Michael Keaton Says the ‘Merchandising’ of His Beetlejuice Character Was ‘Off-Putting’

Samantha Bergeson
·2 min read

Michael Keaton just wanted to get back to the basics of playing ghoul Betelgeuse.

Keaton told Empire that returning for sequel “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” in the title role meant he had to somewhat overlook the zeitgeist iconography from the 1988 original Tim Burton film.

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“There’s been so much merchandising of it, I had to drop back to where it started,” Keaton said. “I had to go, ‘What was my unusual imagination even thinking about when I was developing it in the first place?’ As opposed to seeing a coffee mug or a golf-club cover [adorned with Betelgeuse’s face].”

Keaton called witnessing the lore of Betelgeuse in the merchandising world a “fucking weird” experience.

“To be honest with you – I’m being very frank – it was off-putting, to look and go, ‘I don’t want to look like all these little things, fuck that – what was the thing that started this?'” Keaton said.

Instead, the actor knew he had to return to the quirky aspects that made “Beetlejuice” such a cult classic success in the first place.

“I love it,” Keaton said. “I absolutely love this thing. And I don’t [usually] talk like that. I unabashedly love this. It was not easy to pull off, and I think we did it in spades.”

Director Burton added to Empire of Keaton reprising the role, “It was like he was possessed by a demon, because he just went right back into it.”

Keaton admitted to People magazine that both he and Burton were “hesitant and cautious” about revisiting the film for a sequel.

“We thought, ‘You got to get this right. Otherwise, just don’t do it. Let’s just go on with our lives and do other things,’” Keaton said. “So I was hesitant and cautious, and he was probably equally as hesitant and cautious over all these years. Once we got there, I said, ‘OK, let’s just go for it. Let’s just see if we can do it, if we can pull this off.’”

He added, “It’s the most fun I’ve had on set in a long time. On one hand, you’d go, ‘Well, of course it’s the most fun. It looks like fun.’ As you know, it doesn’t always work like that. The one thing that he and I decided on early, early, early on from the beginning, if we ever did it again, I was totally not interested in doing something where there was too much technology. It had to feel handmade. It’s the most exciting thing. When you get to do that again after years of standing in front of a giant screen, pretending somebody’s across the way from you, this is just enormous fun.”

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