People love a good comeback story, right? In Hollywood, a comeback can also be used to help propel someone seeking awards consideration. Back a decade ago, that’s the narrative that was pushed to help Michael Keaton campaign for his film “Birdman.” But according to the actor, he always thought the campaign was “bullshit.”
Speaking to GQ, Michael Keaton talked about his long career in Hollywood. And of course, the time around “Birdman” was brought up. If you remember, at the time, the story of Keaton and that film was that it was the big return for the actor. However, that’s not actually true. And Keaton always knew that. But he played along.
“A really, really, really smart guy, a guy I liked a lot, said, ‘Comeback — that’s the story,’” Keaton said. “I went, ‘Honestly, it’s kind of bullshit.’”
He continued, “I thought I could make that story up, but I knew I’m going to be bullshitting every time I talk about it. By the way, I know business. I like business. Doesn’t bother me. You go, ‘This is a business, man.’”
It’s clear if you look at Keaton’s filmography, he never really stopped making films. There are little gaps of a couple of years, but by and large, he’s been consistently working on projects. In fact, the same year “Birdman” was released, Keaton also starred in “RoboCop” and “Need for Speed,” which were two studio films with huge budgets. (Of course, both of those movies were critical and commercial failures.)
That said, we’ve always known that people in Hollywood love to game the system. If there’s a storyline that can help earn awards consideration or acclaim, then that’s what’s going to happen. And it worked with “Birdman,” as the film would go on to earn nine Oscar nominations (including Best Actor for Keaton), winning four of them (including Best Picture). But it most definitely wasn’t a “comeback” for Keaton.