Michael Keaton
Appearances
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
83. It was not that unusual, but it was fucking unusual by comparison, right? And I'd like the, you know, I have three sisters and a mom. Most people who work for me are women. I didn't plan it that way. It's just how it is. So I'd like that whole setup in the premise, and I thought, Okay, now how do we make – now let's just make this funny.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
So it was already funny, but there were things because the director, who was a talented guy, but he was not a comedy guy, we had to work on, let's say. And there was a lot of rewriting going on. As an example, the whole chainsaw thing came about – on the morning, because as we were getting ready to do it, there was no chainsaw scene. There was no, that didn't exist.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Martin, the great, great, late great Martin Mull. Yeah, funny. Comes in and says, you know, He's taken Terry off. I have so much to say about this because not enough credit is given to Terry Garr.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
But so... That scene was one thing, right? But what I knew was, I said, but how does this guy feel? You know, how insecure is he right now? And how emasculated is he right now? And Martin walks in just fucking cocksure, you know? Just fucking beautifully played, looking so brilliantly arrogant, looking at me. And I'm thinking, okay, what would this guy do? He's panicked. He's not ready for this.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
So I said to the prop guy, He'd get me like, I don't know, like he's pretending like he's working on the house, you know, like tools or something. And he shows me a chainsaw. I go, yes. And I said, run down, you have any of those goggles? And I go, yeah. And he goes and gets the goggles. And then we just played it from there.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I said, yeah, we're probably going to rewire. I didn't know what I was talking about. I said, yeah, we're probably going to rewire the whole thing. And that was the end of that. And Martin said, you know what you should say? Martin says something like, how are you going to wire it? And I go, I don't know. He said, you should say, you know, 220, 221, whatever it takes. That's Martin Maul's line.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Oh, man. And who, you know, you look at all the really great, funny women. There are so many now. And there were kind of, relatively speaking, so few then.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And, you know, look at Terry, man. She had everything. She still has everything. She's so sweet. I just love her. Yeah.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And you look at, you know, she's witty and funny and feminine and masculine and all that stuff. And just could just, you know, just had it, you know, and has it. And yeah, and helped me, you know, like you guys know, you know, you can't do it on your own. You know, you need somebody to set you up.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yeah, well – I will speak about it, but I kind of want to stop because that's just too good. I'll leave it at that. Well, thank you, first of all.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yeah, okay. Well, let's start with that. So, first of all, let's thank good fortune and all that. I don't believe in luck. I've never believed in luck, but I believe in good fortune.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
You know why? You earned what you did. All three, a lot of us, we all earned it. We worked our asses off to do it.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yeah, but I'm grateful, you know, grateful. So there was the only plan, And by the way, I'm breathing rarefied air right now. I realize that. I don't know how many other guys there are. I saw Jeff the other day, Bridges, who lives over the mountain range here.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yeah, he... You know, I was saying, there's not many of us doing this, and I'm... I want to keep doing it, but I want to keep doing it. I always wanted to do it how I wanted to do it. I know that sounds arrogant and kind of selfish, but I just knew I'd be happiest that way.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And so every time I had a television show that got canceled, which was two of them, three of them, I guess, I could not tell you how happy I was because I felt freer to move on to the next thing. So if I had a strategy, and I don't know that it was a strategy, it was only this. Right after Night Shift, there were some things offered to me.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And when I think back, I go, wow, that took a fairly sizable set of balls. I said, no, I knew I wanted to do the Mr. Mom, but then there were a couple others that I thought, I don't know, like all three of you, I'm sure, I would think, you say, but I really have a pretty big imagination and I'm curious about a lot of things and I'd like to play other things. I'd like to explore other things.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I'd like to see, and if it doesn't work, then I know at least I have this for a few years. I can maybe grind out five, six, eight years of me being that guy. And I thought, but I think what will happen is... people are gonna get very bored very quickly with this kind of guy they saw in Night Shift, et cetera.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And so I said, well, then let me lay down something early and see if that works, because that will potentially open up a wider range for me. And I don't know if this is gonna do it, but that was the only conscious thing. The other is you just trust your gut. And so I made certain decisions early on. I was told don't do Clean and Sober, don't do Pacific Heights, don't do a lot of things.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And I said, yeah, but I want to do those things and I want to lay it down. So I passed up certain movies that turned out to be great movies and I don't want to talk about them, but they turned out to be great things. And I probably, in retrospect, one or two of those probably should have, but I was fearful that...
