00:00You know I am. I'm Mike. I'm Michael Keaton. Michael Douglas Keaton, actually. I'm here for the Wired Autocomplete interview.
00:09Why Michael Keaton? That's so existential. Why any of us, really?
00:16Why Michael Keaton? This is the best bet now. Because I am.
00:20Michael Keaton, Birdman. I love Birdman. I love doing that movie. Very, very, very difficult movie to do. High Wire Act.
00:29Really fun.
00:31Michael Keaton, Quentin Tarantino. Oh, man. Yeah, that's a...
00:35If you get the chance, do it.
00:38It's just great. Jackie Brown. I don't know if you've seen Jackie Brown lately. Jackie Brown's great.
00:43I mean, I mean all of those movies are great,
00:45but it kind of broke everything down to really the simplest form, telling just a really simple narrative and that vibe.
00:52It has some of the greatest shots I've ever seen and a great, great soundtrack.
00:57Yeah, Quentin's great.
00:59How old is Michael Keaton? You mean, how old is Beetlejuice? It could be any age. It could be anyone. It could be anything.
01:05It defies age or time or space. I have no idea.
01:10I'm gonna get you one of those. You have to catch one of these.
01:13Who does Michael Keaton play in Spider-Man?
01:19I just saw this shot the other day, that great shot in the car, where I'm looking in the mirror.
01:24Somebody was asking me a question about this, and I actually couldn't remember.
01:27I had to Google myself to figure out what the hell, what I was doing in that shot.
01:32It's that shot in the rearview mirror where you look back.
01:34He starts to put two and two together, and I'm Vulture, of course.
01:38Who was Michael Keaton's Alfred? Mick Gough.
01:42He was a cool little dude. Really nice man.
01:45And he was kind of little. We were talking about actors or acting sometimes, and I said,
01:49Do you think most of the actors get better as they get older?
01:52And I'll never forget, he really thought about it, and he said,
01:55I think they just get more.
01:57I said, what do you mean? He said,
01:59You just get, like, more of what you are, you know?
02:02That was stuck with me.
02:04Who does Michael Keaton play in...
02:06Tell me the story.
02:07Don't act like you don't know.
02:09Ken.
02:10I got a call saying, hey, we want to do a...
02:13We want to play Ken in this animated movie.
02:16Ken and Barbie in Ken's name.
02:17I think the phone literally fell out of my hand.
02:19I was laughing so hard.
02:20How do you...
02:21Of course, you're not going to not say...
02:23You're not going to say no to that.
02:25So ridiculous.
02:26Just so ridiculously silly.
02:28I would have never thought of that.
02:30I'm going to tell Gosling that, by the way.
02:32Is Michael Keaton a nice guy?
02:35No.
02:36Horrible human being.
02:37Just the worst.
02:38Just the worst.
02:39Owes people money.
02:40Has overthrown some small governments.
02:43Democracies, too.
02:44That's the sad thing.
02:45You think, well, you know, some governments need to be
02:47overturned.
02:48Not me.
02:49Not me.
02:50I'm an autocrat.
02:51I don't know.
02:52I'll leave that up to everybody else to decide.
02:54Is Michael Keaton coming back as Batman?
02:56You never know.
02:57Is Michael Keaton a Pirates fan?
02:59Big.
03:00They drive me freaking crazy.
03:01But, you know, you're always going to be a fan.
03:03Once you're a fan, you're just, you know...
03:05You just can't quit on your team.
03:07No matter the circumstance.
03:08They're actually playing okay right now.
03:10Is Michael Keaton in the new...
03:14This is the dumbest question I've ever heard.
03:17Of course.
03:18Yes, I am.
03:19That's why we're here.
03:21Yes!
03:22Good girl.
03:23Was Michael Keaton a stand-up comedian?
03:26Yeah, I did.
03:27I did stand-up for a while.
03:28I was about to move to New York, and I wasn't quite
03:31sure what I wanted to do, but I was starting to write
03:33and do my own thing.
03:36So I didn't have to wait around for auditions.
03:38I started doing stand-up, which was like having your
03:40own theater.
03:41But I also loved, loved, loved stand-up as a kid.
03:44Some of the guys that I loved, and I say guys
03:46because mostly they were men back then when I started.
03:50They were the famous few.
03:52And there are so many good stand-ups now.
03:54It's crazy.
03:55It's not like anything else.
03:56You can't compare it to anything else.
03:58It is its own art form, man.
04:00When did Michael Keaton change his name?
04:02I had to because I got a job, and somebody said,
04:07you're going to have to come up with another name,
04:09and I didn't want to, actually.
04:11I was literally, I thought, okay,
04:13let's just get it on the alphabet.
04:15And I saw K, and I thought, man, whatever,
04:17I'll change it to something really cool later.
04:20I'll get a really cool name.
04:22And then I signed it because there was Michael Douglas
04:25in the union, and there was Mike Douglas,
04:28a talk show host.
04:29So I just picked this temporary name, and that's it.
04:32I feel so badly for Diane because she's probably asked
04:35stupid questions all the time because of me.
04:38And I apologize.
04:39Sorry.
04:40Does Michael Keaton have a son who is an actor?
04:45No.
04:46I've got a really talented son and a really good dude
04:50who is a great songwriter.
04:52Wrote for a couple little movies,
04:54and he's a really, really good and successful songwriter.
04:58Writes pop tunes.
04:59Has written a couple country tunes.
05:01Easy to Google.
05:02You'll see.
05:03Just saw him about three hours ago.
05:05All right.
05:06All right.
05:07Don't fuck it up.
05:09There I go.
05:11All right.
05:12Where Michael Keaton?
05:13Where Michael Keaton?
05:14Michael Keaton here.
05:16Where Michael Keaton grew up?
05:18Between a little town called Coriopolis and McKees Rocks,
05:22which are two little what we used to call mill towns
05:26right outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
05:28Where did Michael Keaton get his start?
05:32Wow, that's kind of hard to say.
05:34Probably when I was a little kid
05:36running around in the yard in my underwear
05:38acting like a goofball, really.
05:40I started in college, I guess.
05:44I did a play.
05:46I was not good at all in it.
05:48Then I did another one.
05:49It was okay.
05:50I took an interest in writing.
05:51I started to write,
05:52and then moved back to Pittsburgh
05:54and started working in it.
05:55Actually, a television station, a PBS station.
05:58When you work at these PBS stations,
06:00at least back in the day,
06:01you kind of do everything.
06:02I started at $1.75 an hour, by the way.
06:04You work in the warehouse.
06:05You move, break down sets.
06:07And then because Mr. Rogers was based there
06:09out of WQED,
06:11after a while he knew what I was kind of looking to do,
06:14so I think I played Black and White Panda one time.
06:17I know I played Purple Panda once.
06:1925 bucks.
06:20I make him laugh.
06:21He's a very nice man.
06:22Where's Michael Keaton's...
06:24I don't know where it is.
06:25There's been a few.
06:26I'm pretty sure the body, or the frame, rather,
06:29was based on a big old 78 Oldsmobile or something.
06:33It was huge.
06:34You know, one of those big old American cars.
06:36There's been a few.
06:37Duck!
06:39That was great.
06:40Thanks for having me wired.
06:41Thanks for having me wired.
