This is from hollywoodreporter.com
A pair of fishing waders are hanging on the deck and some cowboy boots are lined up neatly in the mudroom, but today Michael Keaton is wearing his flip-flops and leaning back in a rocking chair on the
porch, watching the Oregon wildfire smoke that had cloaked the mountains around his Montana ranch finally start to blow out, leaving behind a few plum-colored clouds. Despite air-quality warnings on the
local news, Keaton had gone for a run. "I couldn't take it anymore," he says. "My eyes were burning and my throat was hurting, and I thought, This is really stupid, but I was getting so antsy, I had to
get out and do something."
Keaton bought this land more than 30 years ago, and at one point in the prime of his career, it seemed he would rather be here, fly-fishing and riding his quarter horses, than working as one of Hollywood's
most sought-after leading men. Looking around, who could blame him? The 1,000-acre parcel, down a dirt road along a sparkling river lined by aspens and evergreens, feels like living inside a John Denver
song. All that's missing is the cowboy hat - he's not that guy. But this place, and the serenity Keaton finds here, provides an antidote to the intensity he can't help but bring to his work.
"Probably because I'm too frightened, I'm incapable of phoning anything in," says Keaton, 69, of his acting method. "I would love to phone something in. Trust me. I would like to just go, Hey, I don't
know what the
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f**k we're doing. Let's just go have some laughs.' But I take what I do for a living seriously."
That energy has driven Keaton to one of Hollywood's most varied careers, from the culture-shifting popcorn movies of his early years, like Mr. Mom and Batman, to the prestigious dramas of his late-career
work, like Spotlight and Birdman, which earned him his first Oscar nomination. Heading into his fifth decade in show business, he's continuing to genre hop, with upcoming roles in the Lionsgate action
thriller The Protege, the Netflix 9/11 drama Worth and a Hulu series about the opioid epidemic, Dopesick. And, in a move that has comic book movie fans breathless, he just finished shooting the Warner/DC
movie The Flash, in which he reprises the role of Batman he originated in the 1989 Tim Burton film, helping to ignite a generation of superhero obsession.
Even in relaxed Montana mode, Keaton idles at a high rate. Asked about a tape measure left discarded in the middle of the yard, he explains he had been trying to envision some construction work underway
at his L.A. house. "I'm a little obsessive about things," he says, gesturing at the abandoned tool. As his yellow lab, Amos, trots onto the porch every 10 minutes or so, proudly delivering him a
succession of sticks, Keaton tells discursive stories. One thing reminds him of another, which reminds him of another. His Spotlight director, Tom McCarthy, calls Keaton "a great barstool storyteller," and
Spotlight and Worth producer Michael Sugar says, "Conversations with Michael are like M.C.
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