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Look, I always feel like, and this is my own, so I need to talk to somebody about this, because I always feel, man, if I'm in two movies a year, people are going to go, enough already. We are so frigging sick of you. We just, like, enough. And so I had that, and that's not a healthy thing. But I just wanted to lay down a principle.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
the potential possibility that, well, wait a minute now, I don't know what to do with him. And the risk is, as you guys know, well, that could be dangerous. And I just rolled the dice because I always bet on me. Don't ask me why, but I do.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yeah, exactly. And meanwhile, that's right. And at the time, that's not what happened. As you guys know, it didn't happen that way. Tim sought me out because he sought me. He said, I'd like to talk to that guy. And so, yeah, that, you know, and I will also credit Elvis Mitchell, whom I'm actually going to speak with later. And Elvis ended up working for me and my partner, Harry.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
for a couple of years because we read this guy. We thought he was, we just dug what he was about and liked him. And he worked for us for a minute. And I credit Elvis. I don't think there was, I don't know what the award was. It was either New York. I don't know what it was, New York Film Critics or Film Critics Award. There was something, they didn't have an event.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And Elvis kind of said, excuse me, what Will just said, basically. And then they said, okay, sure, we'll give it to him. And then there was, I have it somewhere, a piece of paper or something. But that didn't come via, that came from Tim asking about me, about wanting to meet me about Beetlejuice through David Geffen.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And the clean and sober thing came, and that was another thing that people said, you don't want to do that. My agent literally at the time said, I don't think you should do that. And I said, yeah, I'm pretty sure I should, just because I want to. This is a really well-written script. You guys know this.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I mean, it's hard to find something that's – the writing will drive everything ultimately, right? Now, whether it comes together, that's another – But so, so I'll run through this. I'm sorry. And so that in one year, I didn't plan any of that. That just happened. I just said, man, this guy, Tim Burton, he is something. I just, I don't know what he is. I just know for sure he's something.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And I, when he tried to explain Birgit to me, I said, They said, what did you think? I said, I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. I don't understand it. But I like that guy. And he said, he wants to talk to you. Will you just give him another one? I go, yeah, all right. I'll go meet him again. And I go talk to him. And I said, yeah, well, I'm still the same. I still don't understand.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I say this about Tim, who I freaking love. I would say in his life, He is, you know, a declarative sentence, you know, with a subject, a verb, you know, and then a period at the end. I'd say he's completed maybe eight, maybe eight declarative simple sentences. He just doesn't think like that. That's really funny. He's not that guy, you know. And so I meet him and I go, okay, I'm getting closer.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Then he said two things to me and I went. All right, I think this guy's worth it. So I said, give me a minute. And I went home, and I started thinking about it. And he said a couple things, and I asked for wardrobe from every period of time to go to my house. I was renting this house that was empty. I had no furniture. And I just started handpicking stuff. And then I...
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
there's something about that I found kind of spooky and creepy about like bad teeth and a semi-broken nose and a walk and I said what about and then I just started going to work and I said you know what there's something about this guy I really dig him fuck it I don't know I don't know let's does this work and so that happened and then clean it sober was just another script it wasn't wait wait wait wait wait wait Michael wait wait okay
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
No, that's very insightful, Will, because you're right. That's what, no, I didn't. And that's, that was the beauty of, and is the beauty of working with him. You're really just making stuff. Like, let's go make stuff, you know? And so we talked, and no one was paying attention. The budget was small, and no one was paying attention. Yeah. And we were down in Raleigh Studios. Oh, my God.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And I said, okay, I don't know. Here's what's weird about this. Think of this. We never tested it. We never tested it. I said, here's what I want to do. It's like he stuck his finger in a thing. He starts here, and he goes up from there. It's never like – there's no arc here.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Right, right. And I said, and I don't know why, I don't have an actor's explanation for any of this shit. The great thing about this thing is you never could say my character wouldn't do that.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
There are no rules. The freedom was unbelievable. So Will. Yeah. That's insightful because I go, Tim had the suit, Tim had the eyes, Tim had the pale makeup. And he said something to me about, he's from all different, he appears out of time, you know, in the 20s and the 18s. There's no, he's not connected in any time or anything. He might go underground for years until he's released.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
So I said, underground. I said, how about mold? Let's do some mold up the face, you know? And then I said, okay. You know, the hair is like, it has to stick all the way out. But the striped suit was Tim's vision. He started showing me pictures of all his stuff. And so on that day, when I showed up, I went, I don't know. Here we go. And as soon as I walked on the first scene, you can see him.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
