Michael Keaton Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions

You know who I am. I'm Mike.

I'm Michael Keaton. Michael Douglas Keaton, actually.

I'm here for the Wired Autocomplete Interview.

[dramatic music]

Why Michael Keaton? That's so existential.

Why any of us, really?

[dramatic music]

Why Michael Keaton is the best Batman?

Oh, 'cause I am.

Michael Keaton 'Birdman.'

I love Birdman. I love doing that movie.

Very, very, very difficult movie to do. High wire act.

Really fun.

Michael Keaton, Quentin Tarantino.

Oh man, yeah, that's,

if you get the chance, do it.

[laughs] It's just great. Jackie Brown.

I dunno if you've seen Jackie Brown lately.

Jackie Brown's great.

I mean all of his movies are great,

but he kind of broke everything down

to really, the simplest form,

telling just a really simple narrative, and that vibe,

and had some of the greatest shots I've ever seen,

and a great soundtrack.

Yeah, Quentin's great.

How old was Michael Keaton in 'Beetlejuice'?

You mean how old's Betelgeuse?

He could be any age.

He could be anyone, he could be anything.

He defies age or time or space. I have no idea.

I'm gonna get you one or something.

You have to catch one of these.

Who does Michael Keaton play in 'Spider-Man?'

I just saw this shot the other day,

that great shot on the car where I'm looking in the mirror.

Somebody who was asking me a question about this

and I actually couldn't remember.

I had a Google myself to figure out what the hell,

what I was doing that shot,

it's that shot in the rear view mirror where you look back,

he starts to put two and two together,

and I'm Vulture, of course.

Who was Michael Keaton's Alfred?

Mick Gough.

He was a cool little dude. Really nice man.

And he was kinda little.

We were talking about actors or acting sometime,

and I said, Do you think mostly actors

get better as they get older?

And I'll never forget, he really thought about it

and he said, I think they just get more.

I said, What do you mean?

He said, You just get like more of what you are, you know?

Always stuck with me.

Who does Michael Keaton play in 'Toy Story'?

Don't act like you don't know. Ken.

I got a call saying,

Hey, you wanna play Ken in its animated movie,

Ken of 'Barbie and Ken' fame.

I think the phone literally fell outta my hand,

I was laughing so hard.

How do you, of course,

you're not gonna say no to that.

So ridiculous. It's just so ridiculously silly.

I would've never thought of that.

I'm gonna tell Gosling that, by the way.

Is Michael Keaton a nice guy?

No, horrible human being. Just the worst.

Just the worst. Owes people money.

Has overthrown some small governments, democracies too.

That's the sad thing.

You'd think, well, you know,

some governments need to be overturned.

Not me.

Not me. I'm an autocrat.

I don't know, I'll leave that up

to everybody else to decide.

Is Michael Keaton coming back as Batman?

Well, you never know.

Is Michael Keaton a Pirates fan?

Big. They drive me freaking crazy.

But you know, you're always gonna be a fan.

Once you're a fan, you're just, you know,

you just can't quit on your team

no matter of the circumstance,

they're actually playing okay right now.

Is Michael Keaton in the new 'Beetlejuice'?

This is the dumbest question I've ever heard.

Of course, yes I am.

That's why we're here.

Yes! Attagirl.

Was Michael Keaton a standup comedian?

Yeah, I was. I did stand up for a while.

I was about to move New York,

and I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do,

but I was starting to write and do my own thing,

so I didn't have to wait around for auditions,

I started doing standup,

which was like having your own theater.

But I also loved, loved, loved standup as a kid.

Some of the guys that I loved,

and I say guys, 'cause mostly they were men back then,

when I started there were the famous few,

and there were so many good standups now, it's crazy.

It's not like anything else.

You can't compare it to anything else.

It is its own art format.

When did Michael Keaton change his name?

I had to, because I got a job

and somebody said,

I'm gonna have to come up with another name.

And I didn't want to actually.

I was literally, I thought,

okay, let's just go down the alphabet.

And I saw K, and I thought,

yeah, whatever, I'll change it to something really cool,

later I'll get a really cool name.

And then I signed it because

there was Michael Douglas in the Union,

and there was Mike Douglas, the talk show host.

So I just picked this temporary name, and that's it.

I feel so badly for Diane,

'cause she's probably asked stupid questions

all the time because of me.

And I apologize. Sorry.

Does Michael Keaton have a son who is an actor?

No.

I've got a really talented son, and a really good dude,

who is a great songwriter

who wrote for a couple little movies

and he's a really, really good and successful songwriter.

Writes pop tunes, has written a couple of country tunes.

Easy to Google, you'll see.

Just saw him about three hours ago.

Alright, don't fuck it up.

Attagirl!

Alright.

Where Michael Keaton.

Where Michael Keaton? Here.

Where Michael Keaton grew up.

Between a little town called Coraopolis and McKees Rocks,

which are two little,

what we used to call mill towns

right outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Where did Michael Keaton get his start?

Wow, that's kind of hard to say.

Probably when I was a little kid

running around the yard in my underwear

acting like a goofball, really.

I started in college, I guess.

I did a play. I was not good at all in it.

Then I did another one. I was okay.

I took an interest in writing.

I started to write, and then moved back to Pittsburgh,

and started working in, actually,

a television station, a PBS station.

And when you work at these PBS stations,

at least back in the day, you kind of do everything.

I started at $1.75 an hour, by the way.

And you work in the warehouse, you move, break down sets.

And then, because Mr. Rogers was based there, out of WQED,

after a while he knew what I was kind of looking to do,

so I think I played a black and white panda one time.

I know I played Purple Panda once, 25 bucks.

And make him laugh. He's a very nice man.

Where's Michael Keaton's...

I don't know where it is. There's been a few,

I'm pretty sure the body,

or the frame rather, was based on like,

a big old, like '78 Oldsmobile or something.

It was huge.

You know, one of those big old American cars.

There's been a few.

Duck! [laughs]

That was great.

Thanks for having me, Wired.

Thanks for having me, Wired.

[dramatic music]