Michael Keaton has had some pretty good luck in the Best Picture category at the Oscars recently. Last year he starred in the big winner Birdman, and this year he was part of the incredible ensemble appearing in Thomas McCarthy’s Spotlight. Even though it was his second win in the category, apparently it still very much excited him, as demonstrated by the F-bomb he dropped during this evening’s Academy Awards ceremony:
If you put yourself in Michael Keaton’s shoes, this reaction (courtesy of Twitter user FortyDeuceTwits, is totally understandable. Not only is Spotlight a film that he can be very proud of – having given an absolutely an amazing performance as journalist Walter 'Robby' Robinson – but the title was lined up against a truly impressive list of Best Picture nominees. While Spotlight was long considered one of the frontrunners, many analysts predicted that The Big Short, The Revenant or Mad Max: Fury Road would wind up taking the top prize. So how to do react to this really solid victory? You pump your first and say, "Fuck yeah!" Who cares about the network censors?
As mentioned, Michael Keaton has had some tremendous success in the last few years in the Best Picture category at the Oscars, but we’re still waiting for the day that we can label him as "Oscar winner." His first nomination came last year for his performance in Birdman: The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, though he wound up losing the prize to Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything (Redmayne was also nominated for Best Actor tonight for his role in The Danish Girl, but lost to The Revenant’s Leonardo DiCaprio).
Though some might argue that Michael Keaton should have been nominated for Best Actor this year because of his amazing Spotlight performance, the good news is that he probably has a great shot at a nod at next year’s ceremony. He recently completed work on the John Lee Hancock-directed The Founder, which will be coming out in October and has been described as a Social Network-esque biopic that centers around McDonalds co-founder Ray Kroc. Obviously Keaton’s turn has to be both good and good enough to beat out other potential candidates for nomination, but one could see the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences really loving the opportunity to give Keaton a prize after some felt he was snubbed for Birdman.
After being given a limited release last November, Spotlight is now available on both Blu-ray and DVD. You’ll be able to see Michael Keaton’s next performance in The Founder, which will be in theaters on November 25th (and co-stars Linda Cardellini, Patrick Wilson, Nick Offerman, Laura Dern, and B.J. Novak). For now, you can just watch and enjoy the eternally looping video of Keaton’s Fuck Yeah Fist Pump.
