Michael Keaton, who was nominated for his first Academy Award on Thursday for his performance in “Birdman,” knew that he was in for a long, busy road when the film debuted at the Venice Film Festival and immediately became an awards contender.
“I’d been warned by other people who’d been through awards season,” Keaton told TheWrap on Thursday. “They said, ‘Get ready: It’s a long, grueling road.’ But for me, it’s been a really fun road.”
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Asked what’s been most fun about the nonstop interviews, screenings, awards shows and the like, he laughed. “You kidding? You go around and people say to you, ‘Hey, we think you’re great.’ What’s wrong with that? It’s flattering. So you say, ‘Thank you,’ and then you go on with whatever else you’re doing in your life. Which for me, means trying to figure out why one of my tires keeps getting flat.”
Keaton said he has yet to talk to the “Birdman” director, Alejandro G. Inarritu, but he can’t keep himself from talking about Inarritu. “What Alejandro did, and what Chivo [cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki] did, I think people are just beginning to get a sense of how extraordinary it was,” he said. “And the long takes ain’t the half of it. Everything they accomplished in 29 days on a low budget — the vision, the boldness, the guts to make something like this under the roof of a comedy, I don’t think that’s ever been done before. This movie changed the language of film.”
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Since he finished the film, Keaton has made another movie, and now he says he’s in talks to do two more. “People think this is a result of ‘Birdman,’ but they were in the works before that. But I hope there is a lot of stuff to come from ‘Birdman,’ because I’m in the mood to work.”