Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

Hello, everybody. I'm Tim Burton, the director of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. There was a lot of talk about what to call Beetlejuice, and one idea was Beetlejuice Rises Again. That was based on Dr. Five's Rises Again. And then I thought of Beetlejuice A.D., which is a reference to Dracula 72 A.D., which I love, which is in there a little bit. But then so the thought of just Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sounded just sort of mirror-like and simple. So I thought, We just landed on that. We did something here which isn't done much anymore, which is have front credits. Most credits now are at the very end. And doing it that way, it kind of goes back into the spirit of the way we did the first movie, where You know, with the music and the opening, it sort of sets the tone of the film a little bit. And with this kind of material, it just felt more appropriate to have that kind of energy and that kind of vibe, you know, front-loaded into the credits. This movie took basically about 35 years in the making. And, you know, there's a lot of talk about sequels you know, early on. But nothing ever really felt right to me. There was something that I just couldn't quite relate to. And part of the reason, I think, is because I never really understood the success of the first one anyway. So it was a surprise to me. So I didn't really know, you know, if somebody said do a sequel, I didn't really have a vibe of what it would be. Not until now, basically, did it really hit me. And it really stemmed from the fact that I really, you know, connected with the Lydia character. you know, as a teenager. And so I just thought, well, what happened to her like 35 years later? You know, it's kind of like that 35 up. You're kind of interested to see somebody that you thought was cool or interesting. What happened to them? Where are they now? So that got me into the feeling. And then seeing like the three, you know, what happens to a person? And, you know, what are your relationships? Do you have kids? And so the idea of seeing three generations of Dietz women, you know, mother, daughter, granddaughter, That was the sort of anchor for me. That was the thing that made me really interested. It made it personal for me because, you know, it's not a sequel I could have done in, like, 1989 or something. It only could happen after time, after you go through your own journey. You know, you go through your own, you know, what are your relationships? You go from a cool or an uncool teenager to a somewhat troubled adult, you know, and what kind of... What path does your life take? What kind of journey? What are your, you know, how are you in relationship with your kids? So that was the thing that just made it very like personal for me and gave it an anchor to then, you know, into the world of Beetlejuice. Can they coexist? That's what we're here to find out. My name is Lydia Dietz and welcome to Ghost House. The Ghost House concept comes from, you know, watching a lot of bad Ghost House TV myself, It just was there to represent Lydia's sort of left turn in life. You know, you sort of start out as a cool teenager, and then you kind of become a, you know, half-baked sellout adult. You know, you're still the same person, but you kind of lose your way a little bit, you know, when you get relationships and go one way or another, you get kids. So, you know, if you step back and took a deep breath, you could kind of look at yourself and be like... What the hell happened to me? What am I? You know, and so sometimes in life, you need to kind of reboot and reconnect yourself to yourself. And so the ghost house to me was just a good sort of symbol for who she was and where she is now. Filming the little ghost house sequences, I mean, yeah, it's just, I think it was our first day of shooting and I always wanted to do a cheesy cable show. I feel a dark presence. We need to leave now. Emmett, are you ready to hear? My discussions with Winona, I mean, we had one every couple of years just to talk about if we were ever going to do a movie, but we never really discussed it in depth. You'd have to ask Winona, but I think that it's strange for her to revisit a character that I know she loved. You know, I think she probably maybe saw things a little maybe differently, like she was somebody who never married or maybe had kids or whatever. But that's the beautiful thing about life. Everything you think somebody might do, maybe they don't do. So she was great. You know, she was always a supporter of making this movie. And she was always, she's a special person. Strangely, it doesn't look a whole different than she did back then, so it's quite strange. But with Winona's character, we were always, even though she's changed over the years, we always tried to keep that core of who she was. It happens to all of us. You don't stay exactly the same as you go from a teenager to an adult. We all change. Some of us change more than others. So we always just try to be aware and respectful of who she was. And, you know, there's some comments about it in the film, you know, when Delia's asking, where's that goth girl that tormented her so many years ago? So there's things in it that sort of reflect this change in a person. What happened out there? You okay? Yeah, I'm fine. It's these double taping days that can get to me. It kills me to see you feeling like this. Because when you're feeling like this, it just makes me feel what you're feeling. So in a weird way, it's like when you're hurting... I remember when I first met Winona, I mean, it's just one of those things. It's like, I'm not really a good judge on anything, but when you meet somebody and you just see them as the character, it's like, you know, there was no question about it. Actors that I love, you don't have to say anything. You can just look at them, they convey something in their eyes. And, you know, Winona... had that and uh you know i could tell between your meeting even though i was a shy person she's a shy person but very soulful and artistic and just different you know she just had that quality and you can't really put it into words or you can't ask somebody to do it the same thing in a different way that jenna has you know you just just meet and go like okay that's that's it you know she's and they don't even have to say anything. And you can't say to them, act this sort of way. You kind of have to have it in your soul. And so, you know, I've been lucky to meet a few people over the years that have these sort of vibes. Is that mine? Who's texting me? Stupid stepmother. She's got texting diarrhea. I have to go. Lydia. We still have a segment to finish. The Human Canvas was fun to do because we basically created an art show in about a week. It was a pre-shoot day that we did all of this. And so the shooting was actually we made an art show. So we made all the sculptures. We made all the video. Literally, it's about a week. And so, you know, we were trying to come up with things that we could do, like sculptures. But then, you know, she's gone from sculpture into performance art, sort of Maria Abramovich style and others and sculpture and other arts and photography. We found some footage and shot some footage and put Catherine in front of a screen and did our own performance art. And it was all very fun. And literally, when we shot this, it was like... almost charged money because it looked like a real show it was that to me incredible and then we even did a whole catalog for delia's show in fact it was so good had pictures and then descriptions of the artwork by the artist with my daughter and her friends because they were doing their their tests and they were having to write these essays about their work and i showed them this and it was like oh my god this is it was the most beautiful way to talk about art and make it sound really good. So they all got great ideas. And I noticed the other day, they all got great grades. So it came in very handy, but it was beautiful. The show, the catalog, we could have done more with it, but it was a lot of fun ways to start the film. Rain crash?

