Michael Keaton feels awful for his “Hidden Fences” Golden Globe gaffe. The Spotlight actor, 65, opened up about the blunder while attending the Founder premiere in L.A. on Wednesday, January 11.
“I’m very, very sorry about that,” Keaton told Us Weekly. “I feel very badly.”
As previously reported, Keaton accidentally combined the movies Fences and Hidden Figures while announcing the nominees for best supporting actress at the star-studded affair on Sunday. The mistake was later turned into a meme.
“I get that people thought I was nonchalant about it. … I get it now,” he told Us. “At the time, I thought, I don’t know what people are talking about. …’ Since then, people have told me, ‘Well, people are upset for this other reason.’ That truly makes me feel horrible now. I feel badly that people feel badly.”
Keaton specifically apologized to those involved in the films. “I’m very sorry for the people that were affected by that,” he added. “Especially the people in the movie, who worked so hard, and in front of millions of people, I, like a jerk, screwed the line up. What I always think about is they have brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and friends at home waiting for them, watching them, and this guy, me, gets up and gives the wrong title! That makes me feel terrible.”
Keaton wasn’t the only one to say the wrong movie title. Earlier in the night, Today show correspondent Jenna Bush Hager made the same “Hidden Fences” mistake while speaking with Pharrell Williams on the red carpet. Williams, 43, was nominated for Best Original Score for Hidden Figures at the show.
Bush Hager, 35, tearfully spoke about the mixup the next day, and Williams accepted her apology. “Don’t worry @JennaBushHager!” he tweeted on Monday. “Everyone makes mistakes. Hidden Fences does sound like an intriguing movie though. Just saying…”
Following the Globes, Keaton is focusing on promoting his film The Founder, where he plays real-life businessman Ray Kroc. Kroc turned his siblings’ fast-food eatery, McDonald’s, into the chain restaurant that it is today. Keaton prepared for the role by reading a biography about him. “That was really, really helpful,” he told Us. “And then I was supplied a lot of information as we went along.”
“I take movies because I think, I just want to make this movie, and so you’re risking that every time,” he added when asked what risks he’s taken in his career. “At the time, doing a movie like Batman, no one had done what Tim Burton did, and that was — and I always say this is true — if that goes down in flames, that goes down in flames in a big way. That would have required a big recovery from all of us. And I gambled that it would work, and it did.”
