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Street Roots • May 19-25, 2017
P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F S T U D IO C A N A L
Michael Keaton plays Ray Kroc in “The Founder, ” which is now out on Blu-ray and DVD.
'Consumption and consumerism and
capitalism and the American Dream’
Tmmigration is an integral part to all that, ’ says Michael Keaton,
who plays McDonald’s CEO Ray Kroc in ‘The Founder’
BY STEVEN MACKENZIE
more important to building the empire.
S.M.: I t ’s a little rainy.
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
M.K.: Right.
e’s starred in films from “Beetlejuice”
to “Batman” to “Birdman.” From “The
Paper” to “Spotlight.” Now, Michael
Keaton plays Ray Kroc, the founder who
didn’t really found McDonald’s. Keaton
discusses the “The Founder,” the American
Dream and Donald Trump — even offering to
build some wind turbines to annoy the
president.
H
S teven M acKenzie: Ray Kroc didn’t found
McDonald’s - all he did was stumble across a
restaurant operated by the McDonald brothers.
So should the film be called “The Finder” rather
than “The Founder”?
M ichael Keaton: Very possibly. That’s
S.M.: The McDonald brothers and Ray Kroc
have two very different ways o f working toward
the American Dream - doing the right thing
versus success at all costs. Achieving the Dream
is also tied to working hard, but by doing that,
do you inevitably stomp over others on your way
up?
M.K.: I would disagree that by working
hard you have to stomp on other people. To
work hard, you have to work hard. But you’re
right that it’s two different interpretations of
the American Dream. They said they’d like to
do quite well, and Ray said, I want to do quite
well more than you want to do quite well. And
now that I’m doing quite well, I want to do
quite weller. And then I think it became an
issue of power and not about money. I don’t
have a problem with capitalism. Greed and
consumption and abuse of power - I’ve got a
problem with that.
pretty funny. Initially I thought what you
thought - even though I wasn’t clever enough
to think of “The Finder.” But if I was Ray
Kroc’s publicist, I think this would make for a
good argument: He probably thought, yes,
you created the system of serving the food,
and yes you came up with the Arches but
what I made it into - I founded that. I could
kind of understand his rationale. I don’t know
if I buy it - but you know what I mean?
S.M.: Growing up, I used to think
McDonald’s was a Scottish chain o f restaurants
because I ’m from Scotland, and it seemed to
make sense.
S.M.: Whether the food or the franchising was
M.K.: Glasgow is one of my favorite cities.
M.K.: I know, but I’ve never been to a city
where the people make me laugh as
consistently. It would be a challenge to go to
Glasgow and never laugh once - it’s
impossible.
S.M.: People certainly wouldn’t last long if
they didn’t have a sense o f humor.
M.K.: I was just fishing in Scotland a while
back actually, fishing for salmon.
Unfortunately they weren’t co-operating, but I
didn’t really care because I love rambling the
countryside.
S.M.: Apologies on behalf o f the fish. B u t the
point is, McDonald’s is obviously a foreign
name, yet in the film they keep saying part o f the
chain’s success was because it “sounds
American. ”
M.K.: I know, I know! You’re the first
person to bring it up, which as a Scot you
would. I love that scene because Ray seemed
to have some disdain for his own heritage, but
when he says, “McDonald’s, that sounds
American” - in the back of my head I’m
thinking, actually it’s Scottish! I’m a half Scot
myself; my real name’s Douglas. So watch
yourself.