Originally published December 12, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
A few weeks ago Christian Bale admitted that he was a little envious of Ben Affleck suiting up as The Dark Knight in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but Michael Keaton doesn’t share his jealousy.
Responding to a question from Shortlist about whether he ever gets jealous seeing someone else in the role, the Birdman star stated: “No. Do you know why? Because I’m Batman. I’m very secure in that.”
Keaton went on to discuss the impact of Tim Burton’s Batman on the superhero movie: “Tim changed, or started, everything. And I’m proud of the choice I made, in terms of how to play Batman. It’s probably easier now because Tim paved the way, and if I did anything to pave the way, I’m proud of that, too. I’ve never seen [a superhero movie] beginning to end. Oh actually, I saw the first Spider-Man – I thought that was really good. You can step into it more easily now, is my guess. Technically, [superhero movies] do everything for you. They create a world where all you’ve basically got to do is show up, not f*ck it up too much and you’ll come off OK.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZqEqJ-QNmio&list=PL18yMRIfoszH_jfuJoo8HCG1-lGjvfH2F
