UNITED STATES
GQ
BY MICHAEL HAINEY
A year ago, Michael Keaton took wing above Manhattan, soaring over the city in Birdman, riding the thermals of his out-of-this-world performance to help deliver a best-picture Oscar for that film. Now Keaton—a man whose Beetlejuice-and-Batman glory days seemed long behind him—has returned with another prestige role, in Spotlight, the story of The Boston Globe’s investigation of the Catholic clergy’s sex-abuse scandal back in 2002.
“I’ve been doing the same thing all along,” he insists. “It’s not that I wasn’t working. It’s that as you get older, you gain experience and you learn to wait for the right project. It’s like being an experienced hitter. You learn to foul off pitches—’not right for me…not right for me…’—and you stay in the box, patient, until they throw you the pitch you want. The pitch you know you can crush.”
I sat down with the actor at a restaurant in Livingston, Montana, about an hour from the ranch he owns out here, nestled in the gorgeous country between the Crazy Mountains and the Yellowstone River.
When working on your Spotlight role, do you go back to childhood memories? You were raised Catholic. I was raised Catholic, too. But it’s strange: I had nothing but the best experiences with the priests in my parish. They were terrific teachers.
I’m with you. I had an old-school nun who beat my hand with a ruler. “Go stand in the corner.” Stupid, mean, shameful punishment. It was what it was. And it shaped me. It was never a horrible thing. That said, I got lucky. I had some terrific nuns. But I got lucky. We both did. Now…those motherfuckers [the priests who abused children] have to pay the price. And as much as I respect my boy Fran [Pope Francis], ’cause that guy’s pushing a rock up a hill, he left the United States without saying, “I’m not going to stop until everyone who is culpable pays the right price.” Which he didn’t do. And he probably won’t, unfortunately. That’s a huge disappointment. But.
And yet, on the other hand, he’s said more than anyone.
I’ve never seen anyone…anything like this. Never seen a world leader with this impact.
Is it true you arranged for your mother to meet Pope John Paul II?
Yeah. I… [affects a bad-gangster voice] negotiated. Worked a deal. [laughs] I got a call years ago. The pope was on tour. Coming to the States.
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