captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> the yeas are 69. the nays are 30. >> the infrastructure law, passed last year, will be one of the most significant investment in america's bridges, roads and rails in more than half a century, and as everyone watching this well knows, it's badly needed. how is possible that a country like the united states gets a "c-" on infrastructure? >> for a long time, everybody here in washington said, "we got to do this," or "we're going to do this." it's finally happened, but we got a lot of time to make up for. ( ticking ) >> chris downey had constructed

the life he'd always wanted, an architect with a good job. >> that whole exterior. >> happily married and coaching his ten-year-old son's little league. but then something awful happened. he went blind, and that threatened to end his career. >> that's sufficiently different? >> oh, yeah. >> or did it? >> i'm a kid again. i'm relearning so much of architecture. it wasn't about what i'm missing in architecture, it's what-- it was about what i had been missing in architecture. ( ticking ) >> i i'm batman.n. >> he's played batman, and birdman, and starred in "spider-man." ththe irony isis that michchael keaton's's real supeper power is portrayingng the everyry-man. >> yeah, 220-221, whatever it takes. >> the salesman, the f.b.i. man, the put-upon newspaperman. an actor on a career-long crusade against typecasting, keaton is willfully unpredictable in choosing his roles. >> people talk about range. there's-- you know, it's-- flattering.

but range doesn't really-- range, schmange. you know? ( ticking )

>> andererson cooperer: good evenening, i'm a anderson cocoo, and wewelcome to " "60 minuteses presentsts." tonight, on fathers' day, three working fathers, each with a demanding career, who balances it with his most important job, being a dad. later, we meet an architect and an actor, each of whom defies

conventional stereotypes, but we begin with a cabinet secretary who has already made history. three years ago, pete buttigieg was the mayor of south bend, indiana, a city with only about 160 traffic lights. today "mayor pete" is "secretary pete," head of the united states department of transportation. thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year, he's overseeing one of the most significant investments in america's bridges, roads and rails in more than half a century. buttigieg is 40-years-old, a harvard graduate, rhodes scholar, and former navy reserve officer who ran for the democratic presidential nomination in 2020. as we first reported earlier this year, he's now dealing with a pandemic-related supply chain crisis and trying to ensure that hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are well-spent on aging transportation systems in desperate need of repair. at aboutut 6:30 a.m.m. on januay 28, this b bridge in p pittsbur, pennsylvlvania, collllapsed whia

bus and some cars were driving across it. no one was killed, but several people were injured. federal investigators are trying to understand why safety inspectors hadn't warned that a collapse was imminent. when somebody's driving over a bridge, should they feel confident? >> pete buttigeig: yeah. i mean, we have to make sure that it's safe. there's inspection standards that we set federally. but-- but here's the issue: if a bridge is deteriorating, you're going to feel the consequences of that, because in order to keep it safe it might have to be closed. >> cooper: 42% of america's bridges are at least 50 years old, and more than 7% are considered "structurally deficient," including this one not far from secretary pete buttigieg's office in washington, d.c. so, this does not look great. >> buttigieg: i mean, look at it, right? it-- it tells a story right there. we're right by, you know, a thriving economic area in the nation's capital, and you got literally bits of rust coming off-- pipes and the underside of our bridge. usually-- >> cooper: that's actually

from-- from that? >> buttigieg: yeah, i think so. i think that used to be this bridge. >> cooper: when grading the overall state of this country's infrastructure, the american society of civil engineers recently gave the u.s. a "c-." how is it possible that a country like the united states gets a c- on infrastructure? >> buttigeig: well, you get what you pay for. and for pretty much as long as i've been alive, our country has been under-investing in public things. for a long time, everybody here in washington said, "we got to do this," or, "we're going to do this," it's finally happened but we-- we got a lot of time to make up for. >> cooper: the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law by president biden in november guarantees at least $850 billion of spending over the next five years. there's $55 billion to help communities remove lead pipes and deliver clean drinking water, $65 billion to expand broadband internet service and make it more affordable, and another $65 billion to upgrade the nation's power grid.

