The creative genius known as Tim Burton is back 36 years later with the highly anticipated follow-up to his cult classic Beetlejuice. He managed to round up original cast members Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara to join new cast members Monica Bellucci, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, and Jenna Ortega. A new problem arises this time as Lydia’s daughter accidentally opens the portal to the afterlife. The gang is taken through some rather chaotic moments in a shocking turn of events as Lydia must call on Beetlejuice for help. Tim Burton is raising the stakes in this new sequel.
We were in attendance in Vegas back in April when we first got a teaser of the sequel at CinemaCon during Warner Bros presentation. Black Girl Nerds had the privilege to fly to New York for a sit down with Tim Burton and other journalists to discuss everything from Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, reuniting with Keaton, and why the sequel took so long to come to fruition.
The comedy was so relevant and was so on par with today. Can you talk to me about how some of that dialog came about?
It’s a bit like the first movie. I tried to treat this movie like the spirit of the first movie. We had a script, but it was a lot of improv that went on, so I’m very lucky to work with people like Michael and Catherine that were very good at improv. We just tried to do it in the spirit of that, do it quick, shoot quickly. All the actors contributed, Justin and Will, everybody contributed to their character. They really took it from the page and made it something else. So that was whole vibe of the movie. We want to do it with practical effects, sets, quickly, with all this great improv, and that just gave it an energy, which is part of what the vibe of the film is for me re-energizing me. It’s why I like making movies; just working with creative people back and forth and just making stuff up on the set. You know, you can’t really do that much in a lot of movies, or you don’t want to. But this one, this property, is part of the spirit of it.
Watching the movie, I felt like Michael Keaton never skipped a decade’s worth of it.
Scariest shit, man. We didn’t rehearse. We do anything, right? So he comes on and it was like, truly, like demon possession, I feel like a time warp. You’re right, it was unnerving. It was great and it was exciting, but it was really also disturbing. That energy of what he brought back to it was amazing and crucial.
What can you say about how much you wanted to mirror your approach to the original, especially when you have such new bells and whistles?
I didn’t even watch the first one. I didn’t really understand why it was a success or not at the beginning, so I didn’t feel like it was going to help me. So I truly didn’t watch it. But I remember the feeling of it, and it’s hard to kind of go back and recreate feelings, especially in this industry,
Well, first one’s really good. You check it out.
I did see it after. But when I did, I didn’t feel like it was important to think about a sequel. When I first started, none of those words were around: like franchise or blah, blah all that reboots, rehab restructure.
Would there be any desire on your part (I’m sure there would be on the studios part) to maybe make one more after this one?
They talk, but if we follow the model now, I’d be making that one when I’m over 100! It’s possible, but I don’t know, with medical science these days. I mean, I wasn’t really personally interested. If you said it to me, I would run the other direction. This is one where I said it was something that caught my thing. Not right now, because I’m finishing this one basically.
Jenna Ortega is a great addition to the film. She once said in an interview that she’s always had dark humor, and her humor was so dark that it surprised you.
Well, that’s why she was Wednesday. Because she is Wednesday. There’s no question about that at all. But she’s really integral to this, because she’s our entrance into this. She’s kind of the anchor of the film. You know, it’s actually a story about her, if you really want to boil it down. She’s a really beautiful addition. Like I said, I had the beauty of Michael and Catherine and Winona, but then have the beauty of Jenna and the other cast members, Will and Monica, Justin. That really became part of a weird family
Now that you’ve worked with Keaton on two sets of sequels, which one was more fun for you to watch him suit up on?
This obviously was more fun. I mean in Batman I think he was struggling because it took forever, and you’re stuck in this one kind of thing. I’m sure he would say that this is definitely much more liberating. Absolutely.
Your world is quite fun and just bombastic. Do you find the real world boring?
No, I would not say boring. I find what people call normal — I don’t know what that word means. When somebody says it, I feel a bit queasy. I don’t know what they actually mean by normal. I mean, I did grow up being terrified of things like school, my parents, or things that are kind of mundane, just real life stuff. That’s the hardest stuff.
How do you approach heavy topics like that with a sense of humor and loving?
Well that was a beautiful thing. There’s a lot of commentary, but not too serious. We don’t preach to you about everything, but there was a lot of personal elements for me about that. Only time can show you in your own experience in life. I couldn’t have made this back in 1989. And now I feel things after 30 years of going through a bunch of good and bad ups and downs that you can only know then that. It’s like when I made Big Fish. I couldn’t have made that film before my father died. Having those feelings of that surprised me. So it’s the same with this.
This Tim Burton interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice directed by Tim Burton, hits theaters September 6, 2024. Watch the trailer here.