FILM · 2014 · USA
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
- Directed by
- Alejandro G. Iñárritu
- Runtime
- 120 min
- Studio
- TSG Entertainment, Worldview Entertainment, New Regency Pictures
27 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
A fading actor best known for his portrayal of a popular superhero attempts to mount a comeback by appearing in a Broadway play. As opening night approaches, his attempts to become more altruistic, rebuild his career, and reconnect with friends and family prove more difficult than expected.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (27)
- #001
Because the film was carefully rehearsed and shot in sequence, editing took only two weeks.
- #002
There are only sixteen visible cuts in the entire film.
- #003
Given the unusual style of the long takes, Edward Norton and Michael Keaton kept a running tally of the mistakes made by the actors and actresses. Emma Stone made the most mistakes, while Zach Galifianakis made the fewest. In fact, he flubbed a few lines during shooting, but he played off his mistakes so well that the takes were included in the film.
- #004
Much of the film was shot at the St. James Theatre on Broadway. Michael Keaton and the other actors had to adapt to Alejandro G. Iñárritu's rigorous shooting style, which required them to hit precisely choreographed marks while simultaneously performing up to fifteen pages of dialogue.
- #005
Michael Keaton said this film was the most difficult he had ever made. He also said that the personality of the character Riggan was the most different from his own or from any character he had played up to that point.
- #006
Alejandro G. Iñárritu said that during the scene where Riggan and Mike rehearse the script for the first time, Edward Norton looked at the script and commented on it. Alejandro then reminded him that he was doing exactly what his character does in the film. Norton's character is a satirical version of the actor's real-life behavior on set.
- #007
Just as Michael Keaton's Birdman reflects his earlier Batman role, Edward Norton's character is a parody of Norton's reputation for being very abrasive and difficult to work with.
- #008
Riggan was falsely told that Martin Scorsese was in the audience. There was someone resembling Scorsese among the audience members.
- #009
It was shot in two months, including rehearsals.
- #010
The scene in which Riggan runs through Times Square in his underwear was shot after midnight so that the number of real spectators caught on camera would be limited and most of the people in frame would be hired extras or crew members.
- #011
At the press conference in Riggan's dressing room, he says he has not played Birdman since 1992. That same year, Batman Returns (1992), the last Batman film starring Michael Keaton, was released. Thirty-one years later, he would reprise the role of the Caped Crusader in The Flash (2023).
- #012
According to Alejandro G. Iñárritu, two weeks before he began shooting the film he had dinner in New York with the director Mike Nichols. Iñárritu told Nichols his plan for shooting the film as one long take. Nichols predicted it would be a disaster, because not being able to use cuts in editing would eliminate comedic opportunities. Iñárritu said the meeting did not discourage him; instead, it helped raise his awareness of the difficulty of what he was about to do.
- #013
The Birdman suit Michael Keaton wore was built on a mannequin of his own body from Batman (1989).
- #014
Because the film was designed to look like one continuous long take, no scene could be cut or dropped in post-production. This led the script to take an unusually long time to complete, since the writers had to be sure they were satisfied with every scene.
- #015
The words seen in the opening title sequence are the words actually written on Raymond Carver's gravestone: "And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth."
- #016
Philip Seymour Hoffman was mentioned in the script as the actor who was then shooting The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014). After his accidental death from drug use, his name was changed to Woody Harrelson, who also appeared in that film.
- #017
It was the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar that was shot entirely digitally. Before it won, all previous winners had been shot entirely or partly on film.
- #018
In the final scene, Sam brings her father a bunch of lilac flowers. There is a tradition that holds lilacs to be an ominous flower that should not be brought into the house, especially a hospital, because they are associated with death. The superstition may date back to a time when their strong scent was used to mask the smell of dead people laid out in the home.
- #019
Emma Stone shot the film during a break from filming The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), which was also shot in New York.
- #020
The words spoken by the madman outside the liquor store while Riggan is drunk are taken from William Shakespeare's play "Macbeth," written after Lady Macbeth's death. The lines are: "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."
- #021
The scene in which Riggan forgets to pay the taxi driver is based on a real incident in the mid-2000s when Michael Keaton left a taxi without paying the driver.
- #022
The film was written using a dramatic device similar to "Magical Realism." Magical realism is a genre in which magical or unreal elements play a natural role in an otherwise realistic (usually ordinary) setting. Although it is most commonly used as a literary genre (mostly during the Latin American "boom" generation, which included Gabriel García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes, among others), magical realism also applies to film and the visual arts.
- #023
In the film's one-hour fifty-nine-minute running time there are sixteen visible edits. The first trailer, one minute and forty-seven seconds long, contains more than thirty edits.
- #024
According to "Variety," the film was shot in twenty-three days on a budget of 16.5 million dollars.
- #025
The concept of shooting a feature-length film in a single continuous take was achieved with Russian Ark (2002), shot in a single one-hour thirty-six-minute Steadicam sequence.
- #026
This film was originally going to be Alejandro G. Iñárritu and his production team's project after The Revenant (2015). However, the production of this film was delayed by a year because Leonardo DiCaprio joined The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). During that time, Iñárritu and his team wanted to work rather than wait for DiCaprio to be ready, and decided to work on this film, which had been delayed for a while.
- #027
Michael Keaton said that when he read the script, it did not occur to him that he would have to shoot the scene running through Times Square in his underwear.
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