In an interview with People, the 72-year-old actor revealed that he would like to use the hybrid name on all future projects.
Keaton explained that when he started out in the industry in the 1970s, the Screen Actors Guild rule prohibited members from using another member’s professional name.
With Academy Award-winning actor, Michael Douglas, already a SAG member, Michael Keaton chose to swap out his last name.
“I was looking through — I can’t remember if it was a phone book,” he recalled. “I must’ve gone, ‘I don’t know, let me think of something here.’ And I went, ‘Oh, that sounds reasonable.’”
As Michael Keaton became a bonafide movie star, starring in blockbusters like ‘Batman’ and ‘Beetlejuice’, his stage name became a part of his identity.
But now, the actor would like to return to his roots. Keaton wanted to use the hybrid name for the credits of his latest directing project, ‘Knox Goes Away,’ but forgot.
“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.”