his eyes get big and he lights up and he goes, yes. And then, you know, it's the ultimate yes and, because he'd go, oh, I didn't know we were going to do that. Hold on a minute. If you're going to do that, let me show you something. See when you go up there, this is what that's going to, he had to explain to me. what was going to happen. And I went, oh, I think I get it.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Because of the visual effects? Yeah, because of the visual effects. Would it happen later? Yes, yes, yes.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
It's so fun to talk to you guys about this because I'm with three people who kind of know what I'm talking about.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Lots. And, boy, that means something to me. You know, so I say this, and I don't care what people think. I'm so blessed that I get to do some things that every once in a while that'll happen. You know, how many people have that job? You know, a lot of people would like that job. I have that job. That's why I did Worth. That's why I did, you know, My Life.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
You know, and you go, you got to do these things. If you got the opportunity, you know, you know, you've been given this, this given this thing, you know, yeah, I earned it, but I've been also given it. So, so if you can do throw everybody a solid.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
You did the first I Am Batman. By the way, I'll give you my business manager's address. It's Venmo.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
So I'm about some credit to Tim for going, yeah, that guy. And people went, what are you, out of your mind? And he went, no, that guy. So I don't think enough credit has been given to him. Me, I went... We had the meeting. He and I sat. He said, take this home and read it. Tell me what you think. And I remember where I was sitting, where the window was, and he and I were talking.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And I said, well, so here's what I think, but nobody's going to do that. And he went, that's exactly right. And so he had to go to them and say, no, that guy, and to his credit, boy, you know, You know, he changed everything. He changed everything. I could talk.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
But you know, Will, there was very little humor in it. And, you know, maybe we can't... No, but you had moments, though, as Bruce Wayne. No, I mean, in the original script... In the original script. Oh, really? Yes. And so, you know, maybe it's just an instinct, but there were scenes. Because even that, man, that pressure was on Tim so big. The pressure was on all of us. And you felt it every day.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
You know, you go to the studio, people flying in, you know, because this was a big swing for everybody. But there wasn't, and I don't know if it's the instinct or not, but you know, a gut feeling saying, well, wait a minute, you know, a lot of this kind of darkness, I mean, maybe not so much.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
So as an example in that scene where the big long table where Vicki Vale comes over and I'm having a date and I'm so nervous, you know, and I go, do I tell her, do I not tell her? I can't let her know, but I really like this woman. And she's sitting there and she asked me about the room and I said, Tim, you know, it would be funny. And there were a couple of these moments.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I said, you know, if he goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, and then he realizes... I don't think I've ever been in this room before. You know what I mean? Which says everything about the character. You go, who's this lonely guy? He's rambling around the house, you know?
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Now, did you guys know about the chemistry would work? Like Jason Brink, everyone needs to do what he just did. Did you guys go, oh, fuck. That's why we hired the guy. Just bring in a dork. Yeah, just bring him in.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
It's like the guys on TBS, you know, Charles Barkley and those guys. Someone just needs to say to them, don't touch it. Don't touch it. I love those guys. Yeah.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
That's true. You know, I actually did investigate getting a Ferrari one time.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I actually did. And I remember thinking, I'm too lazy for the amount of work and effort I'm going to have to put into this. You mean the clutch and the stick, right?
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Well, not that much, but like where do I – do I have to be careful? Where can I really drive it? Is this really worth it? You know, I'm blessed that I don't need a lot of stuff because I don't want to – I'm just lucky that I don't need a lot of stuff, you know. I'm not so cool. I just don't have an interest.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
All of a sudden, I'm the least interesting, most unfun guy. Oh, I don't know if this is practical. I'm going to put my clubs. There's no back seats.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yeah, and also what Jason... They're called the downer. Let's just refer to them as that. No, and a little bit of that, say, whoa, this is a lot. I don't love this kind of stuff.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Well, boy, we could go, let me make it. We have 10 minutes left. Okay. Okay.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Okay, right. Yeah, I dished it a couple times. What's your next question? No.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I was this kid who started to get very interested in, I thought, could a person do this? Yeah, because I come from so not that background, except my funny family, my funny brothers and sisters. and a big family and youngest, so there's that, right?
