“It was just callback after callback after callback.”
On opening day, he remembers, “I purposely went to see it alone.
I don’t know any other word to use, to tell you the truth.”
Credit: Simon Varsano/Lionsgate; Everett Collection (3); Kerry Hayes/Open Road Films; Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures
So where, these days, is his character’s trademark satin bomber jacket?
But it had almost a Norman Rockwellian framing….
I just love this movie.
Everett Collection
It’s like a little American classic."
I listened to him talk, and I said to him, ‘Why don’t you direct this movie?
You know how to make this.’
Everett Collection
[Stan Dragoti would helm it instead.]
He was unbelievable, just how prolific he was, how he had his finger on the pulse.
He was the voice of a generation in terms of movie comedies, you know?"
Geffen/Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
And so I said no two or three times."
But once he signed on, “It was off to the races.
My hair has to look like I stuck my finger in an electric socket.'
Everett Collection
This is his skin.
He went, ‘Oh, you’re going to do that?
Then go over there and dothis.”
Michael Keaton in ‘Batman’.Everett Collection
[My character] isn’t even in the movie very much!
But it’s 100 percent just an original piece of art."
“I didn’t care, I just thought the script was really good.
Everett Collection
[But] I had to learn what addiction is, how it manifests and how the disease works.
There was no way around that.
You just had to go do the research and go to meetings and talk to addicts.
Everett Collection
I’m just the guy in it, but I believed in it.”
If it’s a miss, it’s a gigantic miss.
That could set you back awhile, you know?
Everett Collection
There were zero [superhero films at the time].
There was only the originalSuperman, which is a very charming movie.
But Tim started all of it.
Everett Collection
There would be none of this if it wasn’t for what he did."
“In my life, I had taken two Shakespeare classes,” the actor admits.
“That’s it.”
Universal Pictures
He was watching me, going, ‘He can’t do this.
just don’t let him do this.’
But Kenneth went, ‘No, no, no, no.
Matt Dinerstein
Trust me, this is good.
Keep doing what you’re doing.'"
I like digging in the dirt and designing things."
Macall Polay/Columbia Pictures
“How great is that?
I went, ‘Whoa, Jesus, what am I going to do with this?’
But she’s so f—ing awesome.
Fox Searchlight Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
And she was so locked in, so formidable.
She kind of scared me, frankly.”
But I loved it.
Everett Collection
I didn’t want makeup.
The challenge was, he’s off just ahairfrom his original self."
The film was ultimately embraced more in Europe than Stateside, but Keaton stands by it.
Netflix
“To me, Steve Martin invented what I call smart-dumb.
Jim Carrey does it so well too, Jerry Lewis.
And this movie is somewhat of an homage to all those great big silly comics.
Monika Lek / Netflix
To be good at it is hard.”
Jackie Brown(1997)
“I f—ing loveJackie Brown,“Keaton says.
“First of all,Tarantinois a whole other discussion.
Simon Varsano/Lionsgate
Like,Kill Bill, you just go, ‘Holy mackerel.'”
“How about that cast?
It’s just really clean, the vibe is cool.
Man, that is as good as movie-making gets.”
Also, he jokes, “I was Jennifer Lopez’s boyfriend way before Alex Rodriguez.
I always wanted to remind him of that.”
And so there you are.
And now I’m preparing to do something like that again.”
“Steve Carell and I have had this conversation.
I think maybe Will Arnett and I have had this conversation.
I said, ‘That’s it.
I’m as in as you could be.'”
“I was shootingRoboCop, but I flew out for one day to meet him.
I landed, I called him, we went out and had dinner.
We talked and talked and talked and talked.
And he said, ‘Can you give me a ride home?’
I drove him home, which was like four blocks from where we were.
He said, ‘Sit here.
I’m going to go get you the script.’
And I knew from the get-go I was doing that movie.
I thought, ‘Boy, this is going to be really scary.’
But when I’m frightened, that’s generally speaking a good sign.”
Let’s see if we can do one together someday.’
And he goes, ‘Yeah, I’d like that.’
And then time goes by.
I just don’t want to dothisone.”
And he said, ‘What?’
[Laughs] But thenSpotlightcame around, and it was so good."
And then I don’t know how many years passed.
It’s hard to explain."
“I said, ‘I know this sounds funny, but I want that little role.’
I was way deep into the [1960s protest] movement.
I marched, I went to Washington for antiwar demonstrations.
This is of my generation.
Plus, it’s Sorkin.”
Let’s think about this again and figure out how to make it….
I have a job where I get to do things that make people aware or make a statement.
It’s extraordinary that I get to do it and make a living doing that.
For these kind of movies, there is a sense of responsibility and obligation in all that.
What happened on 9/11 changed the country."
“So then you go, ‘Well, it’s a point of pride here.
I want to see how much of this I can do.’
I’m a grownup and I’m a realist, so I knew this was going to be hard.
I didn’t do everything.
You know why I didn’t do everything?
Because those stunt guys do it 50 times better than I could ever dream of.
And they make me look like I can actually do what I’m doing.
And I’d do another one!
I still fit in that motherf—er.’
And then you get tobethat guy.
It was a ball, man.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story reported that Keaton portrayedBoston Globereporter Michael Rezendes.
Mark Ruffalo actually played Rezendes, while Keaton playedBoston Globeeditor Walter Robinson.
EW regrets the error.
A version of this story appears in the September issue ofEntertainment Weekly, on newsstands now.
