Michael Keaton has spent most of his career on the fringes of Hollywood even after playing such iconic roles as Batman and starring in cult classic Beetlejuice. It's fairly easy to draw parallels between Keaton and the character he plays in his latest film, Birdman.

Michael Keaton
Michael Keaton stars in Birdman.

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Birdman stars Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson, an actor famous for playing an iconic superhero (Birdman) in a series of films, who attempts to launch a Broadway play and save his career. Edward Norton, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts co-star in the dark comedy. 

The cast discussed the film with ABC before the screening of Birdman at the New York Film Festival on Friday (17th Oct.). Keaton also touched on the similarities between himself and Thomson. The 63-year-old said "Specifically, in the last couple of years, [I] started saying, 'I've got to start focusing more on not being so lazy and going after the things.'" 

Watch The Trailer For Birdman:


Keaton further explained how he has the luxury to wait for the right script to come along and evidently he felt Birdman was one he couldn't pass up on. Keaton said, "I always turned a ton of things down, but it's not like I turned really great things down necessarily. You wait for that great script to come along, or you hope it's attached with a great director. And that's what happened."

Keaton also praised the film highly for being utterly original. He stated he was "unbelievably blessed" to have been involved in the film. "This is 100 percent original," Keaton gushed, "You don't get more original than what Tim [Burton] did with Beetlejuice and arguably what he did with the first Batman too."

Birdman is out in US cinemas from 17th October and is released in the UK on 2nd January 2015.

Read More: How A Boozy Night Could Have Led To Michael Keaton's Oscar Winning Role.

Birdman
Michael Keaton and Edward Norton in Birdman.