1 week Ago By [email protected] (Matt Jackson)
Michael Keaton, who stars in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, has revealed he was unable to go by his real name at work - because it is already being used by another actor. The Screen Actors Guild - the actors’ union - bans its members from sharing a name, leading to stars taking up different monikers. The 73-year-old, whose formidable career has also seen him starring as Batman, was born Michael John Douglas.
Of course, six years his senior is Academy Award-winning actor Michael Douglas, who starred in hits such as Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction. Meanwhile SAG also had talk show host Mike Douglas on its books. It has long been rumoured that Keaton ended up picking his stage name out of the phonebook at random.
Speaking to People magazine, he explained: “I was looking through — I can’t remember if it was a phone book - I must’ve gone, ‘I don’t know, let me think of something here.’ And I went, ‘Oh, that sounds reasonable.’” Now, however, more than five decades after launching his career, the star wants to start using a hybrid of his real name and stage name.
He says he intended to use Michael Keaton Douglas on his most recent directorial project, Knox Goes Away, but ended up forgetting due to the stress of filmmaking. The star added: “I said, ‘Hey, just as a warning, my credit is going to be Michael Keaton Douglas.’ And it totally got away from me.
And I forgot to give them enough time to put it in and create that. But that will happen.” And while he is keen on using a hybrid of his real name, his latest blockbuster, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a sequel to the 1988 cult classic, sees him still being credited as Michael Keaton.
Keaton isn’t the only star to have shared a preference for their birth name. Earlier this year, La La Land star Emma Stone revealed she “would like” to be called Emily. After discovering there was already an Emily Stone register with the union, the Oscar-winner decided to use Emma, inspired by former Spice Girl Emma Bunton.
When asked by the Hollywood Reporter if anyone calls her Emily, she said: “When I get to know them, people that I work with do. It’s just because my name was taken [by another actress in SAG]. Then I freaked out a couple of years ago.
For some reason, I was like, ‘I can’t do it anymore. Just call me Emily.’” When asked about fans addressing her as Emily, she added: “No.
That would be so nice. I would like to be Emily.”.
