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Michael Keaton Just Revealed Something We Never Realized About His Beetlejuice Role
The striped-suited trickster is back to steal the show in the highly anticipated sequel — but did you realize this about the 1988 original?
Michael Keaton just revealed a bit of trivia even the biggest Beetlejuice fan might not have realized.
The actor swung by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on August 19 to talk all about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — and to explain why he and director Tim Burton finally made the supernatural sequel happen 36 years after the original film's release.
When Jimmy Fallon asked Keaton about working with Burton, the former Batman called Burton "a true artist, and on this one [Beetlejuice Beetlejuice], he was particularly upbeat because we had a deal."
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Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice only had 17 minutes of screen time
"We'd talk about it now and then over the years, you know, about 'Should we do it, should we not do it?'" recalled Keaton. "I went through a little period saying, 'Man, I want to go do that again. It's so fun,' and then I thought, 'No, no, man, don't screw this up. Leave it alone. Don't touch it. Just let it be.'"
"Then it started, he and I would talk, but we had a deal. I said, 'If we ever do it, I can't be in it [too much]," he explained. "If I'm in, it may be a minute longer than I was. That's it.'"
Why? Symmetry. "In other words, I'm only in the first one for... I don't know, 12 minutes or something like that. I'm in it for a very short time," Keaton continued. "I said, 'We can't do more.'"
Keaton's total screen time in the original Beetlejuice was actually 17 minutes — but either way, the Juice was only loose for a surprisingly short amount of time in the 1988 original, considering the movie is named after the character.
Keaton also revealed another agreement he had with Burton, which was if they returned to the world of Beetlejuice, they'd stick to "really handmade" practical effects instead of heavily relying on CGI.
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In an August 2024 interview with GQ, Keaton said that he thought having too much Beetlejuice in the sequel would actually "kill it."
"I think the Beetlejuice character doesn’t drive the story as much as he did in the first one," he said. "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."
As long as the new movie has plenty of Catherine O'Hara and Winona Ryder, we'll be happy as a Sandworm in the sun.
