Keaton back in action in spy thriller
Actor’s comeback continues with the spy thriller American Assassin
Michael Keaton is enjoying another very good year.
He earned praise for his Vulture villain in the summer hit SpiderMan: Homecoming. Last winter, his portrayal of McDonald’s fast food CEO Ray Kroc in The Founder picked up positive reviews. His rejuvenation began with an Oscar nomination for his 2014 role in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), and a year later, he earned great notices for his journalist role in Spotlight.
Currently, Keaton is shooting Tim Burton’s live-action remake of the classic Disney animated motion picture Dumbo in England.
On a break from shooting the movie — which is a reunion with his Batman director — Keaton acknowledges his good fortune over the past few years.
“When you get the opportunity, you have to be ready,” says Keaton, promoting his latest film, American Assassin.
“I’m honestly doing what I’ve always done, just maybe a more sophisticated version of it and with a little more enthusiasm.”
In the spy thriller American Assassin, based on the popular 2010 Vince Flynn novel, Keaton portrays Stan Hurley, a former black-ops agent brought out of retirement to train assassin Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien) to eliminate terrorists after Rapp’s fiancée is killed in an attack.
When a Hurley-trained rogue operative (Taylor Kitsch), code named Ghost, is linked to the theft of a nuclear weapon, Rapp and Hurley are forced team up with a Turkish spy (Shiva Negar) to track him down in Europe before he causes an international crisis.
“I don’t think I had really acted in anything like this before,” says Keaton, who turns 66 on Sept. 5.
“It’s a big, international movie with international locations, which is fun. And the timing was right, and sometimes it’s really that simple.”
Certainly, the actor was aware of the bestselling Flynn series of books focusing on Rapp’s counterterrorism assignments and understood the narrative would be controversial.
But he also had confidence director Michael Cuesta would present a sophisticated story.
“The movie’s unfortunately relevant, and somebody else is going to make a movie about terrorism and that’s going to be relevant, and that’s the condition of the world,” Keaton says.
“But I wasn’t interested in doing something that’s clichéd or black and white with people doing horrible things based on their (religious) philosophy.”
There’s no denying that some American Assassin sequences, filmed mostly in London and Rome last year, have haunting links to recent attacks in Spain and France.
“I’d be a liar if I said, ‘No, I don’t think about it,’” Keaton says. “Who doesn’t?”
Still, Keaton had confidence that the filmmaker and his creative team would find the fine line between presenting an entertaining action film and at the same time be responsible about it. “Michael (Cuesta) is really an intelligent director, and we were always in agreement that we had to make it a nuanced film.”
Initially, Keaton was all about comedy with his films Night Shift (1982), Mr. Mom (1983) and Beetlejuice (1988). But his transition into the superhero universe with 1989’s Batman and 1992’ sB at man Returns elevated him to an A-list level.
Turning down a third Batman flick, and a US$15 million payday, was the unintentional start of his slump that lasted a few decades, defined by appearances in marginal and mediocre movies and guest spots on TV shows.
Some pundits speculated he had unofficially retired by 2000.
“It was kind of overblown that I was bored and I quit,” Keaton says. “I did kind of sit out a little bit. Some of it was my choice, but a lot of it was people choosing to say, ‘We’re not really interested.’”
Ironically, portraying the hasbeen superhero in director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Birdman changed his status almost overnight. Now, he’s grateful and thankful and dedicated to improving his craft.
“I think I learn from everybody I work with,” Keaton says. “I learn from people who are 10 years old and people who are 90 years old. If you think you know everything, you get closed off.”
American Assassin opens Sept. 15.
I’m honestly doing what I’ve always done, just maybe a more sophisticated version of it and with a little more enthusiasm.