in stop motion on and off over the years. It's a format I always love. So anytime, you know, if it makes sense to do it in stop motion, that's what we do. So it just felt like that that was the right way to go. And, you know, like I said, going back into the original, where the effects are a bit more handmade, including the stop motion, it's just, again, part of the DNA of the project. So... It wasn't a big deal. It was just something we just, I just felt like, well, yeah, it's like a little montage of this and, and I love doing it. So that's how it happened. McKinnon Saunders, I've worked with several times. They did some stop motion tests, even on Mars attacks. You know, we were originally going to do it stop motion and Corpse Bride. and, you know, they did some stuff for my MoMA show. So I have a great relationship. And it's like, you know, you go up to Manchester and you see where they work and they've been working in the same place. It's just beautiful. You get such an energy when you walk into a place like that, because it's just, you know, little warehouses, but people doing amazing sculptures and puppets and things. So it gives you a lot of, quite a lot of interesting, positive energy when you see this kind of thing.

I asked Danny DeVito to do this just because he's my friend. And, you know, it's not a big thing. You know, you didn't get overexcited. Hey, Danny, will you play the janitor? It's not Shakespeare or anything. But because this movie is so special to me, having people around me, like, just when it works, when it was right, was very important. And so, like I said, it just was another element for me to make it feel like a personal movie. I put margaritaville in because it's in my jukebox, and I just trolled my jukebox because I'm a big fan of, I don't know, certain kind of songs. And I don't know, that just felt appropriate. I mean, it's a guy who, janitor, he's working all the time. He's kind of living in his head. He's got a kind of... Met the hours go by by listening to cheesy music just to get through the day.

The ex-wife character, you know, I just always sort of saw her as a very operatic, you know, Wagnerian sort of banshee, you know? It's like sort of a classic, almost like cartoon ex-wife, I don't know how you would call it, you know? Something that was just big and scary and grandiose, and it's pretty simplistic, you know? People ask, what is her character? Well, she's a soul-sucking ex-wife. That's what her character is. Monica obviously is one of the most striking people of all time. So, I mean, she's perfect for it. When we were first thinking about it, people started making up all these sort of horrible, you know, like zombies and ghouls and like skeletons and things that were quite unattractive and quite just unpleasant to look at. And so I thought it would be just nice to not have that. And her resurrection is, again, The goal was to do it as, you know, real as possible. So we shot it almost like an experimental, shoot pieces of her and we shoot pieces of her with the hands. So it was both simple and complicated at the same time. And we kept doing here shots here and there because we didn't want to just do the whole thing like completely CG. You know, we wanted to kind of treat it. So it almost felt like we were doing experimental theater when we were shooting it. It was a very interesting, strange, technique you're not supposed to be back here don't make me tell you twice in terms of the effects it's a or anything, or soul psych. I mean, we did everything that we could. We have a little bit of digital effects sometimes, but one thing that both Michael and I talked about, and I said to enter the studio, I go, I'm just, you can do anything with anything, CJ. You can do anything, but we don't want to do anything. We just want to do it. Even if it doesn't look real, the practical effects were important. So we did it with everything. We really did. Except for the sandworms, which was stop motion. When you're all on your third kid and second divorce, we'll see who gets the last laugh. Perfect. Leave me alone.

