Michael Keaton: Dr. Michael & Mr. Keaton

On-screen ex-Batman Michael Keaton is as likey to portray a homicidal sociopath as he is to play a smart, funny guy. Offscreen he's only slightly more predictable.

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Michael Keaton enters his immaculately clean house in Pacific Palisades dressed in sweatpants and a T-shirt, takes a cold leftover steak out of the refrigerator, breaks off pieces and eats it. "I've changed my diet a few times," he says, his lean body showing no signs of excess bulge. "Now I'm trying to eat more protein. I eat little meals throughout the day. I love food, so I still give myself great meals. Also, when I'm busy it's easy to lose weight."

Lately, he's been busy. He's got a movie out this summer, Desperate Measures, in which he plays a homicidal sociopath who escapes from prison, and he's taken on a small part in his friend Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, based on Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch.

Keaton burst onto the scene in his first movie, Night Shift, which he stole from Henry Winkler. Next came the huge comedy hit Mr. Mom, which made him a star. No one remembers most of the few next films--_Johnny Dangerously, Touch and Go_ or The Squeeze--but Gung Ho had its following, and Beetlejuice was a comic phenomenon. Keaton surprised critics and fans with a stunning performance as a coke addict in the drama Clean and Sober, and alternated between comedy and drama in his next few films, to mixed results.

Then came Batman. Tim Burton's blockbuster was an unexpectedly appropriate vehicle for Keaton's onscreen mix of dark and light. Some feel that the brooding, troubled Bruce Wayne/Batman he played came close to touching the dichotomy of his own character. After appearing in the sequel, Batman Returns, though, Keaton couldn't come to terms with continuing the role. Since then he's made a ton of money, doing films like Much Ado About Nothing, My Life, The Paper, Speechless and Multiplicity, but he hasn't really knocked the ball out of the park.

Keaton has the reputation of being not an easy guy to know, but there's something about his keen intensity that makes you want to at least try.

LARRY GROBEL: You changed your name because "Michael Douglas" was already in use, right? Was it Diane Keaton who inspired you to use "Keaton"?

MICHAEL KEATON: Kind of. I got a job and needed to change my name for the union. That morning there was an article in the paper about Diane Keaton. I thought it was a nice, easy, dear name. I used it to fill out this form, thinking I'd find another name later. I experimented with Keats--how pretentious is that? My middle name is John. My brother used to call me Jackson. And there was a point where I was thinking of calling myself "Michael Jackson". Swear to God. That was when Michael Jackson kind of disappeared, after leaving the Jackson 5. Imagine if I'd done that.

Q: Do you see yourself as Michael Keaton or Michael Douglas?

A: I went through a period of thinking, This is too weird. But then I thought, This is kind of handy. I have the advantage of a handle, of being able to say, I know why people are reacting to me, because I'm Michael Keaton. Then going home knowing what my real name is and who I am.

Q: You're currently working on Quentin Tarantino's movie Jackie Brown. How did you come to do it?

A: I'm doing it because I'm a friend of Quentin's. As for what I'm doing, I still have to figure that out. He's an interesting cat to work with. My part is not a big deal. It's this big [spreads an inch between his thumb and forefinger]. But there's a lot to learn from Tarantino. He's open and real dear about what he wants, but is legitimately OK when you come up with something you want to do.

Q: In Barbet Schroeder's Desperate Measures you play a homicidal sociopath. Do you ever go to prisons to research characters like this?

A: I avoided talking to prisoners because it felt cold and manipulative. You don't hang out with these guys. You meet them and then you go back to living at the Four Seasons Hotel doing a movie and they're still in mental institutions. It doesn't sit right with me.

Q: When you play a villain, do you take the part home with you?

A: I would like to say, Absolutely not. But I can't honestly say that I always walk away from it. If you've done any amount of work whatsoever, you have to be affected. I can't just go and do my work and walk away. It doesn't mean you're necessarily the world's most miserable human being to be around. For Desperate Measures, in rehearsal and for the first week, I needed to create a zone that I had to live in, until I felt good about it. I knew that people were looking at me thinking, Maybe he's not friendly, or he's a loner, or he's shy--but I couldn't afford to care.

Q: You've said that you're not doing what you really want to do often enough.

A: I understand it and accept it--you've got to be a grown-up and understand how and why the business is the way it is. My last two movies Speechless, Multiplicity did not make money. That's a fact. I could rationalize, but it doesn't matter. One was actually quite good, the other not that great. The business is driven by money, now more than ever. Therefore the opportunities to do the things you really want to do start to diminish. It ain't no mystery. It's frustrating at times, because I can do so much. It's just a fact. I just can. And I can do a lot really well. I actually achieve great ness from time to time. I'm fully confident with that statement. And I'm extremely proud of it. I really love myself for it. I realize that sometimes I'm less than good, and I also know what I can't do. But I have surprised myself a few times when I didn't think I could pull something off and I did.

Q: For instance?

A: I think I pulled off My Life. With a director of more experience and skill I would have pulled off even more.

Q: What about Clean and Sober?

A: Oh, I totally pulled it off.

Q: And Batman?

A: I pretty much guessed where the target was and I said, "I know what I'm doing." And I did it and I dug it.

Q: In which moments do you think you've achieved greatness on film?

A: There's times in Clean and Sober when I'm great. There's times in Beetlejuice where I'm really great. There's times in Batman where I'm great. There's times in Much Ado when I'm great. There's times in Pacific Heights when I'm pretty great. There's times in Night Shift and Mr. Mom when I'm great. There's times in this movie now when I'm great. And the reason this doesn't feel remotely egotistical is because I'm not saying I'm great in every moment; there are moments that I missed. And some movies I've done are really average, and some are not good at all. I'm pretty realistic. And I see people who do things that are so much better than what I do.

Q: Does it happen often that you're not happy with something you've done?

A: In Multiplicity there's a moment when I tell my wife in the end that I love her. What I thought I had going in the performance was showing real anger, real hilarity, real gentleness, real insanity, real worry, real freedom--because people aren't one or two things, they're a lot of things. I wanted to take them all out. I was extremely emotional and it was coming from deep inside me. Truthfully, when I look back, it wasn't the kind of movie that should have been like that. So I feel stupid for doing it, even though I know why I felt like that.

Q: It's been said that your performances in Beetlejuice and Much Ado About Nothing seemed to come from a universe other than the one inhabited by the other characters.

A: They're full of shit! They're about as wrong as you can get.

Q: Do you still aspire to the kind of grace you've said Jeremy Irons showed in Reversal of Fortune?

A: I aspire to any kind of grace I can take. He was great in that performance. Anthony Hopkins is great. I don't think there's anybody better than Leonardo DiCaprio, and I've been saying that since before anyone knew who he was.

Q: Is acting a lot in the eyes?

A: Oh boy, I don't know. It's mostly in the heart.

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