Michael Keaton: A highly driven guy

He has played superheroes and superfreaks. Now he's back in the new 'Herbie' comedy. Tiffany Rose meets him

Soon the 53-year-old actor could pick and choose his projects and, not surprisingly, he opted to work with top-notch directors including John Schlesinger (Pacific Heights); Ron Howard (The Paper) and Quentin Tarantino (Jackie Brown). But then it all suddenly appeared to go pear-shaped. Keaton just disappeared. Where did he go? Did he have a breakdown? Did he annoy some Hollywood hotshot? "Not so," beams the still boyishly handsome lean actor with the salt-and-pepper hair.

Munching (which inadvertently leads to mumbling) on a chocolate-chip cookie, he muses: "I needed to live my life away from the industry. I'm interested in the world. I had a relationship with a Spanish woman and I love being in Europe. I like fishing in Argentina and hiking in New Zealand and taking care of my horses in California. I love being a father and working on my garden and just sitting around doing nothing in particular. I really wish I could tell you I was working on something fascinating, but I don't try and pretend to be something I'm not.

"Besides," he adds between bites, "I had reached a point when I looked at some of my work and thought: 'What are you doing? You're not very good in that. So why are you doing it?'"

In a profession where egos rule and talent doesn't necessarily always come into play, how could such a versatile Hollywood movie star doubt his gift? Keaton places a cookie on the plate and solemnly says: "It wasn't worth it to me to not feel good about myself, and to have to look up at the screen and go... urgh!" He pulls a comedic face. "So I had to be honest with myself and do things for the right reasons.

"This business becomes consuming. To be really successful you do have to be around it all the time. Unfortunately, I didn't know if it was really that important to me and I'm a driven guy when I want to do something. I worked hard to become successful, but it gets harder to be really, really good."

We're chatting about Keaton's new movie, in which he plays the father of the teen sensation Lindsay Lohan, in the Disney family adventure Herbie: Fully Loaded. He took the part purely because he was in the mood to work. "It's a charming movie. The Bug is adorable," Keaton beams. "I'm sure there will be some demented guy saying: 'Herbie is crazy', but it's a cute movie, you can't go wrong."

Evidently it has been a long time since Keaton felt true inspiration. Perhaps he misses the sense of audaciousness that he says he's always relished. This is, after all, a man who began his career performing on the comedy-club circuit, one of the most kamikaze art forms out there. Now a character actor in a leading man's body, Keaton is good at playing the dependable Everyman.

No matter what the role, whether it's the house-husband in Mr Mom; the yuppie cocaine abuser in Clean and Sober; the hippest gravel-voiced goblin in Burton's hugely successful Beetle Juice; a mental patient in The Dream Team: a ruthless scheming tenant in Pacific Heights; or an agitated editor in The Paper, we can sympathise with him. (Keaton did, however, turn down the ultimate Everyman role in Splash that made Tom Hanks a star.)

Frowning, he says he was a reluctant movie star. "I probably didn't embrace movie stardom like some because I always knew there was more, and I found it very limiting. I didn't want to be defined by it, because it's a big-ass job. There are bigger jobs that are more important, like being a head surgeon of a hospital - that's a lot bigger job, but in society no one cares. I wanted to do other things, so, yeah, there was some reluctance, which is probably equally as stupid. I was afraid of the rest of my life slipping away and I didn't want to lose that. But now, I'm so blessed and fortunate to have a life outside of my job."

Born Michael Douglas, Keaton was the youngest of seven and was raised just outside of Pittsburgh. After landing his first TV job, he was required to change his name as two other actors of the same name already existed. The story goes that, after unsuccessfully rifling the phone directory, Keaton opened the Los Angeles Times to find a photo of Diane Keaton. He quips: "I had to change because another Michael Douglas was doing quite well making cheap porn movies... like Basic Instinct.

"My dad wasn't making a lot of money, but he was raising chickens for extra cash, so I guess we were kind of hillbillies," Keaton chuckles. "From the time I was two until six, I ran around barefoot and in my underwear. I've always had this unpredictability, which probably doesn't make living with me easy."

After dropping out of Kent State University, Keaton switched to comedy and moved to New York. "The goal was always to be an actor," he states. With less than $100 in his wallet, Keaton headed out west, working the stand-up routines at night and auditioning by day. In 1981, he was introduced to Howard, who was casting the comedy Night Shift. Howard recollects: "I really put him through the wringer. I had him audition four or five times. He was very scattered but really great in those bursts and he had a hell of a lot of energy."

Married for eight years to the actress Caroline McWilliams during the Eighties, Keaton brags that his biggest achievement is his son, Sean, 21, a musician. He also had a seven-year relationship with the Friends actress Courteney Cox. His son is one of the reasons why he turned down a lot of lucrative film offers. "I was trying to keep this career going and be successful at it, but what I was really doing was being a father. It would have been a lot easier to say, 'it's my career now and I'll kind of be a father when I can,' but I didn't have any choice. I actually love being a dad and that's that. No regrets."

'Herbie: Fully Loaded' is out now