“Birdman” might be the most subversive and downright weirdest Best Picture Oscar winner in history. In order to help fans of Riggan and his art-house hating alter-ego celebrate yesterday’s newly minted win, we offer you the complete audio-only Q&A with director Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu and stars Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis and Amy Ryan. Presented as an episode of “The Close-Up”, The Film Society at Lincoln Center’s official podcast, the Q&A was conducted at The Lincoln Center hours before the screening of “Birdman” as the Closing Night Selection during the 2014 New York Film Festival.
While Inarritu mostly sticks to describing the many ideological and technical challenges he faced while translating his vision to the big screen, Keaton candidly admits that he doesn’t really pay much attention to critics, which was an important component of the film’s story where the argument between Keaton’s Riggan and a cranky critic created one of the best scenes in the film. Yet it’s Zach Galifianakis who steals the show, as he brilliantly trolls some of the questions that might be a bit on the pretentious side (“How do you separate celebrity with talent?”). Last, but not least, pay close attention to Edward Norton’s astoundingly accurate Mexican accent as he tells a funny story about Inarritu’s reaction to one of the reviews for “Birdman”. You can listen to the Q&A below: