The 72-year-old Oscar nominee breaks down how this sequel differs from the 1988 classic, and the one thing about Beetlejuice he demanded absolutely could not be updated to reflect the times.
Michael Keaton had two conditions when it came to reprising his iconic role of Beetlejuice in the sequel Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.
While speaking to GQ, the 72-year-old Oscar-nominated actor revealed he did not want Beetlejuice to have a lot of screentime, despite him being the main character in the first film.
“The idea was, no, no, no, you can’t load it up with Beetlejuice, that’ll kill it,” Keaton told GQ.
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“I think the Beetlejuice character doesn’t drive the story as much as he did in the first one. He’s more part of the storyline in this one as opposed to the first one, which is a case of, this thing comes in and drives the movie a little bit.”
Keaton’s screentime was only 17 minutes in the 1988 original film.
As for his second condition, Keaton wanted to ensure the sensitivities of the world today didn’t impact the essence of who Beetlejuice is to his core.
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“He’s a thing. He’s more of a thing than a he or a she, he’s more of an it,” he said. “And I’m not saying ‘it’ to be politically correct. I just viewed it as a force more than anything. I mean, there’s definitely strong male energy, like stupid male energy, which I love. You don’t want to touch that because it’s not like you go, ‘Well, it’s a new year and this thing would now act like that.'”
Along with Keaton reprising the titular role, original cast members Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara also reprised their roles.
“It was like a weird family reunion,” director Tim Burton told GQ of his time shooting the highly-anticipated sequel.
“Very strange, but the strange part of it is, Michael got back so into it, it was kind of scary in a way. I mean, for somebody who didn’t really maybe want to do it, he seemed to channel it very quickly. And so it was quite exciting and surreal.”
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Also in the GQ profile, Keaton touched on Warner Bros. decision to shelve Batgirl indefinitely.
“I didn’t care one way or another. Big, fun, nice check,” he told the publication. The $90 million-budgeted film was already shot and through post-production when the studio shelved it, which came as a shock to the industry.
Despite his take on it, Keaton did feel for Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.
“I like those boys. They’re nice guys. I pull for them. I want them to succeed, and I think they felt very badly, and that made me feel bad,” he said. “Me? I’m good.”
Jenna Ortega and Justin Theroux also star in the sequel. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice hits theaters on September 6.
