Since playing the original Batman in 1989, Michael Keaton has had his share of ups and downs. He balanced small parts in cutting edge movies like Jackie Brown and Out Of Sight with leading roles in studio flops from Multiplicity to Jack Frost. Last year he made his big box office comeback in the hit horror White Noise and looks set to continue the winning streak with Disney's revival of the Herbie franchise co-starring Lindsay Lohan.

Why have we seen so little of you in recent years?

It was a combination of things. I reached a point where I didn't think I was that great. I'm not being humble. I was looking at things and thinking, "You're really not that good in that." I think I was becoming boring as well as bored. It was nobody's fault except mine, probably and it might not even be my fault. Also I would get scripts and think "What's the point of this?" I turned an awful lot of things down. That can sound very elitist, but the truth is 70 per cent of the stuff just wasn't very good. The other thing is that I wasn't getting really great stuff. So it was a combination of wanting to really go back to work again and very quietly and slowly and methodically start to plot a course where I would start to get what I wanted.

You've said that you did Herbie for "business reasons". How are you now finding that balance of art and commerce?

If you have to put them in two categories, art and commerce, I still fail on the art side probably. But I'd say that [the business part] came around later on. The business has changed enormously so if you're not looking at it like that you're foolish. You know, you're a business inside a business and if you don't realise that then it can slow you down. I think I've been around long enough now to say, "Okay, there's that but then I've got to go and be who I am as an artist." It may be seldom that I actually am an artist. I hope I am all the time but I don't think that I am honestly.

Your role as the worried dad in Herbie provides the heart of the story. Did you have to put a lot of work into fleshing out the character?

It started as just a fun role in a Disney movie, but I always ask questions to get things clear with the director before I do anything and sometimes that's a long process and sometimes it's a short process. So anyway, without putting the father character in a Herbie movie under too much scrutiny, you still have to do that basic work, you know? So Angela [Robinson, director] and I talked about it and I think early on she may have thought, "Wow. He's thinking about this waaay too much!" But what I did was, I said I'd like to go through it all and then just throw it away and show up for work. I think this character has great merit actually because he carries this burden of a family legacy and of the business and also how to realise a family without the aid of a partner.

Is it a leap for you to be playing a racing legend or are you a sound driver in real life?

I'm not a sound driver, I'm just a very fast driver! When I had my kids is when I actually started wearing my seatbelt. Before that I was really stupid. I also don't drive quite as fast as I used to but I was never really a big racing fan. I just wasn't exposed to it much. But I'm interested in everything so I found the racing aspect in this movie relatively interesting. I actually had two Beetles that I loved. Loved! I bought the first for $500. Actually he wanted $500 for it and being the sound businessman that I am I talked him down to $495. That's true - five bucks! And the guy actually thought about it, like, "Aw gee, I dunno..."

What did you think about having to play support to a car?

I thought when I read the script it was a nicely written film. I really think this is a very nice film. I really do. When I saw a screening, I really admired what Angela had done. I thought she positioned the movie really nicely so that for the next hour-and-a-half you were on board, as it were. And I thought they created a natural character out of the car. Like the junkyard scene, that was very charming. And I admired how good Lindsay was in this movie. She's very talented, but she's actually really good in this movie, and it's sometimes hard to tell in movies like this. I thought Lindsay's performance, inside this world of talking to a car, was really good. I just liked finding that really weird place where you play the 'reality' regardless of what it is.

Is it true you won't do sequels - except for maybe a second Beetlejuice?

I don't necessarily say, "I don't do sequels." I did a sequel once and I wouldn't necessarily not do a sequel. The idea doesn't thrill me, but I would do a sequel if it was the right thing. But Beetlejuice is very, very special. The only way I would do it is if it could be in that ballpark - in the same zone of creativity as the first one. Otherwise I'd want to leave that alone, I think. I just enjoyed it so much because it's the only thing I've done - except maybe Much Ado About Nothing - that comes closest to purely original, authentic art on the screen that I've done. That's a rush, when you get that, and you want to do it again, you know, but you don't want to screw up.

Herbie: Fully Loaded is released in UK cinemas on Friday 5th August 2005.