We'll bring Charles home to Winter River. The first day with Catherine and Winona, again, I was surprised at how emotional I got to seeing them together. It was very, very strange. And, you know, I almost started crying in a weird... I don't know, it was weird, strange. And I think everybody had a certain, maybe similar feeling. There was something really odd and beautiful about it. You know, something that maybe none of us thought would really ever happen. And then all of a sudden, there we are. It's hard to put into words the sort of emotions that you would go through watching this. having just lost my own grandfather. You did? When? 40 years ago. But in my child body, that's yesterday. I'm gonna tell Astrid, okay? Just give me a few minutes before you come up. Enough. I'll handle this. Astrid! Stop torturing your mother! I know I usually find it funny and only fair after the way she treated me when she was your age. The sculptures were a lot based on the ones that we had in the first one. So those were Delia's original sculptures, which were designed by, I don't know what ever happened, a friend of mine, Ed Nunnery, who designed these sculptures, and I designed a couple. So we kind of coexisted that, but those were based on her early work. I can't believe Grandpa is dead. The first day at the school, we were there all together. It was interesting because that was, I think, our first time of seeing the three of them together. Because, again, we didn't rehearse this whole thing. Like, you know, when Michael came in, he just came in to be able to shoot. So we started shooting, you know, everybody. So there was that kind of spirit. So, you know, you kind of showed up on the day and didn't really know. But like I said, I just saw it right there. It was really nice. The three different generations sitting there at one spot. So it was very helpful to kind of shoot that early and see what that dynamic was. Yeah, that sounds really dramatic. I can't go. I'm our school rep for our student environmental conference next week. Presenting our demands on climate change action. I spoke with the principal and they cleared it. She actually thinks it's a really good idea. Well, I guess when you donate your entire art center, the principal becomes your little puppet on a string. Well, you're free to reject your inheritance when you're living high off a tree hugger's salary. What? No, no! Jesus, all right, people already know that Lydia Dietz is my mom. Okay, can you stop being a freak for like one second? Go back. Why? All right, people already know you'd rather spend more time with ghosts than your own daughter.

Beetlejuice, again, when people ask Michael or myself, how has he changed, we just start laughing because he hasn't changed at all. I mean, he's been molding away there for an extra 35 years, but that's about it. So, you know, with Michael, we were always very careful not to do way, way, way too much more, show a little bit more and have fun. So, you know, we were always kind of talking about all of this kind of stuff on a daily basis. I'm going to have to check with my psychologist what the meaning of my love of shrunken heads are, but I don't really know. But, you know, again, it was just, it just felt like it's kind of like a Glen Gary, Glen Ross, kind of a Century 21 style setting in an office. And it's like, I don't know, they just seem like people that might be working for him.

needed upstairs. Bob, hold down the fork. Bob is sort of just his, well, I wouldn't call him his favorite, but I think that's his number one guy. The fun part was just coming up with characters in the afterlife. You know, I would spend... when I should have been doing something else, thinking of those and, you know, asking people, how would you or not like, how would you not like to die? All that kind of stuff. And one of the first characters I decided was I wanted to do the winner or loser of a hot dog eating contest because I was inspired by Joey Chestnut in his annual 4th of July hot dog eating contest wins. 75 hot dogs or 76 in 10 minutes, I think is, I don't know, but it's up there. So, and I actually wanted to get him to play that character but he was in training for his another big 4th of July thing. So in respect and love, I still did the character. And so it became quite a fun little exercise coming up with stuff. So, you know, we just came up with a lot of ideas and it was fun to do. And again, with Neil Scanlon and his people, the makeup and hair people, you know, again, it's part of the DNA of the film. Coming up with a character, then seeing them all come together on the set in real life, you know, it just gives it something we don't get every day. I'm investigating. Recognize this puss? Never seen that chick before in my life or after life.

The Wolf Jackson character, you know, was written in the script as sort of, you know, because everybody that dies, they become something else in the afterlife. So, you know, he's a cop, but, you know, he used to be an actor or TV show or movie, whatever. So it was just great to work with Willem. I always admired, I always wanted to work with him, but this was a strange one. And I think it was interesting for him to kind of come into this work because it's like... catherine and maybe michael what they kind of know but so he kind of dived right in but he was great to work with like with monica and him it was a good new addition which was beautiful there's no coming back from that mr juice roger that

We put in Deo. I mean, I didn't want to put in, because it felt kind of like a rest in peace version of it. So, I mean, it was just sort of an emotional nod to it, but also just felt sort of haunting and spiritual and emotional. Come, Mr. Tallyman, tally me bananas. Daylight come and me want to go home. Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch. Daylight come and me want to go home. I just don't believe I won't see Charles again. They comforted in the knowledge that he's in a far better place. Father Damien's character was just... Actually, there wasn't that much of him in the original script, but having certain religious experiences growing up in certain types of people is just something I could recognize in a certain kind of talking about something, but not really understanding what they're talking about. But it sounds all very good and spiritual. But then when you analyze it, it's like, what the are you talking about? and i met bern and you know he just has such a quality about him and he's got something that's quite unnerving about him but and so he seemed like a good priest to me you just sidestep every possible conversation about him astrid i loved your father but our relationship was over a long time before the accident it was interesting going back to east corinth and shooting there and it was interesting seeing jenna ride through the streets because it gave it a certain kind of old and new quality to it that made it kind of feel very interesting. And, you know, we just shot it very simply. Certain small camera mounts in the bars and next to the bike. You know, because we shot this thing, again, very quickly. So everything we did, we tried to do kind of like a low-budget movie in a way. It wasn't low-budget, but it felt like one. And I was shocked when we went back there because it really hadn't changed at all. I mean, they didn't have any new buildings. They didn't have, I mean, in fact, it's pretty much the same, which was a bit strange because usually you think places might, you know, a little bit of sprawl, whatever. So it was a bit sort of, again, kind of haunting in a way to kind of go back and see it in pretty much the same way it was. And we went in wintertime. So to do the first scout, I was driving around before anybody knew we were going there. And there were like old, like sign, like church signs that had screening of Beetlejuice. And it was like, Beetlejuice was shot here or whatever. And it was, and it looked like the about, like one of those old road sign tourist attractions where it's like, you drive up and you see this weird sign. It's like, oh my God, there's Lydia and there's Beetlejuice. So it was very strange to go back. It was dead of winter. In fact, going up to the mountain, we had to struggle to get there. It was like three feet of snow. And so to climb up to the top of the hill. But again, this for me just made it all really weird and special and haunting in a good way in the spirit of the film.

