The new Beetlejuice cast loved revisiting Tim Burton's original film

NEW YORK – Michael Keaton doesn’t like to think too much. But he has a theory to share about his new “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” co-star, Jenny Ortega.

For decades, he and director Tim Burton have been tinkering with a sequel to their beloved ’80s horror comedy “Beetlejuice,” but nothing felt right until Burton began working with Ortega on the 2022 Netflix series “Wednesday.”

“She literally didn’t exist” in 1988, Keaton reminds Burton during a group meeting at the posh Essex House. “She’s born, you end up doing something with her. And then you say, wait a minute. Her? That? If she’s gone, we might never do this.”

“We had to wait for you to survive,” Catherine O’Hara chimes in, which makes Ortega, 21, smile. “The powers in the room changed,” she jokes.

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When the Beetlejuice crew meets to discuss the highly anticipated sequel (in theaters Friday), it’s both a cozy reunion and a therapy session. For example, Keaton reveals that he went undercover to Burton’s exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art and almost fell into a few valuable pieces: “I was so afraid I was going to break something.” And Burton delves into his bond with Winona Ryder’s character, Lydia Deetz, and her journey “from cool teenager to troubled adult. That made the whole movie very personal, very important and emotional,” the director says.

The secret sauce in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” isn’t the return of Keaton’s roguish con artist, but three generations of Deetz women. A death in the family leads Lydia to reunite with her estranged daughter Astrid (Ortega) and eccentric stepmother Delia (O’Hara). Sure, she has a return date from Beetlejuice as the Afterlife intrigues continue, but Lydia also needs to rediscover the confident goth she once was in order to best connect with Astrid.

“I couldn’t have made this movie in 1989,” says Burton, 66. “It’s only through the twists and turns of the plot that you get a sense of the real life experience and the emotional baggage that we all carry.”

Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega Team Up as Mother and Daughter in ‘Beetlejuice’

Ryder, 52, was moved by her fond memories of the attic set from the first film, which she revisits in Beetlejuice . “I just love it there. I always imagined Lydia would live in the attic and be like a happy spinster,” the actress says. Lydia being a mom is a new concept for her: In a 2022 interview with USA TODAY promoting Stranger Things , Ryder said kids “would be the last thing she wanted.”

The same is true for Ortega even now. “The whole thing about Lydia and Astrid is that they don’t really have anything in common,” he says. And when Ryder thought about what happened with Lydia, “I couldn’t imagine her being pregnant or even in love. But it was just magic when I met Jenna.”

Ryder recalls a “sweet” moment between Lydia and Astrid in the attic, which then cuts to the scene of the mother yelling at her daughter: “I don’t have kids, so I thought, ‘This seems like too much,’ and (Burton) said, ‘Trust me.'”

“You were gentle with her,” Burton says. Ryder admits, “I never thought you’d have kids,” and the father of two dispassionate children says, “No, me neither. The tests aren’t done yet, actually.”

Michael Keaton is the “original Ken” and the eternal Beetlejuice

All this talk of emotional growth has Keaton, 73, eager to discuss his character. “I think Beetlejuice has matured Very“- kidding.

He hasn’t evolved much, still spilling his guts—guts on the floor and all—for cheap scares and resorting to deception to try to get back together with Lydia. During the first film, “we were always reluctant to show too much,” Burton says. “He’s an eccentric character who has to stay that way. You don’t want to know him.”

O’Hara sees “a weakness that wasn’t there before,” thanks to Beetlejuice’s resurrected, vengeful wife, Delores (Monica Bellucci), who wants him to be even deader than he already is. The idea of Beetlejuice having an ex-wife “makes me laugh,” he says, as did “the phone falling out of my hand” when Pixar called him to voice Ken in Toy Story 3. (Because of the “Barbie” movie, Keaton now wants to make a T-shirt that says “The Original Ken.”)

As a newcomer playing opposite Keaton in full-on Juice mode and the other colorful denizens of Afterlife, “my job was very easy,” Ortega says. “It’s hard not to get into the world when you’ve got people with mold on their teeth and some guy who’s trapped in a box full of water trying to hand you a key for the entire take.” She also felt an undying love for Beetlejuice while filming in the same Vermont town where Burton made the first film: “I’d have people coming up to me showing me photo albums with Tim’s signature on them.”

Tim Burton’s ‘Beetlejuice’ Sequel Fans the Flames of Nostalgia

“Beetlejuice” has never left the public consciousness — a popular animated series and a Tony-nominated Broadway show helped, of course — but O’Hara, 70, sees a strong nostalgia factor. Fans whose parents let them see the film as kids are now at an age “where you look back on those moments in your life and remember them fondly,” she says.

Keaton credits the original’s strangeness with its endearing charm.

“If you think about what it is, it’s so (expletive) crazy, but beautiful and crazy (with) the sensibilities and the things it makes you talk about, like death and darkness and sandworms,” Keaton says. “The average guy from Minnesota or Kansas is like, ‘Oh, yeah, I love Beetlejuice.’ You get certain movies — of course, people are going to respond to this movie. This one, people love it so much — what are we really reaching for?

“I don’t analyze these things, by the way,” Keaton adds with a smile. “There’s just nothing to compare it to. Ever.”