'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' Cast on Reviving a Cult Classic | Around the Table | Entertainment Weekly

are we really sitting around talking about worms I don't know what a strange job it's probably my favorite part cuz if you talk about any day that we had on the set none of it it's normal hey everyone welcome to ew's around the table with Beetle Juice Beetle [Music] Juice does anyone remember maybe Monica what you you felt or what you remember the most from the original movie I was big fan of R I really loved it because was scary shocking and funny and emotional at the same time I mean there are deep meanings in the film because it's about death love I was really touched by the movie for me is a dream to be here with all of you it actually is emotionalist movie yeah I wasn't ready for that truly yeah I was watching I thought oh boy this is really this very sweet uh more more than I I thought I I thought I think it's also pretty special how because Tim is naturally such a funny humorous guy I think he uses oftentimes uh he turns to these jokes while talking about these deeper meanings but then that means they kind of hit you when you're not expecting them it's just kind of been this like underlying growing emotional story and then he hits you with a really emotional beat between you know family members or you know parents are you know like a lot with the maand in the original and things like that and then you don't even have much time to dwell on that before you're on to the next yeah you know also the unique thing about the first one which was I know in my brain it was like a a big Smash Hit and it was a big movie but it still felt even when I saw it when I was young that it was like a sort of like something I found you know it was the first time i' had seen sort of like the Winona character you know as you know this sort of emo teenager which I I guess I was you know feeling like slightly represented on screen I was like w this is and I could relate to what she was going through and it still felt like a you know a great old record that I found at a record shop as opposed to some sort of Hollywood movie that had been sort of you know concocted forced on me that's pretty cool yeah I think everyone has that experience with it in a way well because on paper the script is insane and none of it should have worked but I think the team and story and the the the passion behind it had turned into this kind of Otherworldly sensation but I mean the plot doesn't make sense nothing but yet you still are able to resonate with it which I think is really powerful and I can't really compare it to any other film currently shake shake shake shake one of things I remember about saying it is I really uh loved uh the jump in the line sequence you know the the Calypso the Harry bant stuff and that was close to my heart because I I mean this maybe it's spin off but is a real personal thing we I had a theater company and we used that uh uh uh those two songs in one of our theater pieces so I felt very close I felt already close to Tim's aesthetic um having seen uh his other movies but uh that always stayed with me that there was some sort of connection there yeah cuz that was not floating around cuz that music was popular a good uh 50s yeah ear 60s probably yeah so wear shirt a shirt that came down it you know there are times where he took nice stylistic leaps that people weren't taking in the movies I mean he really it boggles my mind when you think about Tim's filmography I mean he's had such a profound effect on Cinema because of his uh personal vision and uh Beetlejuice was the beginning of it and now we see uh you know son of Beetlejuice daughter of Beetle Juice happening now and you see how it's grown and it's yet it's stayed intact Beetle no afraid to express yourselves don't be afraid you're a figment of my imagination really is this figment of your imagination Tim and I had a deal where you know first of all how do you how do you do this again it's not like we sat down on the first one and thought okay remember now in the First Act this happens and then here's the here's your character's Arc and all that you just kind of go oh this is g to be fun this is going to be cool you know I don't know what we're and then it just kind of got created um I mean up here he had it a good bit of it created I know but then it took on life of its own so those things don't come around often like in anything really but especially you know that's what makes and I don't throw this word around Loosely that's what makes art really in a lot of cases right so I always think people didn't realize what was underneath their the them wanting to look at this stuff and hear this stuff and kind of you know live in this this world that was so unlike anything that you could compare it to and that's because you're watching this thing that's I keep saying it was handmade it was literally handmade people misuse the word literally all the time it was literally many things were handmade done by Craftsmen and art departments and as opposed to a lot of CGI so so I think that stuck with people the best things that you often that you love you don't know why you love them you just love them and so there was this connection to it that people didn't even consciously think about and so that was part of our deal that we try to do that again in fact not even try to do it again it was an agreement we we we have to do that again now of course even in the first one there were a little CGI here and there that the only way it's going to make it work so we made that agreement and we stuck to it and uh I think you feel it more the thing I'll say about this one though in a lot of ways it's better and it's at the end of the day if somebody said you have to pick one thing you've done make how I make my living I probably would pick Beetle Juice for for its all-encompassing thing for it's just its art you know what I mean I've been in some you know pretty good movies but this is this is something different and so this one may be better because it's got a really actually stronger story kind of is emotional it's very sweet the cast is stupid good uh and the cast in the first one was great but but to to to remake something that you didn't even know might work the first time is really hard the only thing I worried about was should we have left it alone you know uh should we have just said don't touch it just walk away go make your other movies you know and which we did and then I thought okay so for me it was a big role of the dice I would say you know the movie itself uh looms so large just in sort of pop culture in your mind and and and I think everyone has an emotional it was you know the first reaction I had was sort of just gratitude that it's like someone handing you the a key to a door that you just get to walk in to this world that you never in a million years thought you were ever going to get to visit and then just sort of play with these guys and and and do scenes with them and and the script was so good and then of course it just gets Amplified you know by 10 just by the talent that that Tim assembled and also just to sort of your point that handmade quality yeah you know there's really something thrilling when you get to see imagine when you made the first one you know was