many federal agencies are involved, but pete buttigieg's department of transportation will be the largest recipient of funds, distributing more than $560 billion over five years to improve everything from tunnels, bridges, and roads to mass transit, ports, and airports. when was the last time that the country invested this amount of money in infrastructure? >> buttigeig: when it comes to roads and bridges, we haven't invested at this level since the eisenhower administration, since they built the interstate highway system in the first place. >> cooper: what are people going to see different in their lives or in their communities because of this investment? >> buttigeig: i think one of the first things you're going to notice is accelerated work on roads and bridges. not just the big, famous bridges in our biggest cities. this is thousands of bridges around the country. >> cooper: one of the many things pennsylvania will do with its infrastructure money is rebuild that bridge that collapsed in pittsburgh and washington, d.c. plans to fix the "h street" bridge we saw

near union station. but in many cases, it's too early to know exactly which projects will be funded. that's because some of the money will be awarded by buttigieg and his staff to communities that will compete for discretionary grants. but more money is being sent directly to the states, where governors and local leaders will decide how to spend it. in a lot of communities-- when they get money, their emphasis is on building new roads. you're trying to emphasize-- fixing existing roads. that's not always popular-- >> buttigeig: there's always a bias toward the shiny, new thing. but the truth is, as a country, we've got to take care of what we've got. >> cooper: in earlier versions of the bill there were provisions that would've required states to dedicate money to repairing freeways before building new ones. those provisions were taken out. >> buttigeig: the requirements aren't there, but it's still a good idea and we're still going to encourage it. >> cooper: there's research showing that historically more of the grant money goes to states that voted for the party in power. under obama un-- it went to blue states, under president trump it

went to-- to red states. is that going to happen again? >> buttigeig: we're really focused on taking those party politics out of the picture. >> cooper: but no administration says, "yeah, that's what we're doing." but historically that is what happens. >> buttigeig: but look at what we're actually doing. so, this last round of discretionary grants, for example, $1 billion that i had the final sign off on. we actually went over the congressional requirement for how much goes to rural areas. rural areas aren't known for supporting my political party. but they-- ( laughs ) they do have a lot of need. and so, we're funding good projects there. >> cooper: moody's analytics estimates the infrastructure law will create 872,000 new jobs by late 2025. projects long on the drawing board may finally happen. for example: the hudson river train tunnnnel that ruruns betwn new w york and n new jersey y ia crucial l artery thahat local leadaders have b been tryingng o upgrade fofor years. >> buttigieg: it was absolute state-of-the-art, best- construction technology 110 years ago. ( laughs ) >> cooper: in nineteen-- in 1910. >> buttigieg: yeah. and we're going deep into the 21st century still depending on that hundred-year-old

infrastructure. >> cooper: the tunnels so badly damaged crews have to work on it at night so pieces of it don't fall on the tracks during the day. if an expected infrastructure grant comes through, construction of a new tunnel couould finallyly begin nexext . kentntucky goverernor andy b ber has sasaid he'd lilike to usee infrasastructure m money to hehp bubuild a compmpanion to t the congesested brent t spence brire thatat connects s kentucky a an. airports all over the country will be receiving money this year to upgrade their runways and terminals. l.a.x. will get $79 million, chicago o'hare $74 million, and atlanta's international airport $92 million. secretary buttigieg plans to use some of the infrastructure money to revitalize low-income black neighborhoods that were divided or damaged by the construction of interstate highways. but florida governor ron desantis has expressed some skepticism about that. >> ron desantis: i mean, i heard some stuff, some weird stuff

from the secretary of transportation trying to make this about social issues. to me, a road is a road. so, i mean, i don't know, i'd have to take a look at that. >> cooper: is a road a road? >> buttigeig: of course a road is a road. but if a road was built in such a way that it removed, destroyed, or divided a community of color, that's something we've got to deal with. >> cooper: what do you do about it? i mean, you're not going to reroute a highway. >> buttigeig: well, you might. if federal dollars were used to divide a neighborhood or a city, federal dollars should be used to reconnect it. now, that doesn't always mean the highway has to go completely. maybe you got to bridge over it or around it, or introduce transit or different options. but the point is, transportation should always connect, never divide. >> kamala harris: the yeas are 69. the nays are 30. >> cooper: the passage of the infrastructure bill in the senate was the result of some serious bridge-building. five republican and five democratic senators negotiated the deal and convinced their colleagues to support it. in the house of representatives, 200 republicans and six

democrats voted against the legislation, but that didn't stop many of them from later claiming credit for the money it gave to their districts. when you hear a member of congress who did not vote for this money turning around and taking credit for the money that is coming to their district-- >> buttigeig: it's an amazing thing, isn't it? as irritating as that can be, as long as the project gets done, as long as it benefits the people who live there, the politics are what they are. ( cheers and applause ) >> cooper: if you hadn't noticed, pete buttigieg is, himself, a very skilled politician. in 2019, when he announced he was running for the democratic presidential nomination, most people didn't know him and couldn't pronounce his name. >> buttigeig: they call me "mayor pete." >> cooper: but they quickly learned. >> buttigeig: butt-edge-edge, butt-edge-edge. >> cooper: he led the field in iowa along with bernie sanders, and finished a close second in new hampshire. when he dropped out of the race in march 2020, he endorsed joe biden, who later offered him a

