Michael Keaton

You’ve been doing a lot of truestory projects in film and television lately. Is there something especially fulfilling about portraying these relatively recent true stories and these characters who feel the moral obligation to do the right thing?

Well, sure. I mean, I guess personally there is but ego-wise, to be honest, I guess there is. I haven’t thought of it like that. But it’s satisfying because I’m in a fortunate position where what I do for a living affords me an opportunity to possibly change things or affect people in some way. And if you’re

talking about “Spotlight” or “Worth” or “9/11” or this or some other things that I’ve done, yeah, I’m fortunate in that regard, I think. I look at it as just a perk to what I’ve chosen to do for a living. I’m not necessarily seeking these things out, but they certainly get my

attention.

You played an addict in “Clean and Sober” back in 1988. How do you see this in terms of portraying addiction now? What are the changes over the years that you’ve seen as far as being able to just tell stories more freely about the actual depths of addiction and what it does to people?

Well ... addiction’s been around since forever, opium addicts and heroin addicts ... and alcoholism and all that. And so ... the awareness is much greater and what we know about it.

And also the ... stigma has changed about addiction in general. And I kind of thought, well, I played that one time and I did something on that subject. And then this came up. So, sometimes I think, well, do I really want to read this and anything, because I tend to not want to read just anything? Do I really want to? But this is societal and has a much larger canvas or bigger story to tell, I think.

And what people know, the information

that’s out there now is greater.