Justin Theroux on comedy, creating a character, Tim Burton, and 'Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice'

uh so to start I love that MacArthur Park is in this movie because I think that song is insane it's crazy why would why is the recipe gone forever I don't understand where it went but why was the cake left in the ring yeah why all in the ring there's so many questions about this song but when you are in a movie like Beetle Juice Beetlejuice and know that like okay in the first Beetlejuice everyone was doing the Deo thing after are you excited to be in a scene like that or are you kind of like I don't want to be involved in the dancing I was thrilled to be in the scene I just remember thinking why would we choose this song like it's so not and I don't know Tim has this very sort of peon sense of humor and and taste in music and you know I trust that uh he chose the right song but like you I thought it was terrible just it doesn't make any like oh I can talk about MacArthur Park for so long uh also you get to play this man who there's not a genuine word that comes out of his mouth and I do think it's very funny how when you're approaching a character like that do you kind of like figure out like all right well here's the 12 things he's actually thinking about with this one line that he's saying I don't know we we we sort of me and Tim struck on a bunch of funny stuff that we thought or just made us laugh which is that yes it's a definitely a toxic relationship um he's a complete narcissist um you know he's sort of almost in his own soap oper like every sort of closeup on him is uh you know or every in his brain everything is sort of a closeup on him um and it just made us laugh like we just it was a giggle like we and we thought you know we couldn't go too far with it you know but we also wanted to feel kind of like a real codependent relationship yeah I say this to everyone who was on this show because it's my favorite show of all time how does something like Parks and Recreation which you have these like big comedy legends that you're going up against help you prepare for comedy in things like this which is a little off-kilter and a little more like nuanced comedy um I don't know I've been lucky I've been I've been able to work with some some of the best in the business so I'm not like intimidated or I don't know how it It prepares me I think you know it's always great when you have sort of a similar uh comedic Funny Bone to the people that you're working with if the same things are making you laugh because comedy is one of those things that everyone thinks they have a great sense of humor you know there's not one person that's like oh I don't have a very good sense of humor um but you want all the people's comedy to sort of align so um when that happens like I did here like it's you get good stuff and I I have to ask cuz you and I both have a lot of tattoos I can't you can't all mine are all mine all my where are yours they're all it's all like here and on my back and Stu so looked like I was lying for a minute but when for me it always like I feel really cool and confident because I have all these tattoos when you're going into something like a Tim Burton movie and you already kind of have that air about you as a human how does your costumes and the set and all of that help you play into like creating a character completely you know it's there's the old you know you know I don't know Charlie Chaplan found his Cane uh you know and his hat uh you know when we found that wig uh that has that dumb ponytail on the back that was like we tried a bunch of different wigs on and then when we put that one on we were like oh this is the biggest dbag in the world and so it made us laugh really hard so um yeah those kinds of things totally help a character like I love you know putting on a big pair of glasses or a mustache or you know doing something that's just absurd when how does you know Tim Burton is known for his stories and his worlds and all that stuff and you're a screenwriter yourself how does your screenwriting background kind of help you interact with like directors and screenwriters like Tim Burton well with Tim it's perfect because he was he immediately wanted me to you know sort of deploy whatever I could on the character um in terms of sort of coming up with lines and things like that um so you know it's a bummer when no one Embraces it because then you're like hey I have an idea um which is fair you know sometimes people have worked very hard on the script and they don't want it touched which is also fine um but Tim's ex extremely collaborative he wants everyone to bring to bear every talent that they have so he was very open to me um uh improvising coming up with things um you know so slipping things in between the the bricks that wasn't necessarily there and uh what for you though was was like the one thing that you got to see on this set that you were like cool this is what I wanted to see being on a Beetle Juice baby that baby was the best thing I've ever seen in my life that puppet like cuz it really was an incredible piece of artwork and Machinery like it could like do facial expressions it could crawl it could sit up it could um and it you know had a million people controlling its facial expressions um that thing was incredible oh I can't wait for everyone to get to see it uh thank you so much for talking with me I really appreciate you my pleasure good talking to you