met Michael it was very clear he has a sort of a dangerous look in his eye he's got something crazy in his eye he's got an energy to him that's bubbling under the surface that just even though we didn't know what the character was or what he really looked like at that point I mean Michael certainly had that so that was something that became obviously very clear from his work at that time and you know that's why too wanted to be Batman because you know he's not a big He's not a big action star, but he's got a crazy look in his eye. You can understand why this guy would dress up like a bat. So that made a psychological sense. But in Beetlejuice, it was very clear that sort of manic energy and, you know, in Michael's background in comedy and all that sort of thing, which helped in sort of improv and making things up, was very exciting to work with. Mike and I talked about On and Off over the years, and I don't think he had ever any burning desire to do another one, only if it felt right. It just, like I said earlier, it just felt right, and for me, and then for him. But the things about, like, always doing practical effects, keeping it like we did, shooting it in the spirit, shooting it quickly, shooting it, you know, keeping that energy going, that was all very important. So those are the kind of things we talked about. We sacrificed a goat. Our first night of marriage... Beetlejuice's backstory, it all stems from my desire and love of wanting to make an Italian horror film, so I ticked that box off. Because this sort of came in later, this thing, and maybe it's because Monica's Italian and I always wanted to make an Italian horror film that it took on this sort of tact. And this came very late in terms of Michael and I conversation about not wanting too much Beatles. But so even though he's in it, and this goes again back to my love of dubbed movies, whether it's Mexican, Japanese, Italian, I just grew up watching dubbed movies, which is a part of my DNA. So for me, it was just a special personal approach to telling the backstory. Trying to recreate the vibe of a 60s Italian horror film. You know, it was important, and so Harris and I tried different filters and things to try to, you know, achieve it live, and sometimes it worked for shots, sometimes it didn't. We built sets. You know, we shot the whole thing in a day, maybe even less. It was about a day. So it was shooting it quickly, shooting it with Puppet, shooting it with sets, probably not far off from how those films were shot. Doing it this way, you're struggling every day, but... I do like shooting that way if you can. I mean, you miss things and you have to circle back and pick up a few things, but I did feel like for me and I felt for the actors that they appreciated this kind of way, you know? They appreciated it more than sitting around for days on end waiting to shoot something, you know? So I think there was an overall probably general good vibe about doing things quickly. Thanks. I saw you standing at your grandfather's grave. Must have been a pretty dope dude. Death is so, like... That's, like, tragic, you know? If you ever want to cry or just rage against some of these feelings that you have going on in there, I want you to know that I could be that kind of dope. The scenes between Jenna and Justin are... You know, those were, I remember shooting it and just feeling, just almost laughing because it was, they were good. I could see him and he was his character and her. And to see that sort of juxtaposition and her reactions to him and his to her. I remember that scene as being very much fun to shoot. And, you know, like I said, all these people put, even though we changed lines and do things and change scenarios, everybody was pretty dialed into who they were. I'm not falling for your new-age, overly emotional, trauma-bonding yoga retreat bullshit. I see you. Because like you, my mom is a very broken person. Okay, she's a delusional fantasist. You just exploit her, and if she wants to allow that to happen, that's on her.

They built the house fairly quickly because it was just a facade. It wasn't like the first one where it was maybe a bit more solidly built, but luckily we had a death shroud over the whole thing, which was part of the story to me. I just felt that that was a very Delia thing to do and kind of a Christo kind of Delia interesting way to present the house. We were on location for a few days. And we shot a lot, believe me, we shot a lot in those few days. Again, very, very quickly. All that stuff, the bike ride, the house, Halloween night, all that stuff was proposal, like, less than a week. Ghosts aren't real. Only gullible people believe that kind of crap. Unless you're trying to pay the bills, right, Mom? Okay, honey, in you go. Do I have everyone's attention? I worked with Mark Scruton on Wednesday. And so for me, it's always nice when I can work with somebody that I can relate to. And also what was important is because, you know, Bo Welsh's work, you know, what he did was, you know, it's like a character in it. So that's why he's a consultant, because I wanted to make sure that, you know, he's like a character in it. So it's like when you have music or something. So like the house and the spirit of it I was respectful to what we did in the first one, but then expanding on it was important. I never, myself included, never wanna feel like I'm copying something or making something exactly the same. So that's why I didn't even watch the first movie before I did this one, because I didn't really know if it, it didn't feel like it was gonna help me. I just wanted to make this movie. So in terms of the set designs, I didn't go back and study everything and do this and do that. It's like the house was the house. And the overall vibe of it was trying to be similar. But then again, for Mark and for me, I wanted to make sure it felt new to me and more expanded without overexpanding. You know, it's important balance to try to mix. And you again, what do you say? I can't commit to this right now. Oh, all right. Colleen Atwood, I worked with many times, of course. And, you know, with that kind of work and the costumes, it's such an important thing because it's like a character in the movie. The costumes are the character. I mean, if you look at each one of them, Rory, Dolores, all of them, every character, it's important to me because what they come dressed in is who they are, you know? And so, you know, and again, this is what's the joy of making a movie, working with creative people. And photography, costumes, sets, you know, puppet, these are all the things that are the most immediate in helping to create what you're trying to do, music, all that sort of thing. She said yes. She said yes. Astrid's character is the most, I mean, it's really her story in my because, you know, it goes back to the thing about parents and their kids. Sometimes when a parent's one way, the kid's the other way. So there's a sort of natural connect and disconnect that goes on with sometimes these relationships. So I just felt that Astrich is more, says it like it is, very direct. And sometimes adults like to dance around things and kids sometimes will just say, what the fuck are you talking about? And so this kind of thing was very important that somebody can just have their own sort of bizarre inner light, dark world, like your mother, but not be like her mother. So that's the thing. It just very simply explores that dynamic of mother, daughter, parent, child.

