Since when has Michael Keaton not been breaking rules?
As first reported in The Hollywood Reporter, during the mid-1980s, Keaton walked away from a third Batman film despite a reported $15 million payday when director Tim Burton dropped out over creative differences. Nor does Keaton, 63, regret passing up the role in J.J. Abrams’ Lost that went to Matthew Fox. Keaton explained, “I go from one thing to the other, and sometimes I stop acting altogether. Sometimes I raise a kid, and sometimes I build a house in Montana.” Now, he’s poised to earn his first Oscar nomination for Birdman, a dark comedy about a washed-up superhero-movie star who attempts a comeback by mounting a Broadway show. About the film, Keaton says “I’ve never related less to a character,” adding “This movie is thick with humanity.” Keaton dismissed the idea of the film as a metaphor of his own comeback narrative: saying “That’s lazy and a cliche. It’s not me at all.”
