BeetleJuice BeetleJuice Cast Interviews

I wanted to make sure I still you know he didn't lose a step uh and but it didn't take long you know once I got there and I started walking around and you know we got shooting a little bit and then we just then we just set the pace and started going and you know Tim just and we all laughed and looked and said oh my God I can't believe it doing this and then everybody forgot about it and said and just went to work you know we just everybody just showed up went to work and it was just fun every day I say what I always say I don't I don't quite know specifically what it is but it's a good chemistry and he and I are similar in that we go I don't know I could think of reasons I guess I mean in a lot of ways were're very similar actually and other ways were just not even we're just very very different but but I just know that when you're around generally speaking when you're around when I'm around artists are really creative people or people have an idea or I'm I'm somewhere and I you know a gallery or something I think wow wonder where that came from with that when you're in it and and then you get to share it and and and then contribute to it that's that's special you know and now a lot of people would say well every movie is like that but it's not really you know that I mean my experience isn't it's just different from anybody anybody else I and I've I've been I've liked all my directors you know but this is just I don't know what it is Tim and I had been talking talking about this and when he said I said you know we have to bring Katherine back and he said yeah I know an will know I said yeah and was you know there and and really when you look at it and then you see Jenna you think well of course like you know people say well she was born to play this sometimes I look and I go no I think literally she was born to play this because you say there almost is no movie if it's not she as you know is it's really kind of her movie her story comes out of her and then you know that it goes to Winona's character as the mom and and then you know the rest of us just kind of contribute to it uh um but those having those women you know was key I read that in the script the idea of it made me laugh so hard and then when I saw it and I'm not going to talk about it too specifically because I want people to go see it in the movie but when I saw those scenes especially the one oh just kind of brilliant I think it wasn't until yeah I drove out to to Malibu to meet to meet with him and he gave me this there I never there never I'd never been given a script so and then I was like so is this like in a couple years like I you know and he's like oh no no no this is this is like this going to happen like next like was at the end of uh the year year and it was going to happen in a few months and so I was just you know I was I couldn't I couldn't believe it I just remember being in the car on the way how I'm going like is oh my and then it had been so abstract for so long and and then the terror really kicked in of like what you know I just you I naturally get anxiety before I start something but I think it would there was something about this that was like it was so exciting and thrilling and I was going to get to be with all these people I love and I've known forever but I was also like terrified and then at on the first day because we started with the ghost house thing and I was like how am I going to should she be on like autopilot you know how and then Tim came up to me and he was like let's try one where you're just really sincere and when he said that like something just clicked and I realized like Lydia is a very sincere person like she is weird and she's you know in the first one she's dramatic and she's like sort of cynical and stuff but but she is actually very sincere and there's something really pure about her and um that as soon as he said that like it everything just kind of locked into place and that was sort of remarkable the fact that he was able to recreate also the the same Vibe as the first one which was kind of felt independent like didn't get the sense of like the studio like you know doing that it it felt like very spontaneous and like oh let's try this and with him because I trust him a th% I you know I you know you can like try something and if it doesn't work he's not going to use it you know so it's it was just that fact that he was able to recreate that environment was wild to me because of all the buzz and anticipation yeah and like everyone we've all talked about that you know I remember every moment of it because when I got there I was like I have to be present for every single moment I'm on this because this just doesn't happen like this is this is so special and and I I made sort of like a very conscious like just to just remain present because it and it was very emotional for me actually like I mean seeing Michael for the first time you know and then seeing him in in makeup and the and Catherine and and of course like I this like sacred bond with Jenna that just was sort of insanely just magical like it like soulmates almost you know and and so it was there was there's a lot of love in the movie there's a lot of heart that um I don't know if it was like in in the first one you know but it feels like this one they you know the relationships are there's sort of like more on the line and and you're a little bit more you know invested invested yeah and um yeah it was it was really one of the most special experiences I had the first time I ever saw him as Beetlejuice like I remember that moment in when I was 15 and I remember like how the light was