I worked with Jenna on Wednesday. And so for me to have Jenna do this was extremely special because Jenna's the kind of character that's new to this world. And so she's kind of our eyes into this screwed up world, which doesn't make much sense, as she says, quite random. But as I said earlier, Jenna is somebody in a very, very different way. When I met her, I felt the same way in it. I felt about Winona, which is somebody who's very strong, very special, very creative. And then when I thought of her and Winona together, that excited me because I could see her as her daughter. I could feel it. It felt real to me. And that, you know, because sometimes people get kids, whatever, it doesn't feel real. But for me, anyway, for me, it was a real, special, symbolic reality. One thing Jenna brought to it is a reality. I mean, you know, that's the whole point. She's not a copy of Lydia. That's the whole point of parents and daughters. They're usually the opposite. So even though there's traits that they have, there's usually a polar opposite dynamic that can happen. I see it all the time. I've lived it. I know it. Like, Astrid character with everybody's, you know, problems, Astrid is the one for me is the clarity and the reality and the sort of anchor of the film. And so my mom's janky fiance turned it into a de facto engagement party. Yeah, he announced their wedding date. Wow, that's different. Oh yeah, if you knew my mom, that's actually pretty on brand for her. Is your dad in the picture? Yeah, he was a free spirit. We made Jeremy's treehouse. Just outside of Boston. That was the only other. We shot in East Corinth, and then we did a little bit outside of Boston for Jeremy's neighborhood and a few things. We couldn't find that location really in East Corinth, so we ended up in Boston. We were sitting in Vermont. It's like waiting for an election result. And the results were in, and it was not good. So it was strange because I think... And poor Arthur, it was just like, he had like one day left, Jenna and Arthur. And it's like, and I think it was Arthur's first movie. And it's like, he did, then his most important scene. So I felt bad for him, you know, because it's like, he did a great job. It's just, I could feel for him, you know, waiting all this time. Nobody knew when it was going to be over or not. So yeah, it was a strange little pause, but it was okay. We were way on the home stretch on that one.

confirmed our suspect as the soul sucker from Last I'm Found. Want to hear the weird part, Chief? Hit me. After she turned the owner into a human pancake, she stole a wedding dress from the family. With Lydia and Delia, we're seeing them 35 years later. And you can't say too much. You just want to sort of be able to see them and get a sense of their vibe. You know, as you get older, it either gets worse or a little bit better. And I think in their case, it's gotten slightly closer. You know, it's something, especially the death of Charles, you know, it kind of reconnects them maybe even a little bit more. So we just tried to find a crate, a reality. The good thing with that is you get the two original characters. So both of them have gone through life and both of them can understand the differences of when you were younger. And so it was lucky that they, you know, that we're all older and we all understand this shit. It's a little higher, boys. Can't let Dolores get through that door. Mm-hmm. Bob, I like looking in the mirror. You see, Bob, it serves my decoy. You'd walk in front of me at all times. That way she'd suck your soul while I make mine get away. Comprende?

Breaking the fourth wall is always an interesting thing, because sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. With Beetlejuice, Michael and I never really talked about it. We just kind of let it go natural, because he's a character that can kind of do anything. He can go into singing, speaking Italian, speaking Spanish. He's multi-talented. So if he feels like breaking the fourth wall, let him. And I invite all of you to do the same. Why? For the collective. We cannot sincerely celebrate all that was good about our dearly departed, not until we release the horror that they inflicted upon us. When I made Beetlejuice, it was my second film after Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. And I recall it being very special because I remember when I read the script, I thought, well, this is a strange project for a studio to want to make because I'd gotten a lot of scripts for after Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, comedies and... talking horse films and things like that but then i got beetlejuice and it just it just hit me as a strange project for a studio you want to do and so you know it was kind of low budget under the radar and uh it was it felt kind of experimental in in a sense and i was lucky enough to work with people who are really good at improv like catherine o'hara and michael keaton and so there was a real kind of weird spirit of we didn't really know what we were making but it was fun and you know everybody contributed and so it was it was unlike a lot of movies where it just had a very kind of experimental spontaneous feel to it and so you know then you kind of go on in hollywood and films get bigger and and they don't really you don't really get that sort of opportunity to feel that way so that was a reason too to kind of come back and treat it in the spirit of the first one you know all practical effects makeup sets letting the actors really contribute to their characters. I mean, every actor contributed very much to their characters. And that was fun to work with, you know, using practical effects and puppets, doing it all quickly. That was all part of the spirit of the movie.

