By Fred Topel | Image property of Universal Pictures
The Other Guys
Michael Keaton has played cops and action heroes before. In The Other Guys, he is the captain. It’s full circle with Keaton yelling at Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg in a spoof of they typical action hero role.
Michael Keaton Captains The Other Guys
“If I was a higher rank that would be even more of a complete circle,” Keaton said. “I've played a bunch of cops and none on a set that was this much fun. They were all fun. I always have a good time while I'm working. I was talking to someone one day on the phone and he said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Oh man I go to work in the morning and I start laughing. Then I come home thinking about the day laughing. Then I have a really nice meal and stay in a really nice hotel. I wake up in the morning and start it all over again.’ It's the most ridiculously great job.”
It’s all for fun, but Keaton took the part seriously. “I get not annoying, but a tad thorough so I would have probably more conversations than were really necessary. Because I really wanted to do it but I’m a question asker so I said, ‘Yeah, okay, let’s do it but I have certain things lined up to see if I even know what we’re going to do.’ So it was really fundamental stuff. How about this? How do you want to play that? Then I was in.”
Keaton gets in the action a little bit. When Wahlberg tries to beat up a mocking fellow officer (Rob Riggle), the chief has to break it up. “I had to break up that fight. Riggle held is own in that whole fight.”
The Other Guys follows in the tradition of Keaton’s favorite cop movies. “I was going to say Serpico but there’s a little, it’s not really a cop movie per se, but there’s a little film with Dustin Hoffman years ago called Straight Time. It’s a really underrated performance. There’s a scene where he looks at this gun and he’s got to stay straight. It is awesome what he does in it looking at that gun knowing what he’s thinking about. It’s really great.”
Of course, he’s got to plug his own. “One Good Cop is good. Hey man, cops love that movie.”
The Other Guys 
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