And by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Stars in the movie birdman, he plays a washed up actor trying to make a comeback on broadway. Keaton rose to fame, big fame in 1989 with tim burtons batman. But until to you he has been mostly out of the spotlight. Los Angeles Times writes of his performance, it is so intensely truthful, so ear ily in the moment that it is hard to imagine keaton will ever be better. I spoke with him recently in los angeles at his home. Where were you in your life when the idea of birdman came to you or you went to it . I was working on a film in canada. And i got i received a call from my agent. And they said all hando inarritu has a script that he wants to talk to you, that he wants to discuss with you. And already i was interested. And she said i dont know how are you going to do this she didnt say dont come. She said how are we going to figure this out. He cant fly there, or something. But he wants to talk to you here. And i thought well, its probably not going to work. And then i thought about it for the night. And i called her back, i will make this, without. I flew back to a restaurant right up the street because all hando lives over there, right over there. And we met thats how it came so then we met and discussed it. And he asked me how i worked. And i asked him how he worked. And as i tell people, the script would have to have been horrible, like unreadable for me to say no because i think any actor will tell you, and and i said you know, he called me to say some really nice things. I said yeah, we were both talking about how good all hando alejandro is. I said all you have to do is see a couple of his movies. In fact, all you have to look at is and i probably would have signed on. He says all i had to see was the crash, the Automobile Accident scene. And i would have signed on. He is one of those people, you know, he is extraordinary, an extraordinary filmmaker. And has become a friend. And you have interviewed him. Rose oh yeah. Hes something, isnt he. Rose oh, yeah. Your father was a drink s that true . Is that true . No, no. Because my father was. My father is a mean drunk. You understand . Okay he beat the out of me. I was okay. He said im taking off my belt or dow want me to take it off and use it. I said well, i made myself you know, but. Okay, okay, okay, hey, hey, hey. Oh, god i didnt know. Im sorry. Im sorry, that is thats horrible. Im sorry. I can pretend too, you know. Im telling you you have no idea. Come on, lets go. Come on. Yeah . Yeah. Why dont you get your wings and your bird sue,man. Everybody talks about you and whether you were working a lot or not working. Uhhuh. Were you working a lot at the time that this came on your plate or were you sort of saying maybe its time i start working . No, i made that decision over a year before that. I kind of, i kind of started dialing in the scope a little clearer. And on the rifle. And i had already done the the truth is i was always doing something. Because i always feel i felt like you have to stay in the gym to some degree, you know. And how i did it was sometimes not on the sly but i would go do something that maybe i didnt care if it just kind of went away, just to explore a character or sometimes i would do it once i took it because the job was so right down the street. The money was good. I admit, guilty as charged. That is not the smartest thing to do ive learned. But i did it so i was always doing that. But i certainly dialed it up by doing hbo project with larry david. Robo cop. There was Something Else in there i keep forgetting and all pretty good stuff. And then 24 came along. So it was never like there was like an absence of me, i suppose. In is that i was pretty board with what i was the words coming out of my mouth. Not necessarily i wasnt crazy about the things i was getting. But it was more me than it, you know. Rose you were tired of yourself. Yeah, kind of over myself for a while. Rose so you went to montana. I lived in montana on and off. I mean part of the year for my kid is 31, so you know, almost 27 years now, Something Like that. Just hanging out . Well a lot of fishing you and brokaw fishing. We fish a lot. And then do television and talk about it. Yes. How about is that job. Yeah, and being, you know, i always wanted to be i always knew as a kid i needed to live, i had to be outdoors. I dont know how to not be outdoors. And i had to either have a farm or some space or my dream since i had been a little guy but i was obsessed with the west and but you know, it was a place where i have a Great Community of friends there. Probably more there now than probably anywhere. A 1q e beginning the ranch operated in a ranch, you know, it was an operation, a little bit of cattle, a little bit of hey. And then i dont pretend to act like its really more of a its more of a recreational and big amount of space where i just feel at home. Rose because the perception was, even the president of the united states. Yes. He said hey, why dont you make more movies . First words out of his mouth. Which was a little disconcerting. Because you had been making movies. Not to me. Im thinking that is an interesting question, coming from you. But you who were trying to the leader of the free world, why are you worried about that. Rose but it does show a perception that you werent making a lot of movies. Yeah, to some degree, well, i wasnt making a lot of movies. The truth is a never really made a lot of movies. For as long as i have been doing this, i dont think i have that many. You know, i have probably popped in here and there on little things. But not that many. I could have certainly done a lot more. When you met with alejandro did you say to him s this my life . You know, he and i really try to remember this. I guess, he if he said we did then i dont think we made it up he made it up. I didnt say that but i probably said okay, on es obviously there is obviously this thing. Do we how do we not make that the issue which was never his intention. Because as you know, surely its about alejandro. Rose its about him. Exactly. Im just the vessel. So like to that degree i probably mentioned something. Because he said i did. But