The only reason I wanted to make this Beetlejuice is because it felt personal. Working again with Michael and Catherine and Winona, I was shocked at how I felt on the set when I saw them together. You know, it was, like, quite emotional. It was like a weird family reunion. And I was surprised by those feelings, and I was surprised at how much fun... I mean, I don't usually say I have fun on a movie, and it's not... Movies aren't fun, but the energy... And again, I think... And I didn't even realize this until after we shot that we even shot the movie in the same amount of days almost as the first one. So it's not something I really planned specifically that way. It just sort of ended up being that way. And I think the energy it created on the set with everybody contributing and everybody feeling like, you know, and seeing everything there on the set, you know, it's like you didn't have a lot of blue screen where you're kind of trying to imagine what's there and we can sort of see what was there. And so it does give the whole project a space in terms of making it a special energy, which, like I said, it doesn't... You kind of lose that in certain big films. You kind of lose that when you get, you know, really into the whole sort of Hollywood big franchise reboot, tentpole, whatever you want to call that stuff. Rehab, reboot, whatever. Those are just all the feelings that I had in terms of wanting to make the film. Not recreate a specific thing, but just recreate a feeling that kind of brings you back to why you like making things and why you like making movies. That model of Winter River 2. Did Grandpa make that? No, that belonged to the Maitlands. You know, the non-existent ghost couple. Oh, I found that on the floor. I worked with Alan Miles on Wednesday. And, you know, I remember when I first read Wednesday, I thought they'd sort of written it for me. I mean, I just love the Wednesday character. So I wasn't necessarily a big Addams Family. I liked the Addams Family. I liked Charles Addams' drawings. But I never had a desire to make an Addams Family thing. But the way they wrote Wednesday and the character, I just felt connected to it. So, you know, then we went off to Romania and... you know, which was kind of like a creative boot camp, I guess. I don't know what you'll call it, but it was, you know, in the Carpathian Mountains. So the character of Wednesday, and I really enjoyed working with Jenna. She was, you know, just is Wednesday. And the character and the fun of working with her and the character and stuff, trying to shoot a movie, but on a TV schedule is quite a lot of work into it, but the energy was good. And so that kind of restoked my interest in making things again, because I didn't really feel after... taking my own little path in Hollywood, left turn. You know, it was a way for me to kind of get back to the things that I feel strongly about. I wouldn't have done this movie if Michael or Catherine or Winona had said no to it. It wouldn't have happened because it was important to me. You know, I don't want to recast it or redo it. This is the story that was important for me. Of course, one of them could have said no, but luckily they said yes. and I was working on my unresolved feelings, and Rory had just lost his fiancée in a skiing accident. We were in the same sorrow circle, and we connected. Yeah. He was turned on by you at the lowest point in your life. But this isn't about him. Astrid found this in the attic. Ew. So? So, every now and then, I feel his presence, like he's lurking somewhere, just out of reach. But lately, I'm seeing him again. And I was really hoping this was all in my head, but now this. Lydia, you need to take back your life. From the hangar honors, from this thing. Where is the obnoxious little goth girl who tormented me all those years ago? It's time to find her.

