Watch Michael Keaton Take Flight in an Exclusive Sneak Peek of 'Birdman'
Given he’s been in a public eye for three decades now, it’s hard to believe that the kinetic Michael Keaton is press-shy. The actor, now 63, rarely does interviews. When it comes to his new film — the upcoming fantasy-drama Birdman, a likely Oscar contender directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams, Babel) — Keaton has said nearly nothing, leaving an aura of mystery around the project.
This behind-the-scenes featurette about the making of Birdman — seen here first on Yahoo Movies — offers a rare glimpse of Keaton discussing the surreal film, in which he plays Riggan Thomson, a former superhero-movie star whose career has fallen on hard times, and whose strange hallucinations suddenly begin to come to life.
"I always knew this was going to be a hard one to explain, because the character and the film has so many levels,” Keaton says. “Then the levels have levels.”
Keaton, of course, has played a superhero before, having starred as the Dark Knight in both Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). According to Iñárritu, Keaton’s big-screen past wound up becoming part of the film: “We were projecting reality with fiction in the film,” he says.
But aside from having both played winged superheroes, Keaton says he and his big-screen alter ego have little in common. “Riggan needs attention, he needs constant validation. Oy, it’s so pathetic!,” Keaton told Yahoo Italy over the summer, in one of his few public comments on the film. “I’m not one who particularly likes attention. But I’m not weird. I don’t hide in my house. I’m fortunate because I walk on the street. I go to a coffee shop. I like to talk to people.”
Birdman, which also stars Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, and Naomi Watts, opens in limited release on Oct. 17.