cabinet post. when he was sworn in, he became the first openly gay cabinet secretary to be confirmed by congress. >> harris: congratulations, mr. secretary. >> cooper: did you think about it on that day? >> buttigeig: yeah. yeah, i mean, it was hard not to think about it. it wasn't that long ago that being gay meant that you couldn't have any job in the federal government, never mind being a soldier or a cabinet officer. you couldn't be a bookkeeper. you could lose your job-- >> cooper: and you could be fired if you were. >> buttigeig: and many people were. and to know now that-- that-- i can be who i am and have this job, i-- i know what that means for a lot of people. >> cooper: in august 2021, buttigieg and his husband, chasten adopted newborn twins, a boy and a girl. what's it like being a dad? >> buttigeig: it's amazing, right? the-- you've experienced this, too. your friends try to tell you, and-- you try to understand. and then it actually happens. >> cooper: its way better than you can possibly imagine. >> buttigeig: yeah, its way better and-- and way harder-- ( laughs ) than you can imagine, right? i mean, the sleep deprivation alone.

yeah, i've run for president, i've served in a war, i've never been through this kind of sleep deprivation. >> cooper: the twins were born prematurely, and their son gus spent time in intensive care. but as supply chain problems mounted last fall, buttigieg came under attack for taking parental leave during a crisis. >> tucker carlson: pete buttigieg has been on leave from his job since august after adopting a child, paternity leave, they call it, trying to figure out how to breastfeed, no word on how that went. >> cooper: were you surprised by-- by that criticism? >> buttigeig: a little bit, yeah. because some of it came from corners that-- talk a lot about family values. one thing i wanted to make sure people understood was that, like so many parents have to do, i took care of my kids and i took care of business. >> cooper: his agency has so far made hundreds of millions of dollars available to improve ports across the country, but supply chain problems remain a major challenge. can you say when the supply chain issue will be solved? >> buttigeig: when the pandemic ends it'll get a lot better, but it's going to take years to have

the kind of transportation infrastructure that we really need to weather the next shock, whether it's a pandemic or who knows, a cyber attack certainly more extreme weather related to climate change. we've got to get more resilient for that. >> cooper: the infrastructure law includes an unprecedented $66 billion over five e years fr amamtrak to imimprove its s exig rails anand tunnels and d expans service. there's also $5 billion to help build a network of charging stations across the country for electric vehicles. but most of the transportation money is going to roads, highways, and bridges. there's folks who have looked at-- at the infrastructure bill, and don't really see it having a net positive impact on climate. you know, all the concrete that's being made, steel that's being made, all that is a huge release of carbon >> buttigeig: that's why we got to spend these dollars in a smart way, right? the more we get people on to transit, give them good transit options, the less they have to drive. and then when they are driving, the more we get them in electric vehicles, that's good for the

climate, too. in june we awarded georgia ports authority a $47 million grant. >> cooper: giving infrastructure money to local leaders all over the country could prove to be very good for pete buttigieg should he decide to run for national office again, but it will take many years to complete some of these projects. and before there are new bridges and improved roads, there will be lots of closed lanes and traffic jams. we were curious what the american society of civil engineers, the group that gave the nation's current infrastructure a "c-," thought the infusion of federal funds would accomplish. one of their top officials told us it was a very positive development, but still only about half of what's needed. she says that she hopes that the infrastructure grade seven years from now would be a b. with all the money that's being spent, still only a b. have you ever gotten a b in your life? you s-- you strike me as the

kind of guy who hasn't gotten a lot of b's in your life. >> buttigeig: look: you know, we're always shooting for a+. but this isn't like building a house. this is building a country, literally. and some of these things do take time. each passing year you'll see more results, and it is going to take a while. ( ticking ) >> pete buttigieg's future in politics. >> cooper: i'm going to ask you a question which i know you're not going to answer, but i'm just curious to see how you don't answer it. ( laughs ) >> at 60minutesovertime.com. sponsored by cologuard. ( ticking )