Yeah. Mom, I'm just gonna be upstairs with a friend. Okay, have fun. Hey, Dad. Come on. He lives in that room. You got a lot of 90s vinyl. Are you finding this eBay? No, I troll old record stores. I don't trust what I can't touch. Handbook for the recently deceased. Yeah, I got that at a yard sale in town. The illustrations are pretty gnarly. Yeah, it looks like the kind of crappy book my mom would write. What's the deal with your parents? Well, my mom spends every waking hour in the kitchen stress baking. And my dad used to work at the paper mill, but then he had an accident, so now he's a full-time couch potato. Can't wait to get out of this shitty town. You must have been to a lot of places traveling with a famous mom. Not really. My dad's more of the traveler anyway. We used to have this big plan where we were gonna visit the top ten creepiest places on Earth, so Tower of London and Dracula's Castle and... Yeah, and then we never got the chance to do it. What happened? A boat accident. Arthur Conti playing Jeremy, I think I first met him. He was a friend of my son's. We went to school with him. But I didn't know he was an actor. I didn't know he was the grandson of Tom Conti. And then when we were casting Jeremy, Sophie, the casting director, sent in the tape, and one of them was Arthur, and so... out of a small pool of people, Arthur did a reading. And it was strange, because I had forgotten I'd even met him. I didn't make the connection. But he was by far the one that was most striking to me. And with that character, I just wanted somebody that I could believe him and Jenna would, you know, connect on some level. And that's hard to, you know, you can't really, again, manufacture that. So he just had a sort of a... slightly different quality, different from the way Jenna has a different quality or Winona has a different quality, but there's just something slightly special and different about them. And so I saw it in one way from him, I saw it one way from her, and so it just felt like I could believe that one. We could order pizza and give out candy only if you want to. I mean, that's no... No pressure. What's up with these creepy birds? Jeremy's room, I mean, you know, again, we try to give, make the character feel lived in, but, you know, I was very clear, but I didn't want to make it too specific. And like a lot of teenagers' rooms, it's a hodgepodge of images, so I didn't want anybody to over-identify with any image specifically, so it was more as a... a general thing and not suggesting something, but not too much. The clues about 90s vinyl and thinking about those kind of things, they plant the seeds, but you want to over plant them because so everybody knows what's going on. So it's a fine balance to kind of set a character, but not reveal too much about them. Lydia? I want you out of my life. Did you hear me? Lydia? Who are you yelling at? Justin was a great addition to the cast because, I mean, I didn't really know Justin very well. I've seen him in a couple of things and thought he was really strong and really liked him. And then meeting him and then realizing he's a really great writer, too. And so he's a real mixture of things. And for me, he's another one who got into the whole spirit of improv and really helped develop his character. I mean, the character was written, but... I have to say, he put in a lot of himself into this character and made the character. I mean, it was sort of sketched in there, but Justin really fleshed it out and brought it to another level to me. Rory is a character, I mean, as you see in the film, he's a bit of an enabler and he's a bit of a, you know, it's these sort of codependent kind of relationships, which I don't know if everybody's had, but I think some people have had. You know, it's just an interesting dynamic People are kind of strangely codependent on each other for strange ways. For me, it's important to kind of recognize these people. So I've worked with a lot of producers. I've had a lot of therapy. I heard a lot of that kind of new-agey, old-agey bullshit. So, yeah, I've heard a lot of crap in my times that I could relate to coming from Rory. And so the look was just, I mean, he's kind of a chameleon, I guess. This is something, you know, he's a manager, producer, big timer, who knows? You know what I mean? He's got his own look. He's his style. He likes his style. Ponytails and those earrings that have big holes in them, make your ears have big holes in them. Those are my two things that kind of unnerve me. What the hell? I told you not to say his name. The psychiatrist obviously comes from years of my own therapy. Strangely, when I go back and think about it, for as much help as I think I need now, I've had a lot of therapy. So I was shocked at how much therapy I've had and how many different types of therapy. The only one I haven't had is shock therapy yet, but all of these things are very personal and you could use your own experience, basically. There you go. See, I'm willing to do the work. You two kids need to get in touch with your inner child. Mine will be along in just a jiffy. We all love babies, don't we? Bridget Jones' baby to Rosemary's baby to whatever. The list goes on. Again, this kind of came semi-late. Basically, we went to a toy shop. We ripped up an old doll and put some rods on it. That started the process. So, again, it was all very... It started out very handmade and very like, ooh, well, that's the way we're going to do it. And then we just kind of... There's different concepts for his final look, but, you know, this sort of organically happened from a toy shop, really. disgust, revolt, I mean, but you know, that's what it's supposed to be. My cameo is only a voice cameo. I do two voice cameos, but my proudest one, cause I used to scare my children by doing the baby son from Teletubbies, you know? So I did that. I said to Michael, could you do this? And then I did it for him. And he goes like, no, you gotta do it. So that's, I did it.

This moment was a very last-minute decision, and the line was, I'll be waiting for you. But then I got to thinking about all the great stalker songs, you know, from The Police, Every Step You Take, or Richard Marks, you know. I mean, when you think about it, every love song is like a song from a stalker. So this one particularly just rang out, like, rather than say it, why say it when you can sing it?

Snakes. Actually, asps. Aren't they beautiful? Wedding gift for Rory? Too late. They've been defensed. Delia's character, again, it's like what happens to somebody. Now, Delia is a certain type of person, so her artwork has evolved basically from bad sculptures to bad performance art, whatever. So it's just gotten bigger and not much any better. Or maybe it's good. I don't know. Art is very subjective, so you be the judge. But as a person, I think some things happen with age. That was the thing, Catherine, again, is so brilliant at improv. And even though the character was written in the script, there were things that weren't right about it. She came across as too much like a villain. And that was a funny thing in the first one. She was more kind of a villain, but she's not really a villain. And so, Catherine brought, because she knows the character better than anybody, me, or Alan Miles or anybody. So she was very instrumental in the development of her character and showing the reality of it, that she's just a person. So she was very instrumental in that. How did you have time to meet a boy? You had time to get married. She doesn't mean it. It was just karma. Whatever, I was biking and then I... Catherine just contributed just all the way. I mean, every day, you know, whatever scene we were doing, whatever notes anybody had, we would usually... usually incorporate them because everybody, you know, and that goes from Catherine to Justin, Michael, Willem, everybody. And everybody, again, for me, is part of, when you're working with good people like this, it makes it not easier, but more fun. This thing took a long time to get made. And I believe everybody, all of them, Catherine, Michael, and Winona, all had their own specific idea of like nobody was doing it just for money or because it was a sequel or anything the only reason i think anybody did it is because it felt right to do and i think after all this time what alex did and what we sort of presented everybody could now finally kind of see it because it was a simple it's basically a simple family story so Everybody could sort of latch onto that as being, oh, we're not doing this, we're not going crazy with that. It had sort of an emotional anchor to it, which I think everybody saw and felt in it. Have fun, and I'll pick you up at 10 o'clock, not a second later.