hitting him and what you know and it was literally like the same thing but I I I I wed up because he's also just he's the one of Michael Katon is one of the most like profoundly kind um protective people actors that I've I've ever worked with I he was so um he was very protective Tim was always very protective too of Lydia and um you know Michael has this kindness and this um and he's brilliant and and he's you you kind of he's like the king of improv him and Catherine so you every take is like a little bit different and and I just I have so much love for him and I remember because at first you know people were like come here come here come here and I was like I don't want to like I don't want this to be for because I knew I I think I must have known I was going to get emotional but I kind of poked my head out and I saw him and was you know from a little bit far away and he turned and I just like ran to him cuz I I mean he that's sweet it was like um I yeah he you know it's almost he spoiled me like because I remember after Beetle Juice I was like my God actors are just like the best and then like oh I guess not everyone is like Michael but he amazing yeah it was really special well he's completely singular there's there's nobody like Beetle Juice there's there's you know he's kind of I feel like he's more than an individual he's like this sort of just entity energy spir you know you can't play some and I I can't there's no other character like that that's great his confidence I think is very appealing yeah people want to be like him except for the Dead part and the movie is just scary and hilarious at the same time and just so beautifully U executed and it's an art form an original art form by Tim Burton astd is Lydia D's daughter and um she doesn't get along with her mom very much they you know maybe Lydia wasn't very nurturing towards her I I think asid really just holds a lot of resentment towards her for divorcing her father sending her away to boarding school felt like her mom just didn't really want to put the time and effort into forming a relationship with her and as also dealing with the death of her father so she's just got kind of got this confused State um about her you know at school she gets bullied because of her mom's ghost stories and Persona so there's just a she feels the weight of the world on her shoulders and not that she cares about anyone's others you know anyone's opinions or anything like that but she's just very um over it I think she holds a lot of anger and doesn't know where to place it she and Lydia have grown to appreciate each other she cares for Lydia she wishes the best for her she's not enough of a mother to really guide her but you know by accident she might actually help Lydia once in a while and uh I think Lydia uh dilia really enjoys watching asid give Lydia a hard time but also we both care about Lydia and and she's just a you know as's a cool kid she's going to be okay it's like she's smart ass and I enjoy watching her you know mistreat Lydia but but she's cool a it's the only way I want to work I'm spoiled for my early days and once you work that way it's just isn't it wonderful yeah it's the best it's the best it's so easy I feel like the best idea often come from that space and that that comfortability because you can fall in your face and it doesn't matter it's still funny or you know just it's just Workshop yeah everyone's throwing out things and you just try you you just keep throwing things at the wall and see if they stick right but it's all under the guidance of Tim he really he knows where he wants to go he knows what he wants in the scene uh you know it's the confidence that he has in his own Talent you know and when people are confident and good they're not afraid for of ideas no not afraid of collaboration the world that he creates is so specific that it kind of it's like putting on like a good costume when you put on that costume and suddenly Everything feels right and you know the way you want to walk and talk and that's kind of what a sets are like where yeah you okay yes it is all crazy ideas but you're still somewhat in the vein of what he wants because he's orchestrated and composed everything to go that way right you're in the right head space so your ideas are not like coming out of nowhere they're you know they're inspired by him and by The Script and and the world that he creates yeah they're all lovely people really talented uh they were all feeling the same way I did Tim just made us feel like it y it's going to be it's going to work out don't worry we're going to do it it's going to happen and and so we were all you know uh jumping in just like holding hands and jumping and and it felt great I felt so lucky I felt like I had like pulled off some elaborate scheme and like made it I feel like I fooled everyone I I never would have thought that they would bring Beetle jues back or that I would get the opportunity to work with Katherine and Michael and Monona you know call bona Mom it's just a very um strange but beautiful and and such a it's just an experience that I'm incredibly grateful and honored to have had um yeah it just it's I think it's hard to comprehend Tim uh on set is so precise he knows what he wants and is uh Creative Energy really inspired everybody and uh he loves to draw so there are always drawings of situation and characters and this is very helpful for the actors and he loves to use practical effects instead of CGI so you really can react to real monsters instead of a green screen and uh so you can go farther with your fantasy your imagination very collaborative and it really uh give you the possibility