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
So when I went to school, I was curious because my friends and I were, the guys I hung with tightly and some young women at the time were funny and I'd like to be around them and I knew what my taste was. And so I was not a theater kid, however, I did take a couple of theater classes, so I was clearly curious about this and I was not very good, I don't think. I auditioned for a play.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I got a little role in a play in school. Didn't really do anything for me. And then I dropped out of school to make some money to go back to school. And in the interim, I was doing this play in Pittsburgh, Sticks and Bones. And at the same time, working at the PBS station where I do everything in Pittsburgh.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And at the same time, while I was in school, I was really into the lampoon and I was really into everything funny. And so I started writing and I thought, I don't know if I can even do this other thing. If I ever try it, maybe I could write this. You're just a kid trying to figure things out, right? So I said, well, I'm kind of liking this. And I just trusted myself. And I said, you know what?
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
This is either going to happen or not happen. So I started to go to New York. where I was about to move and at the last minute I went to California thinking I'd only stay there for a summer. And I was writing and I started performing stand-up and doing a play. And the stand-up thing worked in New York like that off the bat. I mean, when I say worked, it didn't work.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
It worked in that I got asked back the first time I showed up and that's a big deal. So you did that and I went, I really love this because it was theater. To get to the auditioning part. So now I go to California and I'm going to do this real fast.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And I'm sleeping on floors like everybody else and crashing with buddies and working in restaurants and doing all the things, parking cars, doing everything everybody does. The thing that turned it around in terms of the audition process was I was an okay auditioner. And I tell when young people ask me, I tell them this all the time. Forget the want, I want, I need. Throw that out. You're fucked.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
You have the job. The job is for the next 15 minutes, you're at work. The audition is the job. That's the gig. So you got to go to work today for 15 minutes. It's excruciating. It's a horrible setup. There's nothing good about it. But once I said, I'm not going to look at this like, I got to get this. I turned the corner where I said, you know what, man? I feel pretty good today about what I did.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
So I'm just going to look at it like at 3.30 out at MTM. or wherever I was going to be. Radford, yeah. Yeah, Radford. I'm going to work. And so I thought, yep, get ready to go to work. What a great approach. My job only lasted 20 minutes, and then I went to my regular job, and I said, I don't know, fuck it.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yeah, but you guys are actors, so you're sympathetic. You go, you know what that feels like, right? Yeah. Yeah, you know, you don't want some... There's no merit in watching somebody go down. No, there's no merit to it.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
With Dave Letterman. Wait, what? Letterman bailed after the first one, yeah. I stuck around.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Jimmy Burroughs, wait, Jimmy Burroughs directed... He directed Mary Tyler Moore. Wait, Jason, you and I... You know, one of my favorite jobs ever, I always really liked Gary Goldberg.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Huh. Yeah. Well, he gave me this gig that was one of my favorite. I'll talk to you about that MTM thing. But one of my favorite things I ever did was this character I did on, Tony Randall had a show for a minute. He had a couple of shows, I guess. Many shows, probably. But he had a thing called the Tony Randall Show, and Gary Goldberg hired me because he had seen me do something.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I think he gave me the job. I may have auditioned. But a night school, it was called Ed's Night School, I think. And Tony Randall taught law at a night school. And I played this kind of dude, you know. And, you know, like kind of a little dense, which is always fun and hard to play. Like kind of stupid.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
It's my fucking, it's my right out of bag. That's your sweet spot. Anyway, so I played this thing. And as an aside, I learned as much about comedy from watching Tony Randall because he would kind of direct because he knew more than anybody anyway. And his precision was so – and I was about – like I thought, no, man, you know, freewheeling.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
His precision was so impressive that I remember going, whoa. pay attention to that. You know, where, you know, where and the how and the, you know, it was just really an education. So, yeah, when I was, when I was doing that and I, I apparently have forgotten the question, but... Mary Tyler Moore, grantee girl. Mary Tyler Moore. So then that, that led to all that other stuff.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
So Letterman bailed after the first We all thought it was going to be a little something. And she was a wonderful lady, really liked her. And the guys who were part of that group, who was Jay Tarsus and Tom, you know, those guys, they were part of it. So we went, well, their pedigree is really good. And it wasn't quite what we thought it would be. And Dave bailed.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And I stuck around for the second iteration, which was so fun, man. I had a little, I could afford a Honda, a little Honda Civic. I remember driving to work down to MTM Studios thinking, there's no way this could get better. There's no way my life could get better than this. And I was making, you remember, I mean, you go, look what you're making, you know, and it wasn't much.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And you go, are you kidding me? I have a little apartment that's relatively clean, you know. Oh, man, it's so fucking great.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
It was, no, it was the second. It was like, this is awesome. Because you have to understand, this is a long time in the making, but not so's you'd know it, right?