>> stahl: at age 45, chris downey had pretty much constructed the life he'd always wanted. an architect, with a good job at a small housing firm outside san francisco, he was happily married, with a 10-year-old son. he was an assistant little league coach and avid cyclist. and then, doctors discovered a

tumor in his brain. he had surgery, and the tumor was safely gone-- but downey was left completely blind. as we first reported in early 2019, what he has done in the decade-and-a-half since losing his sight-- as a person, and as an architect-- can only be described as a different kind of vision. several mornings a week, as the sun rises over the oakland estuary in california, an amateur rowing team works the water. it's hard to tell which one of them is blind... and chris downey thinks that's just fine. >> chris downey: it's really exciting to be in a sport where nobody looks in the direction they're going. you face this way in the boat, and you're going that way. so, okay, even-steven. we were just talking about that whole exterior. >> stahl: it's not exactly "even-steven" in this design

meeting, where downey is collaborating with sighted architects on a new hospital building... >> chris downey: under the canopy, where you could have down lights. >> stahl: ...but he hasn't let that stop him. here you are, in a profession that basically requires you to read-- read designs and draw designs. you must've thought in your head, "that is insurmountable?" >> chris downey: no. i never thought-- >> stahl: you never thought-- you never thought the word "insurmountable--" >> chris downey: lots of people, friends that were architects and anybody else would say, "oh my god, it's the worst thing imaginable, to be an architect and to lose your sight. i can't imagine anything worse." but i quickly came to realize that the creative process is an intellectual process. it's how you think. so i just needed new tools. >> stahl: new tools? downey found a printer that could emboss architectural drawings so that he could read and understand through touch. >> chris downey: they look like normal prints, normal drawings, on the computer. but then they just come out in

tactile form. >> stahl: so it is like braille, isn't it? >> chris downey: right. >> stahl: and he came up with a way to "sketch" his ideas onto the plans using a simple children's toy-- malleable wax sticks that he shapes to show his modifications to others. and he says something surprising started to happen. he could no longer see buildings and spaces, but he began hearing them. >> chris downey: the sounds, the textures... and the sound changes because there's a canopy overhead. >> stahl: you can sense that we're under a canopy? >> chris downey: yes. it's all a matter of how the sound works, from the tip of the cane. i was fascinated-- walking through buildings that i knew sighted, but i was experiencing them in a different way. i was hearing the architecture, i was feeling the space. >> stahl: it sounds as if you began almost enjoying, in a way, being the blind architect. >> chris downey: it was sort of this-- this excitement of, "i'm a kid again.

i'm-- i'm relearning so much of architecture." it wasn't about what i'm missing in architecture, it's what-- it was about what i had been missing in architecture. >> is that sufficiently different? >> chris downey: oh, yeah. ( laughter ) >> stahl: chris downey's upbeat attitude doesn't mean that he didn't go through one of the most frightening experiences imaginable, and struggle. he and his wife rosa were living in this same home with their son renzo, then ten, when downey first noticed a problem while playing catch with renzo. the ball kept coming in and out of sight. the cause turned out to be a tumor near his optic nerve. surgery to remove it lasted 9.5 hours. he says his surgeon had told him there was a slight risk of total sight loss, but that he'd never had it happen. >> rosa downey: when he first came out of surgery, he was able to see. >> stahl: but then things started to go wrong.

the next day, half his field of vision disappeared. and then? >> chris downey: the next time i woke up, it was... all gone. it was just black. >> stahl: complete and total darkness? no light, you can't see anything? >> chris downey: no light. it's dark. it's all dark. >> stahl: after days of frantic testing, a surgeon told him it was permanent, irreversible, and sent in a social worker. >> chris downey: she says, "oh, and i see from your chart you're-- you're an architect, so we can talk about career alternatives." >> stahl: career alternatives, right away? >> chris downey: i hadn't been told i was officially blind for 24 hours, and-- >> stahl: and she's saying you can't be an architect anymore. >> chris downey: yeah, and she was saying we could talk about career alternatives. i felt like these walls were being built up around me, just like, "yeah, you're getting boxed in. >> stahl: alone that night in his room, downey did some serious thinking... about his son, and about his own father, who had died from complications after surgery when downey was

seven years old. >> chris downey: i could quickly appreciate the wonder, the-- just the joy of, "i'm still here. >> stahl: it was actually joy? >> chris downey: yeah, it was like, "i'm still here with my family. my son still has his dad." >> stahl: you know your eyes are tearing up. you know that. >> chris downey: yeah, sorry. i always have a hard time talking through that. >> stahl: he knew that how he handled this would send a strong message to renzo. >> chris downey: i had been talking with him about the need to really apply himself. at the age of ten, it's that point where if you want something you really have to work at it. and here i am, facing this great challenge. >> stahl: so, motivated to set an example, he headed back to work only one month later. >> bryan bashin: this was the most healthy thing about chris. >> stahl: bryan bashin is executive director of the non-profit lighthouse for the blind and visually impaired in san francisco, and is blind himself. >> bashin: he waited a few days,

