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Michael Keaton speech at Tim Burton's Hollywood Walk of Fame star unveiling ceremony on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, at 6600 Hollywood Boulevard in front of Hollywood Toys & Costumes in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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Michael Keaton speech at Tim Burton's Hollywood Walk of Fame star unveiling ceremony on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, at 6600 Hollywood Boulevard in front of Hollywood Toys & Costumes in Los Angeles, California, USA.
This video is only available for editorial use in all media and worldwide. To ensure compliance and proper licensing of this video, please contact us. ©MaximoTV
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00:00Welcome, Walk of Famer, Michael Keaton.
00:07Hey, hey, thank you, thank you very much.
00:24Thank you very much.
00:29You have to, thank you, you have to stand there during all this.
00:34Boy, I can do that.
00:42Yo, I'm going to do, I'm going to do what Tim and I, I got to say respectfully do usually
00:53when we start a project.
00:55We see this script and we kind of go, okay, and then we start making things up.
01:06Some of this is going to be things I've said before, so bear with me.
01:11The first two or three meetings I had with Tim, I was told there's this young, talented
01:20director, and he wants to meet you for something, so I go and I have a meeting and it was pleasant.
01:29And I left and they said, what did you think?
01:32And I said, nice guy, I have no idea what he's talking about.
01:36And then two or three meetings that were really similar, I went home and he, this time I think
01:43there were some sketches, if I'm not mistaken, and I said, I like him even more, for sure
01:48I love this guy.
01:49I still have no idea what he's talking about when we're talking about Beetlejuice.
01:55But five movies later, and over 30 years of knowing him, I still have no idea what he's
02:07talking about.
02:09Not only do I know what he's talking about, seriously, I feel it on every movie.
02:16I don't, now there's, it's beyond shorthand.
02:19So when I hear Winona and other people use this word, weird, well then count me in because
02:28I feel really, really comfortable around this guy working with him.
02:32It's just a joy.
02:35I vividly remember the first day walking on the set of Beetlejuice and I had some ideas
02:41that I thought might work and I was in the wardrobe and everything and Tim hadn't even,
02:46and I had never even rehearsed anything.
02:49I remember it so clearly and then walking on thinking, well I hope this works, and then
02:55Tim giving me kind of a brief tour of the sets, which, to say it was, first of all you
03:04walk in and you go, shrunken heads, okay, shrunken heads, you go, alright.
03:11And then you see these remarkable, beautiful sets and it really only, it didn't take me
03:15very long to just to feel really, really comfortable and it's been like that ever since.
03:23It just feels good to be around art and to be a part of it.
03:30It's rare and it's an experience I get to have every time I'm on a set with Tim.
03:37When you think there were these two young guys, this kid from Burbank and me, really
03:42getting away with something that no one quite knew what we were doing, and then you bring
03:47into the mix the great Juan Ona, who's as sweet as can be and talented, and my pal Catherine
03:56and the rest of the cast, and it just always got better.
04:00So I'm sorry, I'm going to read here a little bit, but the openness, Danny will tell you
04:06this, the openness that he has to creativity.
04:09You know, there's no, a lot of times there are directors who are threatened or insecure.
04:14He's never been like that, at least in my experience.
04:18It's just an openness to ideas and creativity.
04:21So there's also this wonderful lack of pretension.
04:25In fact, in this second one and even in the first one, Tim actually comments on the pretentiousness
04:33of some art, and you always think back and say, well, did they say that?
04:41This thing of thinking outside the box or being different or being not the usual, did
04:46they say that about the Surrealists and the Cubists?
04:49I'm sure they did, and this guy, when it comes to film, is in that world to me.
04:54He's right there.
04:57I just want to finish here in a minute by talking about the whole Batman thing, you
05:03know?
05:06He hands me a script and says, please read this and tell me what you think.
05:11Now, this is after Beetlejuice, after that performance, after that type of movie, and
05:18he says to the studio, I want that guy.
05:24I'll never understand this, why anyone even cared, but the uproar.
05:30You would have thought we were being invaded.
05:32It was unbelievable.
05:33The press went crazy, but he stuck by me.
05:36The guts it took for him to make that decision will always be special to me, obviously, but
05:44also, you bet, but also what that spawned.
05:51There are a lot of people making a lot of money out there with their superhero movies
05:58because of his choice and his vision of what those movies can be, because he changed everything.
06:06I've said it a hundred times, but it's true.
06:14The man's a genre unto himself, and I'll just say this.
06:22Who would have thought when I showed up that this guy from right over there in Burbank
06:28and me from this little town in Pennsylvania with these ideas would have ever created this
06:35and come to this moment?
06:37Well, I guess you and I would have thought that.
06:43To misquote, and I don't know why I didn't say this the first day I ever walked on the
06:48set after the end of my first day of shooting with the guy, to somewhat misquote Bogart
06:53from Casablanca, Tim, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
07:00Thanks, buddy. You're the best.
07:09Michael Keaton, everybody.