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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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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.

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