MICHAEL KEATON Archives - RESPIRO E MOVIMENTO®

Before Keaton re-emerged in his Oscar-nominated role in Birdman there were many who thought Keaton had retired from acting. That wasn’t the case — it was a matter of interest in the creativity of projects. He says, “I do what interests me. Look, it’s not like I don’t think about the business – I am cognizant of that side of things – but if you overthink the money part, you tend to mess it up. I actually thought [Birdman] might not work, but I also thought, even if it doesn’t work, I want to be a part of this kind of creativity. I want to be around this. It’s like making movies with Tim [Burton]. Being around that is so much fun, you just want to be in that environment.”

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Keaton’s latest film sees him starring as Ray Kroc, the controversial mastermind behind McDonald’s national (and later global) expansion. Keaton spoke to Variety about how he got into the character of a man whose corporation has fed billions of people over the last several decades.

Keaton highlights that one of the most important aspects of playing a real-life individual is to “lock in” on that person’s essence. He says, “Really, from what John [Lee Hancock, director] started to tell me and what the writer had given me. I watched a documentary on Ray and I wasn’t into it long — seven or eight minutes — and I went, ‘I got it.’ It’s not like, ‘Oh, I got it, I understand everything.’ It was that I locked into what I thought the essence of the guy was. It immediately put me on the general highway. Then I had to narrow it down, and narrow it down and winnow it down, and get into the details. You never do an impression, and yet I felt somewhat obligated to kind of simulate his attitude and his sound. You know, that Illinois-ish, not quite Chicago-ish Midwest kind of thing. Then once you start looking in his wardrobe and then you start to put on the wardrobe.”

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MICHAEL KEATON

Michael Keaton on Choosing Roles

Michael Keaton on Playing Ray Kroc in ‘The Founder’