honestly, i dont remember a big i dont think we had the time to say well, you know, you played batman and youre an actor. For me i thought well, this will drag me and it down. Lets just jump over that. We have got a lot of work to do, you know, because of the difficulty of making this movie. But we probably acknowledged it. In fact, i was surprised during the shooting of it that he didnt talk about it more. That he i was just kind of surprised by it. But he was so there was so much to do. And that seemed to be i dont know. Unless i missed something. Let me just look back at the things that you have excelled at that pleased you. Starting with nightshift. What was it about that. Ron howard said later one of the great regrets of his career is he never found a place where you two could Work Together again. Yeah. First of all, thats hard to do because you have to understand and im sure you do understand, as great as all this attention is, and man s it great. Is it fun. I make no bones about it im not coy about anything. Rose yeah. Let alone this. It really is always a question of what comes to you when. I mean i definitely have worked really hard im a hard worker and i dialed it up. And i changed a few things around and really started to lock in. And i look the at it like a 15 rounder. And i said i know what i am going to do and im going to do it because by about round 12, im not getting hes to the getting off his back. Rose hes out for the count. And that was pie goal. So i said yeah, but you are only in the fourth round now but how do you get there. So i started to sit down thinking, working, focus. And i never stopped trying to be good at what i do. Everything would come up, all that said, and taken the truth is you have to have the good fortune and have this it has to come along with the right director. You have to have a piece of material that is any good at all, not just birdman n anything. Any actor out there has to have the opportunity you know, so a friend of mine once said a relative or someone once said about a role, that was a great role and great movie said to him, why didnt you do that movie. And he looked at them and said, it doesnt work like that. It is not like he said ill do that you have to be in the right place at the right time. Everything has to work out. And to a large degree, thats what this is. How much of it i created and how you be believedly blessed i am and the good fortune a combination of all that. So it comes around so im sure ron is right. He looks at certain things and goes thats not really right for him or that could be right for him or so Something Like this could have come around when i was 28 or 32 or and maybe i would have been good in that. I would like to think that it doesnt matter. You just you know sometimes it you get all the wood on the ball. Sometimes you get a good chunk of the wood on the ball. And sometimes you miss the ball. When tim came to you for beatel us. I didnt understand what was dk gheit el juice. I didnt under than what he was talking about but i liked him. I thought well this guy is svming i wish i could do it you seem like a really nice guy. I know are you creative but i dont know i dont get it. And i got a phone call that said would you talk to him again. And i liked him. So i thought yeah, sure. Explain more to me what you are trying to do. And when you see t you understand why it was probably hard for him to explain. And i went home, i thought wow, i just dont i like this guy. I would like i thought no, dont do it and then i met him again at a Mexican Restaurant and we talked and talked and talked. And he said a couple of things that i just logged in. I said give me the night, or two days. And i called the Wardrobe Department and because he said something that made me think of something. And i said send me wardrobe from different time periods randomly. Just pick a rack. And he said something about Something Else about we exist in all times and all spaces. And then i thought of an idea of a walk. And i knew had to be i said i dont know. I called and said i got an idea. And i dont know if its going to work on not so lets just go do this thing. And here is the amazing part about it. He never saw any of it. We discussed it, i said i want hair that looks like i stuck my phone in an electrical outlet. And its wardrobe, i said i want mold. He said like he was under rock. I want mold some where. And she created this amazing and then so then i said okay. And i showed up for work and i walked on the stage and said this is either going to be way off the mark or hes just going to i dont know what he is going to do. He got it meetly. And its not like it was way out of what he was talking about. But it was and he said yes, that and lets do more of that and gave this unbelievably free thing with do you know why this is a Favorite Movie of so many people including the president . No, i dont. But i saw the most adorable little girl the other day. I was getting coffee and i can could not take my eyes off how unbelievably cute this kid was. She was about, i found out later how old she was. Because im going oh, man, i have spent if she was mine, i wouldnt have a job. I would just hang out with her all day. She was the cutest thing i ever saw. Got a call, and the guy calls me over and says do you know her Favorite Movie. And gi know, but she sure is cute. Her favorite, she is this big. Her Favorite Movie is beetle us. And i thought beetlejuice, i said are you sure that is okay. No, she quotes the lines, so it goes from that to 80yearold people. No, i couldnt tell you why. I think it is something where they just have never seen anything like it before which is a credit to tim original. Thats what he is, original. And then he comes to you for batman . Yes. Which everybody is kind of, but tim got it, because he and i got know each other. He said no, no, no this is and in fairness i think a couple of the guys, a couple of the executives thought maybe its with a bad idea. They were probably looking at marketability you know, because beetlejuice was very popular. And but he got it and i got it immediately. I went oh, yeah, i know what this is. Rose what did you say it was in your mind . You