that he be billed first (he had a lot of other wacky stuff written in there, such as the stipulation that he not be scheduled to film during Los Angeles Lakers games).

He was (and still is) a far bigger star than Michael Keaton, who played the titular Batman, so the studio was probably happy to give him top billing — they might have even done so voluntarily, as they often do.

Another prominent DC Comics hero-villain pairing got the same treatment in 1978’s “Superman,” in which Gene Hackman, who played Lex Luthor, was billed above acting newcomer Christopher Reeve in the Superman role.

Q: I feel like I’ve learned a lot watching “Perry Mason” reruns. Are all the legal statements made in the shows true? The writers must have included a lawyer.

A: If you’re facing down a murder charge, don’t cite a “Perry Mason” episode as legal precedent — indeed, no one would ever tell you to take anything you see on TV as legal advice. That said, the “Perry Mason” writers room was pretty strict about legal accuracy.

(A quick note before we proceed: Since you said “’Perry Mason’ reruns,” I’m assuming you mean the original ‘50s-’60s series, rather than the recent HBO reboot. The HBO version spends less time in the courtroom, anyway.)

As you suggest, there were a number of lawyers among the “Perry Mason” writing staff, including the boss himself, Erle Stanley Gardner.

Gardner, who created the Mason character in a long series of novels that were only later adapted for TV, passed the bar in 1911 and worked as a trial lawyer for years before his writing career took off. (Though it should be noted that he studied for his bar exam independently, after being kicked out of the Valparaiso University School of Law.)

Gardner himself worked as a writer on the show and was reportedly the final set of eyes on each script, particularly to ensure legal accuracy.

His job was made easier by the fact that other staffers had legal backgrounds as well. Producer Ben Brady, executive producer Gail Patrick and story editor Gene Wang all studied law before working on the show.

Q: How did Sandra Oh end up being cast in “Killing Eve”? It’s not the sort of role she had done before.

A: According to the show’s creator, that’s exactly why she got the role. According to Sandra Oh herself, that’s why she should have gotten it.

A star with action-role experience wouldn’t have suited because, according to series creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the appeal of the Eve character is that she’s an unlikely super-spy.

“She’s a woman who is out there protecting people and hunting somebody, but when there’s a bang in her house, she runs upstairs and hides,” she told Variety magazine. “There is something much more human and relatable about that.”

Meanwhile, Oh said in an interview with Vanity Fair that when she was approached about joining the cast, she assumed it would be a supporting role as a receptionist or doctor — the typical “Asian role,” she said.

She admitted it’s always nice to just receive a part over the phone without an audition, “but in another way, it took 30 years to get this call.”

In fact, the producers wanted Oh so badly they rewrote the books. “Killing Eve” is based on a series of novels by Luke Jennings, and in those books Eve is white.

Ultimately, that suited Jennings just fine. “As soon as Sandra arrived and started rehearsing, she was just a perfect Eve. It sort of became impossible to think of her in any other way.”