Michael Keaton has 'zero interest' in Batman movies

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) - Michael Keaton graces the cover of Friday's edition of Entertainment Weekly in anticipation of his role in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Birdman," and, as with surely all of the relatively few interviews Keaton grants, he talked about his most famous role, Batman.

More specifically, he admits that he doesn't watch Batman movies, though he's sure they're not bad.

Keaton told EW, "Chris Nolan is great, but I've never seen any of the Batman movies all the way through. I know they're good. I just have zero interest in those kinds of movies."

Keaton helped bring the Dark Knight back into pop culture in the late 80s and 90s when he starred in Tim Burton's two acclaimed films.

"I mean, people are asking me, 'Is Ben Affleck going to be any good?' And my attitude is, First of all, why would you ask me? Second, he's probably going to be very good, and third, frankly, it's all set up now so that you're weirdly kind of safe. Once you get in those suits, they really know what to do with you. It was hard then; it ain't that hard now."

Keaton also downplayed the similar connection between his own life and his "Birdman," in which he plays a movie star who faded into obscurity after giving up his superhero character.

""The truth is that I was playing a person, just a person," he said. "I was both as connected to Riggan and as disconnected from him as you can possibly be. And I have to tell the truth about that."

"Birdman" opens in theaters Oct. 17.