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Because you can't... recreate what we made. You can't write it. Imagine trying to write it when a lot of the writing just happened. It wasn't on the page so much, even though some of it was and some of it was terrific and the world was terrific. You go, do that again. You go, it doesn't work like that. Even in the most well-written
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
You could take Larry Gelbart or Neil Simon or any of the brilliant writers and try to duplicate Tootsie. You couldn't do it again. So imagine trying to do that. So obviously, we were never going to do it. Then for years, I thought, don't touch that. Leave that alone, man. That's a little piece. You just leave that alone. Don't touch it. But I liked it so much. And Tim and I...
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
worked so well together and I liked him so much that every once in a while I would go, what do you think? And the answer was, nah. And then it started getting more interesting to me and I suggested I'd like to do that again. Then that time passed and then I thought it was done. When it came around again, we'd see scripts now and then, and they just didn't work.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And then these guys kind of got it and went, whoa, this could be good. So Tim started talking to me about it. He had to finish something. And so to answer your question, then you say, okay, I'm in. And I had done a bunch, I'd direct this movie and I'd act in another movie and another one and I was a little tired and I thought I would like another two months just to chill and kind of ramp it up.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And I didn't get it and I thought, fuck it, let's go do it. So we went to go make it and as I'm sitting in that makeup trailer that you mentioned, I remember going, this is really fun and I'm really excited and I'm nervous because I go, can you pull this off again? Yeah. And can you do it? Because don't do it if you don't look stupid. And not just for me. Don't fuck this thing up, you know? Right.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And so what hit me was I was sitting in the makeup trailer going, yeah, here we go. That's right. And trying to explain to the woman, no, it's got to – Not quite, you know, talking her through that. And then we were getting there and getting ready to do it. And about three days in, I went, there's something wrong and I don't know what's wrong. There's something off. It wasn't horrible.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
We'll wait and see. I'll be the judge. I'll be the judge. All right. I love you. So listen to this. So I'm sitting there and I go, I don't know what this is. And I'm sitting in the makeup trailer and I'm going, yeah, this is fun. I'm having fun. But what is bugging me? And I looked in the mirror and I went, I got it. I know what it is.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And I don't know about you guys, but I don't look at makeup anymore. I should go check more often in the monitor. I know I've made huge errors by not. I don't look at things anymore. I just go do it and I go home. Yeah. I looked in the mirror and I went, I got it, I know what it is. This thing we created came out of nowhere. It just came out of this nowhere. When I looked in the mirror,
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I saw toys. I went, this is fucked up. I saw, you know what I mean? I saw little Beetlejuice toys. It looked like, you know what I mean? It looked like key chains and it looked like mugs.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yeah, and it wasn't that that's a bad thing. It was, oh, that perception is, yeah, we've seen them because we've seen it on t-shirts.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
No, that's interesting. I didn't. I went, a little bit. There was something with the hair that wasn't working. I went, nah, that never really looked exactly like that. And you're trying to like, and then you go, get that, whatever it takes to get that out of your brain, just go back to what made you even think of this frigging thing.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Psychologically, you had to go wipe that out of your brain, take it out of your brain.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yeah, no, you know, when you go on set, go, what was the thing originally? What was this thing originally? Just go be that again.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yeah, make it yours again. Make it like, how did we come up with this crazy thing? And what was hard about that was there were certain things in this... Look, man, I'm on record as saying how good this thing is. I'm not going to go on and on. It's so good. Yeah, I can't wait.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
But when I go on the set, there were things in the script, shows you how smart I am, that I remember reading the script, go, ooh, this could work. I go, I don't know about that. Tim likes that idea. I don't think that idea is good. Three of them. I was wrong on all three. I was wrong about it. I was dead wrong.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yeah, mostly, I think. I think there's a part of me, and honestly, I'm not being humble here. There's a part of me that's just plain stupid, I think. There's a part of me that just goes, I don't know. I don't think of some of these things other people think. And I don't know what that comes from, but I just don't.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Sometimes I do, and I certainly was nervous about going back into it, only to say, can I do this? Not just do it and get through it, but go, can you get there? Because it's deserving of you being good. You need to be good. And in terms of me talking about it, I'll tell you, when I say I don't care what anybody else thinks of it,
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I'm willing to say what I think about it because this is just how I feel about it. There's movies I've seen and you guys have seen that people have hated and I went, not me, I love this movie. Or other movies where you go, I don't get what people are raving about. Me, I don't care. Every person I've ever run into for the rest of my life could say, boy, that second Peter just really sucked.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I'd go, not to me. I mean, it has so many elements. It's so beautiful, first of all, physically and emotionally. And you kind of care. And I'm telling you, every fucking person is funny in this. I mean, Justin is funny. Catherine is funnier than she was in the first one.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yes. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for buying that. It's based on a true story.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Let me ask you a question. If I would do this show every day, would I get this?
