Beetlejuice: how Michael Keaton brought Tim Burton’s cult character to life

Beetlejuice was not only the role of revelation for Michael Keaton but also the beginning of a fruitful friendship with Tim Burton. A role for which he was not, however, a favorite…

While its sequel is currently in production, Beetlejuice celebrated its 35th anniversary this week. Initially conceived after the success of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure in 1985 as a side project planned to be released after the first Batmanhe ended up taking the lead thanks to a first script signed Michael McDowell. Too dark for Burton, it was reworked by Warren Skarren to become the thrilling horror comedy that everyone remembers.

Transcended by Michael Keatona young actor who is still relatively unknown from the stand-up world, Beetlejuice quickly becomes through his madness one of the most popular characters of Tim Burton. Here’s how the duo imagined it, while waiting to find it in a few months alongside Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega and Monica Bellucci.

Beetlejuice is 35 years old: did you say cult?

At its output, Beetlejuice is once again a public success, collecting revenues five times its initial budget of fifteen million dollars. France is gradually discovering Burton with 650,000 entries on the clock. The success of Beetlejuice marks the rise of Burton among the popular authors in Hollywood, but also that of Keaton and a young teenager who will mark just as much the years to come: Winona Ryder.

Not Burton’s first choice

As surprising as it may seem, the role of Beetlejuice did not immediately stand out in the eyes of the director, who hardly knew him at the time and had seen almost nothing of him. A fan of the Rat Pack since his childhood, Burton has another name in mind to play his Beetlejuice: Sammy Davis. But the actor’s profile divides within Warner, which distributes the film. It’s ultimately the producer David Geffen who whispers to Burton the name of Michael Keaton to play the main character.

In the book of interviews with Tim Burton dedicated to him by Mark Salisbury, Burton remembers their meeting, and the reason which pushed him at the time to hire Michael Keaton on the project: “Michael is completely fit, he’s a maniac, a powerhouse and he has incredible eyes. I love people’s eyes and he has a pair of truly amazing eyes.“.

An imprint on the character

If Beetlejuice marries the canon of Burtonian characters (designed in black and white with enormous eyes, messy hair, pale complexion…), it nevertheless does not completely bear the mark of Tim Burton. Greatly involved in the project, Michael Keaton notably invents some of the lines from Beetlejuice, as explained at the time Tim Burton : “Most of the gags we see on screen were dreamed up during my days spent joking around at Michael Keaton’s house. He was irresistible. He said things like: “What if I made false teeth now?”, and his voice changed instantly. I created Betelgeuse with Michael, which was not the case with Pee-Wee, where the character already existed“.

An involvement in the writing of the character that goes hand in hand with his involvement in creating the character’s appearance. In an interview with journalist Charlie Rose in December 2014, Michael Keaton returned in these terms to the process of creating “her” Beetlejuice, and on “stuff” of acting which allowed him to reappropriate a character originally entirely created by Tim Burtonand to which he gave this appearance both barge and repulsive which gives the flavor of Beetlejuice.

“We talked a lot, a lot with Tim at the time. And he told me two or three things about the character that kept coming back to my mind. I told him to give me a night, a day or two, and I called the costume team because what Tim had told me made me think of something. I asked them to take out costumes from all eras and take whatever they could get their hands on. He told me that in his eyes, the character lived in all possible times and places. I thought about giving him teeth or a gait, but I wasn’t sure where to go. Tim didn’t see any of this. That’s when I asked them to make my hair look like I’d stuck my fingers in an electrical outlet. And the great Fifth Neill (one of the costume designers of Beetlejuice) thought about putting mold on my face because Tim said he imagined the character living underground. I told him okay and I showed up on stage like that, not knowing at all what Tim was going to think about it. And he immediately understood what we were going with.“

A true four-handed creation, Beetlejuice certainly remains a Burtonian character at heart, but also cannot be conceived without the touch of madness that he was able to bring to it. Michael Keaton.

“Day-O”/”Shake Señora”: Beetlejuice’s crazy dances

The start of a friendship

The colossal work undertaken by Keaton and the film teams will bear fruit: for having succeeded in making him so unrecognizable on screen, makeup artists Steve La Porte, Ve Neill and Robert Short won the Oscar for best makeup. Keaton’s performance, meanwhile, transcends the character of Beetlejuice with the zaniness that characterized his younger years as an actor.

Against all odds, both against Warner and against the fans of the comics who absolutely cannot imagine him in the skin of the character, Tim Burton and the producer John Peters will succeed two years later in imposing Michael Keaton in what will remain the other cult character in his filmography, Batman, whom he plays in the two parts of the franchise signed Tim Burton. The culmination of a short-lived collaboration (three films between 1988 and 1992), but which was essential for the careers of both men. And which therefore resumes three decades later thanks to Beetlejuice2 !

The story of Beetlejuice : For wanting to save a dog, Adam and Barbara Maitland go straight into the other world. Shortly after, invisible occupants of their ancient home, they see it invaded by a rich and noisy New York family. Nothing to complain about until the day this honorable family undertook to give a more urban character to the old house. Adam and Barbara, scandalized, decide to evict the intruders. But their classic ghosts and other spells have no effect.

Trailer :

Beetlejuice can be (re)watched on Première Max