[IMG:L]Anyone who didn’t get enough of the CIA/Cold War from The Good Shepherd will delight in TNT’s three part miniseries The Company. People who didn’t quite make it through Robert DeNiro‘s big screen version may find it easier to divvy the grand story up between three nights.
The Company kicks off Aug. 5 with a two hour premiere on TNT followed on subsequent Sundays with the epic story of CIA evolves from the 1950s through Gorbachev. Blending history and fiction, the drama focuses on three agents. Michael Keaton plays James Jesus Angleton, described as an obsessive CIA counter intelligence specialist. With his expressive eyebrows, and chain smoking in the ’60s, Keaton can easily convey such a character. In person though, he’s all fun, riffing about his process and his previous work.
Hollywood.com: Your character is described as obsessive. How do you physically manifest obsessions?
Michael Keaton: Well, he was a lot of things I guess, obsessive and paranoid and kind of genius I think. So I don’t know about the physical, outside of the smoking. I don’t know how many more physical characteristics can be attributed to his obsessiveness.
HW: What are the best or juiciest things you got to play?
MK: I don’t know if this was the best, but I’ve never aged in a film before. Not to that degree where I played a character who spanned that many years. So that was difficult. Difficult and juicy is very often the same thing.
HW: Did the makeup help?
MK: Oh sure, absolutely. I always thought this was the job. It’s what you were supposed to do, put on wigs and makeup and try to play other characters. So I always have tried to seek that out.
HW: How did you feel about using smoking as a prop?
MK: I was a smoker and a chewer. I chewed Skoal for about eight years. I’ve always been able to smoke in a movie and quit but these were herbal cigarettes. There was no real way around that because that was the fact. That’s what they did. So it’s not like somebody said, “Well, you know, the guy smokes. You’ve got to smoke.” I don’t really look forward to doing that again.
HW: Do you remember your feelings during the cold war?
MK: I was a kid. Did you ever see Hope and Glory? It’s a tremendous take on the war. I probably would have been that kid. So my recollection was I don’t probably have those memories that some of my friends do of hiding under our desks when we’re attacked. I went to Catholic school so I was hiding under my desk most of the time. So no, I really don’t have that. I just was in love with everything, anything that I saw on television or in a movie theater, I just thought was as exciting as can be. To me, I was wildly in love with World War II movies, the good guys and the bad guys. What I love about this and I find intriguing, that I find probably reflective of where we are now is the gray areas. The gray areas keep getting grayer. I don’t think people really want to admit that. It’s like there’s a Republican party and a Democratic party and about three other parties. At some point it’s starting to become ludicrous because the world doesn’t work that way. It works less and less like that as time goes on because the world is complex. One of the things, I haven’t seen all of this frankly, but I love the take on the ambiguities of the situation. As a kid, that wouldn’t have appealed to me at all. I think there was also probably less ambiguity and a whole lot less information.
HW: What’s going on in TV that you like and respect?
MK: I think pound for pound the writing is about 50 times better than most features. Certainly not all features but like I say, pound for pound, if you add it all up, there is tremendous writing going on. It must be a case of the writers finally getting a chance to actually write and explore and do and say things and not worry about your opening, I guess. That’s the only reason I can account for.
HW: What shows do you like?
MK: Well, I don’t watch much television really because I’m never around to watch television. I certainly was a fan of The Sopranos. I love what HBO does and I like what Showtime does. There was a show called Huff. I had seen a couple of episodes of that. I thought that was really imaginative. I don’t know, there’s no real one show. I think I just will occasionally see something and be either impressed [or not]. I don’t tune in every week to anything really.
HW: You did such great comedy earlier in your career. Is there any comedy on TV you like?
MK: I think Curb Your Enthusiasm is really funny. I actually saw that show with Charlie Sheen in it. I thought that was funny, I thought that kid was funny. Yeah, I think Entourage is funny.
HW: What about doing some comedy again?
MK: Oh yeah, I’m dying to. I’m dying to. I just never get anything that I think is very funny.
HW: When did that start happening?
MK: I don’t know. Honestly, frankly, it’s a mystery to me. I get offered things all the time but I don’t ever get offered comedies I go, “Wow, this is funny.” I just don’t see them very often. I see comedies but none of them really knock me out. Like all the great stuff Judd Apatow’s doing and Steve Carell, Seth Rogen. All those guys, they’re great, man. They’re awesome. There are so many good, funny guys around now.
HW: So you’d never be the typical sitcom dad?
MK: I don’t think I’m any good at that. I don’t think I’m any good. Honestly, I’m not being humble. I think I’m really bad at it. I did an episode about a year, I don’t know when it was, a couple years ago of Frasier and I was horrible. I was horrible. I was unfunny and not good, honestly.
HW: What is your favorite genre?
MK: I don’t have a favorite. I don’t have a favorite at all. There’s nothing more fun than good comedy so I’m always up for that. I hope one comes along. I’m looking at one now that’s pretty funny.
HW: Did you take a break from acting a few years ago?
MK: Kinda sort of, I think that was exaggerated. I kind of did, yeah, but I’ve always done that. People just didn’t notice. I just go live life. Like I was talking to Alan Arkin about this. He and I are similar. We always wanted to have a big life and a nice career as opposed to a giant career and no life. I always thought you gotta have a really good life and I have a really nice life. I’m fortunate.
HW: What do you do in your real life?
MK: Well, I’m a real normal person. I’ve got a lot of interests and a lot of things, little side issues I’ve had for years which are environmental or for years ago, I did some children’s things and then I run a ranch. I try to be in Europe and I’m a father. Even though my son’s older, I’ll always be a father so I’m a full time father.
