Michael Keaton is opening up about reprising his iconic role as Beetlejuice in the upcoming sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and the two conditions he had for signing on to the project.
The 72-year-old Oscar-nominated actor previously played the character back in 1988 and now he’s returning to the role 36 years later.
Did you know that Beetlejuice only had 17 minutes of screen time in the first movie? That played a big part in Michael‘s conditions for the sequel.
Keep reading to find out more…
“The idea was, no, no, no, you can’t load it up with Beetlejuice, that’ll kill it,” Michael told GQ about making sure his character wasn’t the main character again.
He added, “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.”
Michael also wanted to make sure that Beetlejuice remained a “sicko” and wasn’t updated for 2024.
“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.’”