to be free to express yourself so even for an actor is amazing to work their way Delores I mean she's a soul sucking demon in the afterlife and while V ju hunts everybody she hunts him and uh she's a bit chooses bride they had a short and intense love story that ended very badly in death actually and and when she wakes up in the afterlife full of rage and Desperation and obsessed with vengeance uh she puts herself back together in a scene that is almost like a horror dancing scene and it took two three days to film it and uh and I felt a bit like a m because this role is very much about body language so I tried to play like a broken doll and it was so much fun I have to say and and then what I like about her is this Duality that she has because she's scary but also funny and to me she's a metaphor of life because we all have emotional scars and she has all the scars and but she's strong and she's coming back so there is something human about her even though she's always in the Nether world almost all my scenes are with Michael and it's funny because we had an fun intimate scene to play he was very kind very generous and uh and also for me it was so interesting to see this creative Synergy between Tim and Michael through the years and and I'm so honored to be part of this amazing cast and to enter into Tim's fantastic poetic magical world joining this team uh I think it was at first a little intimidating obviously you'd be crazy if it wasn't a little intimidating but Tim has done such an incredible job of surrounding each one of us uh with enormous Talent you know whether that's director uh from sets to props to puppetry to costumes to wardrobe to and then eventually to the cast which you know he just assembles an incredibly tight creative exceptional team you know it is like the Chicago Bulls in 1990 whatever you know like so when you get on set 95% of the work is already done for you it's all there the world is there the script was there and um and we were able to just have fun and play this is one of those films that you know even in in um you know in Tim's U um that really I think succeeds more and I think Tim knows that you know when when he lets he he lets everyone turn their own volume knob up to you know 11 um particularly with Michael who's so good at it and um and so energetic and but everyone everyone has like a really it was like everyone has a sort of a very similar Funny Bone we all knew the tone and the tenor that we were all supposed to be the key that we were supposed to be singing in so um it it just was really fun I always saw it as like a very sort of poignant comedy uh Coming of Age story for Lydia you know um with this incredible character that comes out of nowhere it's a very original character of Beetlejuice um and I'm I I I rack my brains as to why he's so beloved I mean I love him but it's hard to pinpoint exactly why CU he's for all intents and purposes a villain Rory is the um uh the uh love interest of Lydia um and her producer and kind of her manager and um he's sort of this oily uh insincere but overly emotional uh narcissist that's the best way to describe him I guess I think there's some comfort in knowing that there's there's a couple other people on set that are are trying to sing in the same key as they are um it was really fun watching Winona and Michael sort of reunite just magical seeing all those characters play together um and then it's just and at a certain point you know after the first sort of couple takes really it just became fun like it just became a bunch of actors with an incredible director making each other laugh and um in this crazy heightened world that some how works when it when all these people are put together I nerded out on certainly seeing Michael in that wardrobe and doing that voice and having that physicality but then I also completely nerded out on just the the puppetry the mechanics of the Practical effects the um you sort of the animatronics I mean all all that stuff was just like so much fun so like we do the take and then I would go back between takes and talk to the puppeteers and see how they they control the things or the Bob character or that part was really fun I would conjure um every dog that I have had to say goodbye to uh in my life I would love to say their names and have them all come charging through that door and of course several loved ones as well they're going to have a really good time and I say that with extreme confidence like I don't think there'll be any f F that are disappointed um this film does a a really wonderful job of sort of scratching all the itches that you wanted to scratch as far as you know paying reverence to the first one but I think it it grows in a way that's just the right size it has it is a bigger film but it still has that very almost independent feel to it um you know has a very handmade quality um and it's incredibly good filmm you know so I think people and it's got a strange sort of message at the end you know that or a poignant message that I would not have expected when we made the movie the first one and uh you know I I love making it and doing it but uh as was anything I it was a surprise to me that it was success and in fact to this day I can still qu quite figure out why you know which is kind of the beautiful thing about it it's not something you can easily categorize or identify which you which made it surprising which has made it something for me which uh was just something very special because anytime you're surprised by something in a positive way it's it's beautiful well it took what 35 years and uh I think it was really the thing about you know remember that that