until the stitches were out of his skull. and 30 days after brain surgery, he was back in the office thinking, "okay, there's got to be a way to figure this out. and i'm going to figure it out." >> stahl: bashin's organization, the lighthouse, helps people new to vision loss learn how to figure things out. >> bashin: when someone becomes blind, the odds are 99% they've never met another blind person. >> stahl: is that right? >> bashin: yeah, that really is true. blind people need those role models, how to be blind, how to hold down a job, how to live an independent life. >> stahl: specifically, how to work in the kitchen-- safely. how to navigate public transportation. how to use screen reading software to listen to emails as quickly as the rest of us read them. did you understand that? >> chris downey: yes. >> stahl: no! and most critically, how to get around in the world alone. downey learned that at the

lighthouse. when you first crossed a big street like this on your own, was it terrifying? >> chris downey: absolutely terrifying. >> stahl: i can imagine. ( laughs ) i can totally imagine. >> chris downey: i remember that day, stepping off the curb, and it was like, you would have thought i was stepping into raging waters. take a deep breath and go for it. you got to push through it. >> stahl: within a few months, he was travelling the streets on his own and getting back to normalcy with his son. >> chris downey: the first father's day came up. rosa was like, "so, what do you want to do? do you want to go on a picnic, go on a nice lunch? "i want to play baseball." ( laughter ) "with renzo." renzo was like-- he pops up. i could just-- i could feel him, like, jump to the edge of his chair. "baseball, you want to play baseball?" ( laughter ) >> renzo downey: so dad would throw to me, and i'd play like i was playing first base. >> stahl: how could he throw the ball to you? >> renzo downey: i'd just call out, "i'm over here." and he'd point, and i'd say, "yeah, that's right." and then he'd throw it at me. >> chris downey: that's something i really loved about

our relationship. he quickly was looking for possibilities. he wasn't saying, "you can't do that." he was like, "well, why not?" >> stahl: downey seems to have a knack for finding windows when doors slam shut. just nine months after going blind, the recession hit, and he lost his job. but, he got word that a nearby firm was designing a rehabilitation center for veterans with sight loss. they were eager to meet a blind architect. what are the chances? you had to believe that god's hand came down-- >> chris downey: it took my disability and turned it upside down. all of a sudden, it defined unique, unusual value that virtually nobody else had to offer. >> stahl: nobody. >> chris downey: yeah. >> stahl: starting with that job, downey developed a specialty, making spaces accessible to the blind.

he helped design a new eye center at duke university hospital, consulted on a job for microsoft, and signed on to help the visually impaired find their way in san francisco's new, four-block-long salesforce transit center, which we visited during construction. >> chris downey: if you're blind, you don't drive. right? they don't like it when we drive. so, you know, we're committed transit users. so the question was, "how on earth do you navigate this size of facility, if you're blind?" >> stahl: his solution: grooves set into the concrete running the entire length of the platform... >> chris downe: i would just follow this, following those grooves. >> stahl: ...with a subtle change from smooth to textured concrete, to signal where to turn to get to the escalators. >> chris downey: would you like to give it a try? >> stahl: okay. i know to go straight because of this line. and i feel-- ( scraping ) oh, my. oh, my. so it's pretty obvious. >> chris downey: i can hear the

difference from here. >> stahl: it's something sighted people might never notice-- and that's precisely the point. downey believes in what's called universal design-- that accommodates people with disabilities, but is just as appealing to people without them. it's the approach he used for his biggest project yet, consulting on the total renovation of a new, three-story office space for his old training ground, the lighthouse for the blind. >> bashin: coming into blindness need not be some dreary social service experience, but rather, more like coming into an apple store-- thinking that there might be something fun around the corner. >> stahl: one of downey's ideas was to break through and link the three floors with an internal staircase that sighted people can see, and the blind can hear. >> bashin: in blindness, it's so wonderful to be on the 9th floor and hear a burst of laughter up on the 11th floor, or to hear somebody playing the piano on

the 10th floor. >> stahl: for the hallways, downey chose polished concrete, because of the acoustics. >> bashin: i can hear the special tap of somebody's cane, or the click of a guide dog's toenails. >> stahl: the click of a guide dog's toenails? >> bashin: yeah, yeah. >> stahl: well, is that good or bad? >> bashin: that's great. it's like you're seeing somebody coming down the hall. i know the sound of individual people who work here by the way they use their cane, or the kind of walk they have. >> stahl: you can really distinguish between people by how they tap their cane? >> bashin: absolutely. >> stahl: if you hadn't had chris working on this building, a blind architect-- >> bashin: it wouldn't have been as rich or so subtle, for sure. >> stahl: spring 2018 marked the ten-year anniversary of downey losing his sight. so, what did he do? he threw a party, a fundraiser for the lighthouse, where he's been student, architect, and now, president of the board.

