Michael Keaton holds a big place in our hearts. As Batman himself, and having appeared in almost everything from Oscar-winning drama movies to tear-jerking Christmas movies, Michael Keaton could be thought of as one of the best actors of all time.
But one not-so-beloved piece of his acting career is the ‘90s movie Multiplicity. The comedy movie, directed by Harold Ramis, is about a man named Doug who creates multiple versions of himself.
Why? To split the load of daily life, and allowing himself to balance family life, work, and still manage to find time for himself. Naturally, when there are multiple versions of Doug running around, things go very wrong.
Generally speaking, the movie was panned by critics. In fact, it’s still sitting at 45% on Rotten Tomatoes to this very day.
But Keaton still looks back fondly on the movie, reflecting [via Entertainment Weekly] how it was “so different from how you could do it now, acting against yourself with a ping-pong ball. But I loved it.”
“The other thing that I like about it is, [the character] is cloned, but I didn’t want a fat suit. I didn’t want makeup. The challenge was, he’s off just a hair from his original self.”
To Keaton, the project was more than your typical goofy comedy. It was a movie that allowed him to explore a different side of his filmography, and pay homage to some of his favorite comedians.
“To me, Steve Martin invented what I call smart-dumb,” he explained. “Jim Carrey does it so well too, Jerry Lewis. And this movie is somewhat of an homage to all those great big silly comics. Comedy is hard! To be good at it is hard.”
For more laughs, check out our list of the best comedy series. Or, to get nuts, check out our The Flash review and see who plays Batman in The Flash. Don’t forget to check out all the other new movies coming out this year, as well as our list of the best movies of all time, too.