THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412160118
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long : 129 lines
BATMAN HAS TURNED in his Batmobile. But the former Caped Crusader is keeping mum about his decision to walk away from that multimillion dollar franchise in favor of a little romantic-comedy called ``Speechless.''
Perched atop the plush sofa and staring out the window of his expensive suite at New York's Righa Royal Hotel, Michael Keaton - just for a second - looked as if he might fly into a Batman leap.
``How much time do I have left anyway?'' he asked. ``It's just that I never felt really at home with the `Batman' thing. I had on this heavy suit, and I kept wondering if I was doing the right thing, if it was working. I wanted all this intensity to come through, and I was seldom sure if it was working.''
Keaton admits to enjoying the ``Batman'' spectacle; not so with ``Batman Returns.'' After extensive soul-searching, he walked away, leaving Val Kilmer to take over the role in ``Batman Forever,'' currently before the cameras.
``It is a huge corporate machine,'' he said. ``That's not a bad thing. I liked being a part of it, but the new `Batman' script didn't seem that rewarding. For me, I'm always trying to get away from the last role. I like to try something different every time out.
``A woman came up to me the other day and asked if I still did comedy. She said, `You're primarily a dramatic actor now, aren't you?' At one time, I couldn't get anything but comedy roles. Times change.''
In that spirit, Keaton signed on to do ``Speechless,'' which opened Friday. ``I'd never done a romantic comedy,'' he said. ``I seldom, ever, got the girl.''
The girl is Oscar-winner Geena Davis. She's a speechwriter for a senatorial candidate in New Mexico. As it turns out, so is he. The problem is they work for opposing candidates. When the campaign gets hot, so do they - only they dare not be seen together. It all leads to late-night trysts and gushy hand-holding.
MGM, after a surprise hit with its sci-fi spectacle ``Stargate,'' is gambling that this will be the holiday season's big date flick. Indeed, it has little competition; only Paramount's ``IQ'' pushes similar buttons.
``The script, coupled with Geena, sold me,'' Keaton said. ``Geena is quirky. Geena is funny. I worked with her before, in `Beetlejuice,' but we had no scenes together. It's like this is our first film together.''
Keaton isn't bothered that Davis, who produced the film with husband Renny Harlin (director of ``Die Hard 2'' and ``Cliffhanger''), gets the lion's share of the close-ups. ``I'd never know she was the producer, expect for the fact she has to run off to answer the phone sometime.''
Wiry and ultra-thin, Keaton can't stay still. His khaki slacks, T-shirt and tennis shoes make him look much younger than 43. ``I've just started to enjoy getting older. I don't mean slowing down. If anything, I'm speeding up. It's just that it's a time of life when you begin to re-evaluate yourself.''
He doesn't bristle at the suggestion that ``Speechless'' perhaps trivializes politics by playing the game so lightly.
``Yes, the film is light, but it isn't meant to be a political movie. It's a romantic movie. It's not at all the story of the Mary Matalin and James Carville rivalry and romance during the 1992 presidential election. Our script was written long before that. This script has been around since 1989.''
Keaton would have liked to play the political angles more cynically, ``but that would have been another movie.''
``Politics aren't very entertaining lately, but I hope people are getting cynical, not apathetic,'' he said. ``I voted for Clinton, but let's face it, there hasn't been a lot favorable about this administration. It's scary that people are getting totally cynical.
``Are we going to end up with a total lack of respect for the president? Then there was that guy that fired on the White House. I know it was a lone kook, but that guy was, maybe, saying something about the mood of the country.''
The actor was hot on the subject because he had addressed the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., a few days before. ``On Clinton's side,'' he said, ``the man wasn't in office six minutes before he was attacked. I'll defend him, but I can't jump up and down. I'm just not as involved in politics as I used to be. A lot of people are in the same boat as me.''
Keaton grew up in a working-class Pittsburgh neighborhood, one of seven children. His real name is Michael Douglas, and he never planned to change it. He had no ambition to be an actor.
Then, in high school, Keaton realized he could make the other guys laugh. It was a good way to avoid fights.
``High school is highly overrated,'' Keaton said, laughing. ``I was the goof-off. I was a pretty wild kid. I didn't make good grades. Today, I wish I had been a little more serious - been a goof-off, had a good time, and still got an education.''
At Kent State, he appeared in a few plays, but in 1973, Keaton quit his $25-a-night job in a musical revue to work on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. ``I was 21, and it sounded adventurous, but I got no points from the natives. They weren't impressed with those of us who were trying to act like we were an informal Peace Corps.''
He next took off for Hollywood, where he got jobs parking cars, tending bar and doing stand-up at the Comedy Club. ``I never thought of myself as a stand-up comic,'' Keaton said. ``I always thought of myself as an actor. It's just that there weren't many theaters in Los Angeles. This was one of the few places I could be seen.''
Harry Colomby, former manager for Theolonius Monk, spotted Keaton one night and became his partner and business manager. There was a major push to make him a television star, but series after series flopped, among them ``All's Fair, ``Working Stiffs'' and ``Report to Murphy.''
The surprise came in 1982, when his movie debut, ``Night Shift,'' became a major hit. Keaton played a manic morgue attendant who turns the mortuary into an after-hours bordello. He stole the film from Henry Winkler. With his second movie, ``Mr. Mom,'' he became a star.
He slumped with ``Johnny Dangerously,'' ``Touch and Go'' and the disastrous comedy ``The Squeeze,'' but Tim Burton made him bankable again with 1988's ``Beetlejuice.'' Then came ``Batman.''
``Sure, I like action movies. I liked `Speed,' but I don't like gratuitous violence,'' Keaton said. ``Even Sam Peckinpah failed at that. He claimed he was showing gory violence so that it wouldn't glorify or desensitize (it). Even he, I think, admitted it didn't work. Violence is violence. Showing it makes it commonplace. Humor can make the difference.''
Keaton is a single parent with an 11-year-old son. ``He just knows what he can watch and what he can't. When violent things come on, he just turns it off.''
And when Daddy is playing ``Batman''?
``Oh, he has some of the Batman toys, but, frankly, he always liked `Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' better.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
MGM
Michael Keaton falls for complete opposite Geena Davis in the
romantic comedy ``Speechless.''
20 CENTURY-FOX
Michael Keaton, far right, became a star after his role in ``Mr.
Mom,'' with Teri Garr and Martin Mull.
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