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Why do you have sunglasses on? Sorry. Because I'm pretentious. Forget about that whole authentic thing. I had sunglasses on.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Thanks. Hi. How are you? Welcome. The preamble. It's obnoxious, I know. No. First of all, I was going to be a smartass, but after Will being so sweet, now I can't be.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I would think that if there's one area, one format, one show, one could be a smartass.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
This is, well, this is my home in Montana. Well, this is the cabin of the property because the other house is being rebuilt. Did it burn down? Not down, but see? See smart ass?
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yeah, you threw something out there and now it's hurtful. So, yeah, and this little house was reassembled from up the valley or down the valley, up the valley, many years ago. But that's where I am. That's where I'm sitting. That's so nice. But, you know, listen to the whole thing, how you guys do this. I have so many questions. Sure, go ahead. Go. Hit us. Do you validate personal?
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Yeah. You all have either adapted or you always had it. You all now have like a radio voice. Did you always have this radio voice? We're learning from Will.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I'm coming to you in a minute. Here comes Will. And Will just kind of – you know, I didn't know – I swear to God this is true. When I would see those Reese's commercials, I'd say, that dude's funny. I swear to God I didn't know who it was. There's a few people out there I'm looking at right now, and I watch these commercials. I saw a guy the other day. He's so – I don't know who the hell he is.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
He's so funny. And so good in it. And I was reminded of how hard it is to crack open, to have people see you, to find a spot. With just your voice? Yeah, no, seriously. Okay, Sean, I have a question for you. Okay, yeah. Did you and I not... Many, many years ago, you were already nodding, right? We met a long time ago because you were working for a— Many times.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Go ahead. That's right. That's his superpower. You used to work for, am I wrong? You used to work for like a catering company or something. Is this true when you were getting started?
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I don't know, but don't go deeper because you already know. But poor Julie in a bad spot.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I've always loved that movie, man. So I'm really glad you brought this up. First of all, and let's get this out of the way because I kind of hate this part. I'm a giant fan of all three of you guys. But here's why that's a really good question, and I'm glad you asked it. Because, you know, I'll sometimes when I'm doing –
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
I don't do a lot of them, but I'm doing an interview or being interviewed or something. I will actually volunteer Mr. Mom for a bunch of reasons. A, it was ahead of its time.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And how it came to be was, and it was John Hughes' first, yeah, I think it was the first script he sold.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And then he became John Hughes. Yeah, John Hughes wrote it. And I was sitting and he was pitching me. He didn't have to pitch it. You know, you guys all will know this. When you're reading a script, a comedy script, and the good ones don't come around very often, and you laugh out loud by yourself, let's say, two, three, four times a script, you go, whoa, that's huge.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
It is amazing. And the average layman, let's say, wouldn't know that. But that's how it works. So I remember saying, I remember actually one thing he did, and it was an area that I generally don't laugh or find funny, was the baby had diarrhea. And my head went back. My head went back so far it hit the wall in the back. My head hit the wall. Because it was how it was presented, how it was set up.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And where it came in the script, you know, where he got me, you know, where you were at that point. And I went, boom, right there, that thing kills me right now. So I sat with him. I said, I listened to him. He was not without an ego. And I liked him. But I said, you should direct this thing. You know how to make this movie. He said, no, I'm not going to direct. He was a Chicago ad guy, you know.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
And, yeah. So what I knew about it was, A, it was funny. And I also liked kind of the time. The reason I thought I couldn't do it was I looked like I was about 10 years old. And I thought and then we had to kind of write that in because I thought, OK, let's say he married young. And how do we really believe this?
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
Because as you all three will know, it can be as outrageous, you know, as funny as like Jim Carrey or the craziest guys are, they set up their own reality, right? So once you, it's like Carson used to say, you know, you buy the premise, you buy the joke. So if you set... You go, yeah, that's crazy what he's doing, but it's actually not crazy... In his world. That's right, in that world.
SmartLess
"Michael Keaton"
So I said, how do we believe this guy? Because that's the only thing that's going to work. And there was a lot of rewriting on the set, I will say, between me and my then-manager partner, Harry Columbia, and some other people. It was a great cast. And so what I dug about it was, A, it was funny. I liked playing a father because I liked being a father. I liked what it was about.