>> chris downey: maybe a slightly bizarre thing, celebrating my ten-year blind birthday. but when you're 55 and you have a chance to be ten again, you take it. >> stahl: i get the feeling that you actually think you're a better architect today. >> chris downey: i'm absolutely convinced i'm a better architect today than i was sighted. >> stahl: if you could see tomorrow, would you still want to be able to feel the design? >> chris downey: if i were to get my sight back, it would be-- i don't know. i would be afraid that i'd-- i'd sort of lose what i've really been working on. i don't really think about having my sight restored. there's-- be some logistical liberation to it. but, will it make my life better? i don't-- i don't think so. >> stahl: chris downey continues to have a thriving architecture practice, helping design museums and campuses for the blind and visually impaired. he's still rowing, and this past

semester taught a graduate architecture course at u.c. berkeley. ( ticking )

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vazazalore. >> jon wertheim: it's almost like, when no one was looking, michael keaton crept on to hollywood's a-list, and then never left. except that we were looking. keaton's films have, collectively, grossed billions at the box office. he's played birdman and batman, and starred in "spider-man." the irony is that keaton's real power is portraying the every-man. the salesman, the f.b.i. man, the put-upon newspaperman. an actor on a career-long crusade against typecasting, keaton is willfully unpredictable in choosing his

roles, but he is consistent in nailing them. as we first reported last october, at age 70, he's still at it. find michael keaton a character he finds appealing, and, to borrow a phrase, it's show time. forget about meeting at some precious malibu bistro or on a movie set. michael keaton wanted us to meet him in his element, so we did, here-- on his 1,000-acre swatch of trout streams and mountains under montana's big sky. >> michael keaton: wow, look at that. >> wertheim: it's easy to be humbled by the sheer vastness of the place. not that this is a movie star in need of any ego reduction. >> keaton: as soon as i bought this place-- soon as i bought it-- and it was a dream of mine from the time i was a little kid-- it hit me. like, it was crystal clear that i don't really own anything. you don't really-- you-- we're renters. you know, i don't own this. this is just-- i just happened to make a transaction. >> wertheim: just passing through.

>> keaton: passing through. >> wertheim: after a short drive up a dirt path, we discussed range of a different sort. we asked keaton about his staggering versatility, the key to his success and hollywood longevity. >> wertheim: go down your imdb page and, in the best possible way, you get whiplash. i see this archetype, american male, and it's lawyers, and newspaper men, and doctors. >> keaton: i guess that's true. i guess, yeah. if i went-- and i've never seen my imd-- imdb? or im-b-d? ( laughs ) which one? i can know-- which-- which one comes first-- but i-- but, yeah. well, if you put it like that, i'd go, yeah, pretty much. but it's a representation of all kind of, you know, within that. like, but-- who's the person in that job? you know, what's-- what's the person in that job? >> wertheim: right, right, right, right. >> keaton: people talk about range. there's-- you know, it's-- flattering. but range doesn't really-- range, schmange, you know. it, like-- >> wertheim: really? >> keaton: yeah, well, range-- >> wertheim: i would think you'd take pride in that. >> keaton: i do. but i don't think of it in terms

of, "well, you played that. then, you were funny. and then, you-- then you were a sad man. and then you--" you know, that's not really, to me-- range. you know, you go inside the-- the person, you know. >> wertheim: is there range within a character? >> keaton: yeah. because they're human beings, you know. >> wertheim: and that includes one superhero. this may be the ranch "batman" built. keaton bought it in 1989, the same yeaear as his b biggest blblockbuster.r. >> keaeaton: all r right, lists. >> w wertheim: b but by thenen,d alreadady establisished his m.m, delilivering a c certain believabability to a a broad ary of charactcters: a statay-at-hoe dad, a crazy-haired poltergeist... >> keaton: it's showtime!! >> werertheim: .....a washed-u-p acactor, a fouounder. in each of them, keaton does, well, that keaton thing. he prorojects a didisarming intensity. his brbrows arch.. the eyes narrow. the mouth h puckers. and we are buyining his charact. > keaton: i i'm here bebecaui ththink the story is wrorong.

is it? >> w wertheim: even before his trademark stacaccato patteter ks in. >> k keaton: i used to kind of thihink i had to o flee from-- , you know. and then later on, there's something in me that's-- that's okay. i was never afraid to go to a dark or scary or really, really, really raw places-- ever, ever. but also i didn't want to look back and go, "you kind of-- kind of wussed out," you know? and sometimes there's no crime in saying, "this is pretty easy. just-- just open your mouth, and let the words come out, and-- and tell the truth." >> wertheim: this sixth sense for authenticity first came to keaton in the most un-hollywood of places: keaton's home in western pennsylvania. it was a seminal moment in his childhood when his family won a black and white tv in a raffle. >> keaton: so what i watched and learned and-- and grew up on and loved was really television-- old westerns primarily, which i loved. i wanted to be those people. ( laughs ) >> wertheim: you didn't want to be gene autry.