I really identified with the Lydia character you know as a as a teenager it was the way that I felt and I felt very strongly identifying with her so I just sort of wondered what what happened to her 35 years later you know it's kind of like it's not a movie that could have been made in like 1989 it it it really was the anchor to this these three generations of the Deets you know grandmother mother daughter granddaughter you know that that that that uh that was the anchor for me that was the thing that that that that interested me because and that's the only thing that you can do with your own knowledge of of growing up you know it's like what happens to you from a teenager what are your relationships like what are your you know what path do you take do you have children you know what I mean what are your children like what you know those are the kind of things that intrigued me and gave it a realistic basis and made it very personal and a lot of things that I can use for my own life in terms of my own strange journey I think it took time you know that's why I said I wasn't Michael and I talked about it and wi know and I we talked about it over the years on and off but nothing really clicked it really had to do for me about the time and and the and the sort of using my own experience of you know going from not cool teenager but Disturbed teenager to Disturbed adult or whatever you know what I mean it's like it's it's your life and you can only really do that once you've experienced it you know and so that that's what made the film very emotional for me and very personal to make I mean I've used all sorts of Technologies through my for whatever film required it but one of the the original feelings that I wanted to and and was was very important to this is to kind of do it in the spirit and we did the first one where we do all practical effects and puppets and makeup and sets and shoot it quickly and shoot it with the kind of uh that same kind of spirit that we did from the first one and in fact that was a very very crucial thing in it and uh and and because I have such great actors the the the idea of improving and making stuff up every day on the set you know everybody really contributed to their character greatly so it gives it a kind of creative spirit that you don't usually get on every movie you know you're kind of bogged down by the sort of weight of something or the technology of it and this was just trying to go back old school kind of make it like like quick and in the spirit of the first it was part of the energy of it to have everybody kind of chip in and and contribute to their character and and it it gives it gives it an energy on the set and a and a and a and a creative spark that like I said you don't get every day we didn't want to overdo it I mean we we we learned a little bit more we see him more in the afterlife in his job you know which is different from the first and we give him a little bit of a backstory which says a little bit about who he was or is or whatever but we didn't want to do too much we wanted to keep him off-kilter and keep him it like I said like in the spirit of the first where you don't know everything about him and that was important too to kind of get the in terms of the spirit that's what I grew up on the movies you know I mean movies and there's nothing you know all the talk about just streaming and TV and whatever it's thankfully it's it seems you know clear that movies are still very very important to some people you know what I mean and the big screen experience is still very magical and still very powerful and so I think it's in some way shape or form it's it's will be here you know what I mean and and you know with things like IMAX or Dolby and things like all the new different formats you could experience it even even greater that way it's really just a weird family story basically you know it's it it's the thing I said was interesting to me is the three generation of Deets women you know you you know mother daughter granddaughter and and that's the thing that that focused me and just a simple simple basic life exploration of those relationships and life and death and what happens to you as you go older you know the the the different Peaks and valleys and right and left turns that you take and by just keeping it very simple like a basic simply a weird family story in doing the movie I remember just in the first day shooting with Katherine and wona I mean and then Michael you know the original cast members I got I was surprised how emotional I got you know it was like I will start crying it was like I don't and it sort of surprised me because I I didn't really expect that to happen but it was be it made it even more special to make and then then also you add with that the great cast the new people you you know Justin Jenna um um um Monica uh William defo you know I mean all these people really brought a lot to it so it was like it was like an old family and a new family it was it was like I said it's really nice when you work with people that you both a respect and then they turn out to be really cool and great to work with so you know I was very lucky Ian he didn't rehearse anything you know cuz we shot this very quickly so he comes on set as Beetle Juice and literally it was like demon possession I was like he TR it's like I I I couldn't you know it was it was almost disturbing and even I look around the crew was going like my God it was like going into a Time Warp he just you know I don't think he's sitting there and practicing in front of a mirror but he's definitely just boom went right back into it was almost kind of chilling in a way e