Michael Keaton has been winning plaudits left right and centre for his work in the critically lauded Birdman, which sees an actor haunted by a previous role as a superhero. Art imitating life and all that...
But Keaton, who stars in the film with Edward Norton, has no bitter feelings towards his work in the Tim Burton version of The Dark Knight. He told Screen Rant at Comic Con New York:
When I took the original, I was unfamiliar with comic books. I wasn't a comic book reader. [Reading the script he thought], this isn't the way that I see the character but am glad to read it. Then I met Tim the next day, I'm saying [Batman] is this and this, and he was nodding in agreement. So I asked, are they going to make this? Tim said, 'I don't know. Let's find out."'
When asked then by Entertainment Weekly what he thought of the Chris Nolan Batman movies or Ben Affleck as the superhero, he said:
"Chris Nolan is great, but I've never seen any of the Batman movies all the way through. I know they're good. I just have zero interest in those kinds of movies. I mean, people are asking me, 'Is Ben Affleck going to be any good? And my attitude is, First of all, why would you ask me? Second, he's probably going to be very good, and third, frankly, it's all set up now so that you're weirdly kind of safe. Once you get in those suits, they really know what to do with you. It was hard then; it ain't that hard now."
Birdman should see Keaton nominated for an Oscar if the critics are on the money.