you wanted to be the cowboy. >> keaton: oh, yeah. and, you know, the thing is, i never bought those guys, even at a young age. i said, "they're too pretty. they're too clean. they probably don't smell." from the time i was young. i had to believe everything i was seeing. >> wertheim: michael keaton grew up the youngest of seven kids, raised in a working-class town outside pittsburgh. his father was a civil engineer; his mother ran the show at home. keaton was an altar-boy-- literally-- and he says, a decent student, as long as there were nuns around. he attended kent state university for one year, and then seriously committed to what had, till then, been vague designs of acting and performing stand-up comedy. >> keaton: i mean, everybody has the hard memories, the embarrassing tough times, and the down times. you know, no-- no money or no-- you know, living in ( bleep ) places. but that's, like-- that's, like, not a big deal to me. you know, that's-- that's just part of the deal. >> wertheim: but his nostalgia has its limits. he recalls the perils of the

open mic. i heard a story, when you followed an irish folk singer up on stage? >> keaton: ugh. >> wertheim: what happened? >> keaton: well, first of all, this ( bleep ) guy would wear, like, one of those knit sweaters, like, in july. you know, one of those, like, fisherman sweaters. >> wertheim: he's committed to the role. >> keaton: yes, totally committed to the role, you know. he's going to sing that song where, like, all the kids in the family went down in the ship, you know, in the cold ( bleep ) irish sea." and i'm going to go, "hey, everybody, how you doing?" >> wertheim: not much of a warm- up act. >> keaton: no. >> wertheim: in los angeles, keaton sharpened his improv chops in the clubs on sunset and on the small screen. >> keaton: i do. >> wertheim: then, his big break-- he caught the eye of a seasoned comedy writer who recommended him to a hot director in town. >> keaton: i got an audition. and then i got a callback, another callback, another callback, another-- i think five or six. >> wertheim: all for the role of billy blaze. >> keaton: yeah, bililly blaze.. yeyeah. how you doing? i'm bibill blazejojowski. yoyou can callll me billy y bla. you mustst be chuck,k, right?

nice shohoes. >> werertheim: "ninight shift,t" didirected by y ron howardrd, md kekeaton's firirst movie, , an electric, , breakout c comedic peperformance,e, one that t stil holds s up. >> keaeaton: i neeeed the car r. yoyou got them? ththank you. >> wertheieim: with lilicense to improvov, he stealals scene aftr scene asas bill blazazejowski, e antic-frfrantic morgrgue attendt moonlighghting as a a pimp. >> keaeaton: love brokers,s, ha! >> werertheim: youou seemed tott that g guy. >> keaton: yeah, i got that guy. it was kind of there on the page. you know, the-- like, i'm an idea man, that was the fundamental thing. this i is bill. idea to o eliminate e garbage: ediblele paper. anand they werere welcomining il the imimprov. >> w wertheim: you could bring your improv chops. >> keaton: yeah, yeah. yeah, they were good about that. >> wertheim: kind of the best of both worlds. you're not doing stand-up. but, like-- >> keaton: 100%. >> werththeim: he wowould lean n those e skills onene year latetn "mr. mom." >> keatoton: we're g going to rp these e walls out,t, and then,nf coursese, rewire i it. > ron richahardson: yeaeah, e gogoing to makake it all 2 220? >> keaton:n: yeah, 22020, 221, whatevever it takekes.

> wertheim:m: but rightht bee hollllywood coululd corner k ken solely a as a comedidic actor, e swiveleded in the opopposite directioion, with momovies likee "c"clean and s sober" and d the thriller "pacific heights." not a lot of typecasting here. accident or design? >> keaton: i wanted to set it up so that i had more shots. i wanted to be able to play a lot of different things. because, i learned real quickly that they were going, "oh, we like when he does that. get him to do that. let's hire him to do that thing." i thought, "oh boy, that could, i think, frankly, i would have been out of the business." people would have been, if they're not bored already, bored to tears e early with h me. >> werththeim: this s overlay of light t and dark convinced directoror tim burtoton that mil keatonon was rightht for the l n his s next big b budget movivie: "b"batman." keaton wouould embody y bruce we as a a complicatated, even t tod tycoon, , hell-bent t on justic. hardcore fans of the dc comic hero were horrified about casting mr. mom as the caped crusader..

