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Here on the next few pages you will find the article's I have about Michael as of now. IF you have any you would like to see on this site please feel free to send them to me. Michael Keaton who starred as Batman, has splashed out 700,000 dollars on a holiday hideaway
in Montecito, California. It's close to the home of BASIC INSTINCT star Michael Douglas -
and Douglas is, amazingly, Keaton's real surname. That'll confuse the postman!
BEETLEMANIA
"Beetlejuice has its hits and misses, but I don't mind. When it works it's fun and when it
doesn't at least I tried something," said director Tim Burton who, with the fortuitous
casting of actor Michael Keaton, scored one of 88's biggest sleeper hits with BEETLEJUICE
before both men graduated to Batman. Beetlejuice - named after the planet Betelgeuse and
occasionally spelling his name the same way - is a lecherous, mossy - toothed and badly
dressed slob of a ghoul who offers earthly ghosts his own "bioexorcism" services from beyond
the grave. Michael Keaton is hilariously OTT in his title role as the sex-mad denizen of hell.
Although the script originally featured Beetlejuice as one in a menagerie of odd beings at the
end of the film, Burton was so taken by the character that he expanded the role, giving Keaton
a part very different to his lead roles in films like MR MOM, GUNG HO, THE SQUEEZE, AND
JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY. "Michael and I talked a bit," said Burton, "and he went home and thought
about it, kept on thinking about it. We gave him some teeth .... and then he got this voice.
" Keaton's interpretation of the Beetlejuice character comes somewhere between pub scum and a
used-car salesman - loud, brash, bullying and wily, yet not without sleazy appeal.
(When a journalist asked two of Keaton's friends what percentage of the Beetlejuice
character showed the real Keaton, they replied, "Ninety percent. No ..... four per cent.
" Keaton himself said of the character, "I love him. He lets me give vent to some of my
dark side."
IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED
The road to stardom is long and winding and many actors who are riding high today often try
to keep yesterday's embarrassing past well under wraps. If nothing else, Michael Keaton's
small-screen career taught him persistence; few other big-screen stars had more TV disasters,
He was added to the CBS political sitcom All's Fair in early 77, playing a presidential joke
writer. The series was axed soon after, so he joined the ensemble cast of Mary Tyler More two
short-lived CBS comedy-variety series in the late 70s. By September 79, he was paired with
Jim Belushi in the CBS sitcom WORKING STIFFS. The show was cancelled less than a month later.
Keaton reappeared on the CBS schedule in 82, in the parole officer sitcom REPORT TO MURPHY.
It lasted just over a month. But despite his experiences with those programmes, Keaton always
shone through. " He was always funny, but he was also a real artist and a complete pro.
I'm not surprised by his success today."HOLY SHAKESPEARE,
FAILURES
Keaton is a performer who is no stranger to taking risks. He was a controversial choice for the Bruce Wayne/Batman role in the 89 blockbuster, and in the wake of its success he seized the chance to play three characters that unhinged his fans even further. He was an addict in CLEAN AND SOBER and a menacing baddie in PACIFIC HEIGHTS, and a shady policeman in ONE GOOD COP, none of which achieved the levels of success that Batman had. Keaton recalls a conversation with Batman co-star Jack Nicholson in London back in 89: "Jack and I were on the town while we were filming the first movie and he said to me, 'This movie's gonna be a hit and if it is we could fail three times and we'd still be in good shape.' And it's proved to be true, because I had three critical failures after Batman, and I'm still working. But, I didn't initially go out and make three turkeys," he adds with another expressive eyebrow flicker,"What I think Jack really meant was we could go out and really do what we want. And I guess, after BATMAN RETURNS, which was another extraordinarily successful movie for me, I wanted to do MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, which might be a huge success in its own right, but not for me as Michael Keaton." "Certainly, it turned out to be fabulous for me as an actor. I was free to expand creatively and characteristically. I don't go in for that intense acting stuff, but I tell you, I think I performed some of my best stuff out there in Tuscany." "I think that it has given me a lot of confidence to expand further and do things I probably wouldn't have even considered. But that's only half of the problem that I have. The other half is convincing the public that I can play a nasty bastard or someone that isn't really likeable. I've stopped considering the Bruce Wayne/Batman stuff in that mould, because it had a level of acceptability now."
EXCUSES
Still, Keaton has a willingness to play nasties, con men, addicts and reprobates: "I don't believe in making excuses for your character. You don't say 'I'm not really like this, but I'm showing you I'm acting like this.' "I'll tell you, actors are notorious, and a string of famous actors who have been lauded as geniuses have been guilty of rationalising what their character would do, do they're (a) likeable, (b) acceptable, ??xy and strong, whatever. Which brings me back to my point for making excuses for your character. You've got to be willing to go down!" Having now gone out on a limb on every kind of characteristic chance, is there anything which Keaton would see as a major risk? "I'm sure that actors only have a certain amount of lives," he suggests, another of those eyebrows signalling bruised acceptance," I think I've been strung out on about four so far. But I've been lucky lately. Much ado should pay me back one or two, but as an actor, you're always going to slip up. The trick is knowing when. And the hard thing is knowing how to pick yourself up."
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