By Michael Keaton says slipping into the old rhythm of Beetlejuice again for Tim Burton’s forthcoming sequel “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” was a bit tougher than it looks.
It had been 35 years since Keaton played the role, and when he had it was for an original black supernatural comedy with a rising director. With the film’s release though, the character has become a part of pop culture with an animated series, merchandise and memes.
The result is an idea of Beetlejuice as almost a comic mascot of pop culture, one quite separate from Keaton’s original dark and manic turn in the original film.
That impacted Keaton’s approach to the film, telling Empire he had to deliberately avoid the later re-interpretations of the character and go back to the mindset he had with his original work:
“That was f—– weird. To be honest with you – I’m being very frank – it was off-putting, to look and go, ‘I don’t want to look like all these little things, f— that – what was the thing that started this?’
There’s been so much merchandising of it, I had to drop back to where it started. I had to go, ‘What was my unusual imagination even thinking about when I was developing it in the first place?’ As opposed to seeing a coffee mug or a golf-club cover [adorned with Beetlejuice’s face].”
Whatever he did worked because Burton told the outlet: “it was like he was possessed by a demon, because he just went right back into it.” Co-star Jenna Ortega put it even better:
“It was like an animal with a gun had just walked into the room. To watch him physically change and appear and Michael Keaton to be gone, and for me to be dealing with this Beetlejuice guy…It blew my mind.”
The results are worth it for Keaton who has, once again, gushed over the final result and says he adores the film they came up with:
“I love it. I absolutely love this thing. And I don’t [usually] talk like that. I unabashedly love this. It was not easy to pull off, and I think we did it in spades.”
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is set to open in cinemas in September.
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