>> man: whwhat are youou? >> keaton:n: i'm batmaman. yoyou know, i i have a lonong m. you know, so a couple occasions where, you know, people were kind of-- not just, maybe did more than doubt you. you go, "okay, i'll wait." >> wertheim: peers, or reviewers, or? >> keaton: just things that happened a couple times. you just kind of clock it. >> wertheim: you remember that stuff. >> keaton: yeah. >> wertheim: so you're coming into this role, and you're the new batman. >> keaton: yeah, yeah. no, i am the-- batman. >> wertheim: you're the batman. but you've got this lineage... >> keaton: yeah. let's be clear about that. no, i'm kidding. ( laughs ) batman, the first batman, i think tim and i both knew if that doesn't work, that one, i had awareness of. i thought, "ooh, this-- this could really fail." ( laughs ) >> wertheim: yeah, i mean, it strikes me, that's another risk of a different kind, right? >> keaton: yeah. yeah. there was a lot of pressure on that movie for everybody. >> wertheim: holy gamble-that- paid-off, batman. the movivie made morore than $400 m million a and catapulultd keataton to a new plane of

stardom-- proof that resisting conventional hollywood wisdom hahad its advavantages. keataton continunued his gamamef chcharacter hopscotctch in anotr 30 m movies, frorom shakespeareo "spotligight." sosome broughtht more box x offe sucuccess than n others. but when he wasn't acting, keaton was a hands-on dad to his son sean, who is now 39 and a successful songwriter in los angeles. and keaton had reached a point where he could be choosy. in 2014, enter "birdman," and keaton's a almost absusurdist re that earnened him a gogolden gle for best a actor. hardest rorole you've e had? >> keatoton: mostly,y, yeah. it hadad to be so o specific, ,o precise.e. you actualally had to o be, likn a certrtain word, , or a pointnn the sentence, and geographically in a spot. lilike, on-- i in a hallwaway on a set of s stairs. specififically worord perfect.t. and it w was really y hard. scary every day. >> wertheim: do people in your line of work have rivals, like athletes? i mean, are you, you know, "hey,

bill murray, i'm coming for you"? >> keaton: i don't know. you know, that's the thing. there's nothing we can do. you know, we can't go, like, box each other. ( laughs ) you know, i mean. we're all in a brother and sisterhood to some degree, you know? like, you know, the criticism of people's performances i find really bush league, you know? it's like, "what do i know?" i'm not sure i even know enough. and i'm not being humble. i'm being honest. i don't-- i don't know that i even know enough to say, "well, that's not any good." >> wertheim: amomong his latatet projojects, keataton is backck o interpretiting the amemerican m. "dopesicick," releasased last octobeber, is a huhulu mini-sess about the coununtry's opioioid epidememic. >> keatoton: i would nevever prescrcribe a narcrcotic for modederate pain.n. >> werertheim: keaeaton plays sa doctctor in a cocoal-mining g tn overerwhelmed byby oxycontinin. bubut this timime, he admimits s a lilittle more e to the parart. >> keatoton: you know, that meas a lot to me, because, you know, i lost a nephew to fentanyl and heroin. >> wertheim: what's it like when you have this kind of personal connection to a role?

>> keaton: you have to remove the emotion and just, like i keep saying, you know, what's-- what's the job at hand, you know, what's-- i'm just a storyteller. >> wertheim: befitting a man who pivots from role to role, keaton is especially thrilled by pittsburgh's transition from steel to tech. he returns home often, and invited us to a modified steel mill-turned-innovation center not far from where he grew up. keaton is an investor in a construction company, nexii, that here in pittsburgh plans to make eco-friendly alternatives to concrete. >> keaton: i get this. and i actually like it. and if i'm going to-- man, just look at this summer. if i'm going to have an opportunity to do anything and put my money where my mouth is, you can't just have an opinion about climate change anymore. it's, like, here, now. >> wertheim: the bill's come due, huh? >> keaton: that's right. the bill's-- the bill's come due. >> wertheim: keaton would happily spend more time here-- and in montana-- if it weren't

for that pesky day job. he finished filming "the flash," reprising his role as batman, 30 years after he left the franchise. and we had to know-- but, is this bruce wayne still the tortured, somewhat dark figure he was, as we recall? >> keaton: ish. he's kind of-- you know, i can't give too much of this away. i'm one of those guys who goes, "well, i-- i-- i'm not giving that ( bleep ) away." go see the movie. >> wertheim: how's the costume fit? >> keaton: proud to say, i slipped right back into it. >> wertheim: you're 70 years old, and you're still kicking bad guys' ass. that's got to feel good. >> keaton: yeah. if you know anybody whose ass needs kicked, just don't call me. ( laughs ) ( ticking )

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