know, dark, however you want to everybody says dark, dark say relative thing. I didnt see it i also thought this is also funny. And i dont know that that factors into how they do it now. But i said no, no, there is i said and he is obviously a depressed dude, you know. He witnessed the death of his mother and father, so lets start with that. And and tim was just looking and he had that long hair, i remember his hair going as we go and i said everything he said he was like yeah, yeah, but i thought so a what does that mean. He said youve got it i agree with you. And then he expounded upon it even more. And then i thought okay. Well, whatever. Good luck on that, warner brothers. And de. And 400 million later. Yeah, he started everything with that. He was he created the whole look with anton first and everybody else. But the whole he just saw t you know, and went for it and. Rose and then batman too. Yeah swirx fine. It was all right. I thought that is too bad, this is inherently an interesting character, operatic, really. I know it is comic booky and pulpy, but really under it, it is not like youve never seen the dual personality thing, you know, weve seen that before. But cirano deberjerac and all that. But there was something way more. I thought a this isnt very good. And tims not involved any more. Blah, blah, blah. But also what was interesting was where he would go, where that guy could go. And the way to get him to where i thought he should go. Lets go back and just retrace how he got there again. You know, which sult mately what they did, in the 17th or 18th or fourth or fifth version of it but its inherently an interesting guy. And for me the key always was, i only said this interesting it was never about batman t was bruce wayne, you know. That was the way in, who is that guy. And who is that guy on the screen that would be as least at least a little ent takening as opposed to grim. Rose right, right. Was it hard to walk away. No, easy, easy. Rose even when they rolled up the bank well well, yeah, im not going to there was one occasion, people would ask me this and i go, because it never really changed my life. I live the same way that i it just went like that. There is only one thing, this hunk of real estate i wanted to buy, oh, i would like to have that. It had a good river on it. And i went. Rose and it cost money. And it cost a lot of money. And i thought that one hurt for about a day. Rose only a day. Oh, yeah. Rose if i had done this i could have maybe bought this. If i argue i would do any of those, there is no birdman. Rose if you had done another batman there would be no birdman . Uhhuh. Because i also thought look, the wayne, our comic friend, he looked at me like he didnt understand the controversy. He said you cant do that again. Because maybe a handful of people went youre in big trouble if you keep going down that road. Will you have to do a lot of work and remind people of Everything Else you do. Whether theyre right or wrong, i really have no idea. But i just thought why should i keep by the way, had it been kind of good, and as tim said, i really want to do this again. I would have probably done it. You want to be into those kind of alejandro, you know. You want to be in business with those kind of artists. And they bring on new directors, new story ideas and worry about whether it is going too dark and all of that. They could go darker and darker and darker. Yeah, exactly, yeah. A wildly creative guy so when you left that, where were you in your own your own head. Have you been in to batman. Go do a bump of stuff i did, and some was good and some wasnt was okay. And that would have happened regardless. But there is no doubt that you have to keep on going, you have to be in the last movie that made money. Just a fact of life. I understood the risk of that. I thought one of these next roles i take is going to have to do a little bit of money. Do a little bit of business. And some did okay. And some didnt. And also right around the end, the business changed. I would say not in america, not in the movie business but the world has gone strip mall. Really a strip mall. A couple 6 anchor stores. If you look at them as global things, the big anchor stores are china, india, america. And Everything Else backs watered down. New york doesnt look like what new york used to look like. New york is what america and ultimately the world is so in the movie business, its just part of all of that. Its corporate and by the way, whoever is complaining about or whining about it should go do Something Else for a living, i guess. It is the way it is. You know, you are either a Long Distance runner or you aint a Long Distance runner. Thats why i keep doing this endurance is one thing. You have to build a lot of kind of muscles. And i dont like to luls. So i thought yeah, ill figure out a way to do all this. Et ceteras go. Where are we going. To get you some coffee. Did i do something to disrespect you. Not yet. Look, i have a lot riding on this. Is that right . Yeah. People know who i am. They dont know you, your work, man, they know the guy from the bird suit who goes and tells stories on letterman. Sorry if im popular. Popular . Popular . Popularity is just bloody little cousin of my friend. I done even know what the that means. It means my reputation is riding on this and that is worth a lot. Exactly. If this doesnt work out for you you go back to your video, and dive back into that cultural genocide are you perpetrating. A douchebag is born every minute, that was pd barnums premise when he invented the circus and nothing much has changed. You know if you put out any piece of crap people will line up to see it but long after you are gone i will be on that stage earning my living, bearing my soul wrestling with complex mum emotion, that is what we do. Is that what tonight, you wrestling with complex emotion. Tonight was about being alive. This isnt a new york city is how we do things. Where are you going . They have coffee here. What is interesting about birdman and boy you knee it after you had that dinner with alejandro, it really was, it was his story too. Here is a guy who was wondering what is it all about. Yeah. And