Caffeinated Clint
In Disney & Pixar’s “Toy Story 3”, legendary actor Michael Keaton lends his lungs to the ‘toy’ Ken (as in Barbie and Ken), and though the star of blockbuster hits “Batman” and “Beetlejuice” admits it was probably the “easiest” ‘job he’s ever had, he admits he did feel slightly disadvantaged at first.
“I felt like they’d taken away a weapon or a tool”, Keaton says in relation to the voice-over job. “I had to get use to it. I’ve played roles in smaller films where I’m very not been animated, let’s just say, and not expressive … It was hard; it was difficult. [John] Lasseter directed me in the first [“Cars”], and was actually in the booth with me at times, and actually had to bring me up to speed on how this was done and how to work it. It was not easy for me the first time.”
At the same time, Keaton – who is usually very expressive in his performances (even as Batman, where you could only see his mouth in the suit, Keaton’s mouth was unmistakable) – felt it was kind of perfect that he’d had that “weapon” taken away from him in this particular case.
“What I didn’t realize until I saw it was that [Ken and Barbie], unlike some of the other toys, actually are limited. Literally. When I saw them, I was like, “Oh, that’s right. He doesn’t move. He’s built out of that plastic thing.” Actors are unbelievable in the way they think. You kind of go, “Oh, man, if I had known that …” I can never stop working. Anything you see, you always go, “Oh, if I could’ve had another crack at that! Why didn’t think of it? Plastic! It’s so obvious!”
Still, Keaton managed to work with that – and some say they even see a little bit of Burt Reynolds in Keaton’s take on the character.
“That’s interesting – I maybe could’ve worked with that if someone had pointed it out earlier!”, the actor, whose many screen credits include classic comedies like ”Mr Mom” and ”Nightshift”, laughs. “I guess I was trying for something like that… maybe not that guy specifically – but maybe that type of guy from that era.”
Keaton, who says it was reading (Usually Wild West stories, but also Escape stories) that ultimately led him to acting, didn’t need to have his arm twisted to do “Toy Story 3”.
“No thinking required. They’re such great films that I didn’t hesitate to get involved”, he says, adding “I hadn’t seen them in a while, the first two movies, so I revisited them – and they’re great. But I think – and of course, you guys will be the ultimate judge of it – this one might even be better.”
Like all youngsters, the Pennsylvania-born actor loved Christmas as kid – but it wasn’t necessarily because of the sheer amount of fantastically unexpected presents Santa left with him on the day (“I was absolutely amazed by what I’d find there on Christmas morning – either things on my list would be there, or there’d be these toys from out-of-nowhere. I remember thinking ‘This man, Santa Claus, must be a genius!'”, Keaton says) but the packaging they came in.
Explains Keaton, “We grew up outside of industrial western Pennsylvania, but in the country. So it was a combination of country people but in between two gritty mill towns, urban. So my mom was from that, and my dad was a country boy, really. I got in the mail — I don’t know who sent it to me; it must’ve been my mom — a manila envelope after I had written to Santa Claus and filled out my list. I was obsessed with Christmas. I was so in love with the concept of Christmas and Santa Claus and all that stuff. And in the mail, after I sent my list in — and this was I think department stores did this — came an envelope from Santa Claus. I was so gullible as a kid. I was 17 at the time. No, just kidding.
“I was so gullible about the notion that there was this person that did this thing. When I got [the mail], it said, “Master Michael Douglas …” I couldn’t take my eyes off the word “master.” First of all, I thought it was empowering. And second of all, I thought, “Oh, master is what you say when you’re not a mister. I don’t have a wife.” I just remember staring at that envelope. I was so in love with it. I just kept looking and looking at it. No one ever called me “Master Michael” before!”
One thing he does remember playing with is a kid is Lincoln Logs.
”I really loved Lincoln Logs. I had inherited a half-box. Somebody had bought Lincoln Logs and they were laying around, so I kind of found these in the closet … And my mother must’ve seen I really liked them, because the next year I got a full set … [Lincoln Logs] are precursors to Legos. They were made of wood and were little log-cabin kits that you put together”, says Keaton.
“I also had little soldiers … I would look at their faces, and if they didn’t look real enough for me — out! If they had some ridiculous look on their face while they were killing somebody, I wanted nothing to do with that guy. I really looked at the guys, and I would put them in forts, and I started a fire to the point where the fire department had to come. There were a bunch of pine trees that my dad had cut down — old tress that had kind of dried out — and I was playing with my things and I thought, “What would be really realistic would be … Let’s burn it!” So me and my buddy burned it down, and the next thing I know, the whole thing was up [in flames]. I ran all the way home. And the next thing I hear are the [fire-truck] sirens going. We had a brush fire that I [started].”
Funnily enough, the 58-year-old actor doesn’t remember any specifics toys he received for Christmas, only the things that he and his brother use to make themselves.
“My brother even built a two-story shack – from the ground up”, says Keaton. “That was awesome. ”
It’s sad that kids these days are more into their X-Box or “hacking into China” that simply getting out there and making their own fun, says Keaton.
”I may sound like, “Yeah, these kids today …” But I do think even kids today don’t want their [play time] to be quite as sedentary. They may not know why. I hear kids in their 20s talk and they’re saying, “I kind of hate that I’m connected [through technology] so much now.” So there’s a pullback.”
Keaton hopes “Toy Story 3” will spark something in kids that has them yearning to play with a string-pull cowboy or a Mr Potato Head.
The actor, who next appears in the action/comedy “The Other Guys”, says “Toy Story 3” has given him new-found faith in a type of film he’s never really appreciated before-the sequel.
“I think [the makers of sequels] just get soft and lazy, and don’t think they need to try anymore”, Keaton, who had appeared in only one sequel, “Batman Returns” (1992) up till now. “It seems like this is one of the sequels that didn’t dip. Also, people are hipper to that now. I haven’t seen the second Iron Man [movie], but some people said that it’s good, if not better [than the first “Iron Man”] movie. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But I think people are aware of that now.”
“Toy Story 3” opens June 24 around Australia
