Michael Keaton, who plays a journalist in Spotlight, talks about his character Walter Robinson, a Pulitzer award winning investigative journalist. The actor spent a lot of time with Walter to understand the depth of his job and what it took for them to take on such a project. Excerpts from an interview
Tell us about your role in SpotlightIJ
I play Walter Robinson, a Pulitzer award winning investigative journalist, who was as he described himself — ‘player coach’ of the Spotlight team.
What do you make of the impact this story will have on the viewersIJ
little things that will ultimately and cumulatively change the world. So it will only be probably about the exposition of child abuse of the catholic school system in Boston. But it will be about the world and how you look at things and the bravery of the people and the journalists.
Where do you think the future of journalism is headedIJ
The parallel story is of journalism and how we are losing newspapers and reporters, who have to do the hard work. There is no way around it. These people are the old timers in the best sense. They do what journalists are really supposed to do. Now there are few of them as they kind of don’t have to, anybody can call themselves a journalist.
How true is this film to the actual eventsIJ
It is courageous filmmaking on director Tom McCarthy’s part. He trusts that if he does it right and you just tell the story, it’s compelling enough and the audience will come to the story, the audience will pay attention and in these screenings people are tuned into every little moment.