probably a lot of string and Bubblegum and you know and Tim is probably trying to impress on the people with the money that this is what I want it to look like one there's no template for it but this many years later when clearly Tim has sort of a Cy of Artisans and people that like that he's worked with and knows what it that was really special to witness because he's now sort of got this Army of puppeteers and people that do clation and makeup artists and costume designers and to watch that it's like watching someone sort of conduct to a symphony with the best players in the in the business and that's what I think makes this movie different but also special to the first which is it's almost like sort of a peak of his powers moment you know and it's the same tone and it's made with the same heart but it sort of aged in this wonderful way where everyone's kind of and I would say even as actors you know evolved to you know there's just something there's an undertone or a thread to it that just feels like it was made with such love and and appreciation um and it wasn't it didn't feel like uh it felt like it and yes big sets yes crazy detail yes crazy but it was it it felt very independent you know just because the the spirit with which the actors came together was really in sync which is not often the case and then the person shepherding it felt really just sort of in command and that's a great feeling and then when you just have fun you know then it just it's such a privilege to be able to work with puppets and not a tennis ball and I feel like so much of this film because it's it's so spontaneous and so erratic I think that it's very easy to you know do a film that's maybe heavily CGI and be a little bit confused about where you stand and where you but I think part of the reason why we were on the same page is because we were dealing with things that were real and I think another reason why this movie works so well is cuz it it's a magic trick it's like when someone makes cards disappear in front of your hands I think that's why it feels Indy because you're not watching somebody who spent hours a computer working on something you're W you just witness something unbelievable that shouldn't work and it's just a trick on the eye you know I I think that that's why like that's what audiences need and want and what we're not really getting from movies nowadays so I think that that's part of the reason why this is so interesting also to that point of the you know the Uber technology next to the handmade stuff I think there's a level of imperfection and personality when stuff is handmade just like you know the thing that I always think about is how hard hard it is to write a love letter on a computer rather than long hand yeah now when you write long hand and if you write it with a fountain pen you may have some blotches of ink or whatever it may some of your handwriting may not be good but it lives in a different way it breathes in a different way so when you're working with that kind of um that kind of approach it it's just a little more joyous and a little less canned you know it it it lives in a way really it's actually freeing well it is what it is you know and you you can you can slipstream it you can ride you know uh everything that's there um it doesn't feel like it happened before without you and it's not going to happen after without you you're there with it and uh what happens what happens it has a kind of truth to it which is funny to talk about with a highly stylized kind of fantasy you know some elements of horror and all that but it's really true uh that kind of rootedness is is sometimes hard to to achieve when you're tempted by using uh technology that we have available it's still tangible see when you have a green screen in front of you you have just your fantasy to work with but when you have a real object a real monster for example of course you can go further with your creativity yeah no for sure and is easier for us I remember when Ona and I were shooting with sandworms it was really wonderful and and Tim's really great because he always shows references and images or drawings or things that he has in mind so he showed me some of his sketches of the sand worms and we also saw images of what they wanted for the worms and then we shot you know with huge wind fans blowing each way to let us know when the worm was coming and when it was going or little pockets of sand popping up out of the ground as we were running so we knew that they were and that is something that it was weird it definitely made it feel more real which is strange talking about clay worms um but it you really did feel like they were after you with the way that everything was the ground was shaking or things were moving I remember one time we were rehearsing outside of winter river which the way they we built it on the same Hill same town same house same measurements everything they had all the old notes from the original um and it was strange because we would be shooting and people who lived in that town in Vermont were coming over with books signed by Tim 30 years ago or photos of the original Beetlejuice like oh we were here when they first came back and they had a little cinemon and they were screening it all week but it was so funny to you know be back in that world and see everything again it felt like you were in the model shooting which again it's if I I would I would call my mom and my mom would try to talk to me about the day or talk to me what and I would describe something to her and she would just be so excited I try not to give anything away to her because I I want to make sure but like if I told her yeah we all were with Katherine Monona um shooting at the original house walking into the attic for the first time it almost there's like an emotion that overcomes you that was actually what happened when I first met Michael I I we hadn't met in life you know as you do um and I was on set and I was like oh I and when's he coming because I'd really like to meet him just to say hello and you had just gone through the works and gotten the full thing for like I think the second time or something went I knocked on your trailer and opened you yeah and you threw the door open and you were standing there in full and it was just Beetle it wasn't Michael you know I was just you were Beetle Juice and I was like this is a perfect way to sort of meet you and sort of you know but it was just fabulous because immediately snapped into the world and I don't think I interesting listbody what that the experience is because you step into an a thing that I'm going I'm thinking yeah I hate to sound like oh yeah I know what this world is because it's all it's so it's so different from everything else it's never like another movie but it's fun to listen to these guys kind of go yeah you know and then this happened and then you know or their take on or how how it felt to be in the thing you know I mean it still felt like that to me because how many years ago was it but but I I love hearing this because I know exactly what they're talking about but you have to understand there was no there it didn't exist so we were rolling Big Dice you know going going we were out there and then you go okay now it's you you've seen it it's a thing now these guys have to step into it [Music]