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Say his (new) name three times.
Michael Keaton, who was born Michael John Douglas, revealed in a new interview with People that he wants to start going by Michael Keaton Douglas after coming up with a stage name over 50 years ago.
The “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” star said he had plans to begin the professional name change while he was directing and starring in the 2023 film “Knox Goes Away,” but he “forgot” to make it official.
“I said, ‘Hey, just as a warning, my credit is going to be Michael Keaton Douglas,’” Keaton said in the interview published Wednesday.
“But it totally got away from me,” he explained. “And I forgot to give them enough time to put it in and create that. But that will happen.”
Keaton could not use his birth name when he started in Hollywood in the 1970s because of the Screen Actors Guild’s rule that members can’t have the same name as each other.
Michael Douglas, famous for his roles in “Wall Street” and “Romancing the Stone,” was already a part of SAG, as was singer and talk show host Mike Douglas.
So, Keaton had to come up with a stage name in order to stick around in the business.
“I was looking through — I can’t remember if it was a phone book,” he recalled to People. “I must’ve gone, ‘I don’t know, let me think of something here.’ And I went, ‘Oh, that sounds reasonable.’”
Keaton previously talked about the drama around his name during an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in 2017.
“I got a gig. I was just starting out and I got this job, and because of union there was Mike Douglas, who used to have a talk show, and Michael Douglas, the movie star and actor,” Keaton explained. “Somebody said, ‘Well you have to change your name.’ And I said, ‘Well I don’t want to change my name. I’m very proud of my name.’”
“By the way,” the “Birdman” star added, “I’m trying to ease my name back in because I’m proud of my name.”
“So I changed my name. What’s crazy is I used my real name, Michael John Douglas, for everything except on a marquee or a gig. People get very confused. We’d be going somewhere and there will be a driver with a sign saying Michael Douglas — and then I show up,” Keaton said with a laugh. “And they look so confused.”
Keaton said that now he “doesn’t bother” explaining his name change to people. “I kind of enjoy watching them go, ‘Wait, who is he?’ “