Actor Michael Keaton honored as Man of the Year by Harvard’s Hasty Pudding theater group

BOSTON (AP) — Actor Michael Keaton jousted with an Oscar statue and made burgers Friday night as he was roasted before receiving the 2026 Man of the Year by Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

The theater group, which dates to 1844 and claims to be the world’s third-oldest still operating, presented Keaton with his Pudding Pot award during the evening celebration. Afterward, he attended a performance of Hasty Pudding’s 177th production, “Salooney Tunes.”

Hasty Pudding Theatricals gives out its Man and Woman of the Year awards to people who have made lasting and impressive contributions to the world of entertainment.

Keaton, an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning actor, is known for roles in such films as “Batman,” “Birdman,” “Beetlejuice” and “Spotlight.” More recently, he starred in and directed the short film “Sweetwater” and starred in and was executive producer on the eight-part Hulu miniseries “Dopesick.”

The ceremony opened with Keaton donning a Batman costume and chasing after an Oscar statue — a nod to the fact he never won one, though he was nominated in 2015 for “Birdman.” Keaton then jousted with the figure before stabbing it after the statue told him, “I thought your performance in ‘Birdman’ was subpar.”

He later was dressed up as a McDonald’s worker, a reference to his role playing Ray Kroc in a movie about the making of the fast food megachain. Armed with a spatula, he served a single customer who increasingly demanded bigger and bigger burgers while Keaton tried his best.

“You didn’t think I could do this. Make a huge burger for the guy,” Keaton said.

Keaton then received his Pudding Pot. After spending the day on campus, he praised Harvard students.

“I’m ridiculously encouraged about this country,” he said. “The older generation not so much. Man, these people I’ve met are extraordinarily impressive. It’s been a ball. Based on these people, we are in good shape folks.”

Afterward, he took questions from reporters and recalled his time working with Catherine O’Hara, the Canadian-born comic actor and “SCTV” alum who died last week. Keaton starred alongside O’Hara in “Beetlejuice” and “The Paper,” along with the small movie “Game 6,” in which she played the ex-wife of Keaton’s character.

“I was just always a giant fan like everyone else,” Keaton said while recalling the early days of her career. “What was great about Catherine’s career to me was … inside the comedy world, she was already kind of a goddess. … She wasn’t really famous or anything, but we all knew how brilliant she was and how great she was and what a nice woman she was. And so then it started to take off for her.”

Keaton also recalled how much he came to admire Kroc in the making of the movie and made sure Kroc understood they would not “sugarcoat” or “soften” his portrayal.

Keaton added that for all Kroc’s faults, “He was an unbelievably hard worker. That was the thing I hung on to, that determination.”

Actor Jon Hamm won the award last year. Other recent honorees have included Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds.

Hasty Pudding’s Woman of the Year, which dates to 1951, will be awarded Feb. 13 to Australian actor Rose Byrne.

Friday’s event comes days after the Justice Department released a huge trove of records surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, a longtime donor to the organization. The documents provided new details about the amount of money Epstein had given to Hasty Pudding roughly between 2013 and 2019, regularly donating $50,000 each year to secure top-tier donor status and receiving perks of free tickets and other gifts in return, totaling more than $300,000.

The donations were made through the Jeffrey Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation and Gratitude for America, a charity affiliated with Epstein.

In an undated news release announcing Epstein’s donations, Hasty Pudding officials described Epstein as a “well-known science and Harvard philanthropist” and said he “put his substantial support behind Harvard’s famous and oldest theatrical troupe.”

A spokesperson for Hasty Pudding directed questions to Andrew Farkas, chairman of the Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770, which includes the theatrical group. Hasty Pudding organizers did not address the Epstein donations during Keaton’s news conference.