Danny Elfman obviously is a part of it because, you know, his music. We treated it very much like we treat everything, which is, you know, it's Beetlejuice, so music is important, but not to feel like you have to have this sort of rule about it. So there's Beetlejuice music in it, but then I think he treated it pretty much like I treat it. It's a movie, so he's just scoring the film. So he's an important character in it, important tone and vibe. I've worked with him enough to know how we do that. Great. Who are you supposed to be? Marie Curie. Two-time Nobel Prize-winning French physicist and feminist icon. Oh, she was, uh, she discovered radiation, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, work was killing her. She didn't even realize it. Yeah. Well, for someone who is dying of radiation poisoning, uh, you look beautiful. I brought some candy. Er, a lot of candy. It's probably too much, actually, but, uh, We can, I don't know, maybe binge on whatever's left over if you want or we could start handing it out now if that's what you wanna do. Yeah, I have a confession actually. I'd rather stay up here with you. Okay, yeah, that works too.

Please don't freak out. What are you? Don't you know? Astrid, really, you don't have to be scared. You're a ghost. My mom is telling the truth. Shit. When my mom and dad used to fight, I used to steal one of my dad's six-packs and go hide out in the tree fort. And one day, I slipped and fell. How long ago did that happen? 23 years, 5 months, and 14 days. But who's counting? I've been stuck in this house for 23 years. I can't go any further than that tree. And I've just spent my time watching the world go by. But then you came along, and you could see me. And I've been on my own for so long. It was like a grenade had gone off in my head. It was amazing. You're amazing. I should go. I know. I know. It's insane. But I... I really like you, and I want us to be together. How? You're dead. I'm alive. That doesn't make any sense. Well, what if I told you that I'd found a way to come back to be human again? It's all in this book. Everyone gets one of these when they die. It's kind of complicated, but I can only do it with the help of a living person. I mean, you could literally give me my life back. I don't know. Maybe we could ask my mom, because she's supposed to be the undead expert, right? Yeah, well, I'm sure she'll give you a million reasons to stay away. But I'll give you one reason to help me. You'd get to see your dad again.

first official open house a week from Sunday, and then we will let the bidding war begin. Where's Rory? Supermarket, swapping out the candy I bought for carrot sticks. Because Rory loves to fun-suck everything, even Halloween. Got a run? See you at the church? Oh, unless you're calling off the wedding. No, Delia. Where are you going? Cemetery. To commune with my dear husband's spirit. I need a skedaddle, too. I'm co-chaperoning Lillard Jane's Girl Scout troop. We spent weeks coming up with a group costume theme. We agreed nothing Disney. The closest we ever got to Disney was when Astor dressed as Cinderella's dead mom. You'll never guess what the girls came up with. Fruit salad. Isn't that genius? It's healthy and non-triggering. I'm going as... Reverse mortgage. Which is... Mortgage is spelled backwards. Where is Astrid? On a date. Her first. I think I'm more nervous than she is. The boy lives over on Jefferson. Don't mention that street. I have a listing that's kept me from a perfect sales record. Oh, it's my own fault. The place had been on the market for years. But I thought if I could sell a murder house, it would be a feather in my cap. Murder house? Which house? 125. That's where I dropped Astrid off. She was seeing a boy named Jeremy. Jeremy Frazier. I didn't get his last name. Oh, no, it can't be him. But Jeremy Frazier was bad news. 23 years ago, he murdered his parents. The cops found him hiding in his treehouse. When they tried to get him out, he fell, broke his neck, died instantly.

That's all you have to do to get into the afterlife? Draw a door with some chalk? Oh, a knock? The handbook, again, is one of those references from the first movie. So it pretty much is self-explanatory. It's a complex manual that is very hard for anybody to understand, like any manual that anybody gets. So that's all. Just another nod to the elements of the first. You have to read that incantation first. Demundo, Vavorium, Audio, and Intertum.

Okay. I think that worked. Astrid! Let's go see your dad.

You just wait here. I'm going to go find out where we're supposed to go. Make sure to ask where my dad is. The afterlife is not much different from life. It's just only slightly different and darker. In the waiting room, I used a couple of cast members, people that I worked with on Wednesday. The cat lady, I remember having a great look, and she was a good one for me. And then the kid who got, strangely enough, attacked by piranhas in Wednesday, now gets attacked by sharks. So he's moving up and everybody's moving up. Oh, dude. Color and design, I mean, you have the sets and then you have the cinematography. So with Harris, I talked about, you know, we just came up with a palette and a color scheme. that felt sort of right. So it wasn't just deadhead slight undulating quality to it. It's just so that there's a weird kind of a hypnotic rhythm to the whole thing. So it's like with costumes, sets, cinematography, we discussed all of this in terms of creating what it ultimately is. You are no more my king, but with the blessing of the angels of undying love. This is the first time I worked with Harris, but he's got an artistic soul and he's really interested in trying to get what you want. And I mean, a real collaborator. So I felt very much a nice sort of energetic and creative, but calm spirit. So he's got all the vibes to make it feel like a good collaboration. So some ideas are great. We talk about things sometimes. He was very open and creatively strong enough to kind of take things. And he was a great collaborator. Here we are. Apples, carrot sticks, and some blonde raisins. Because no one likes a big fat clown. I can't believe I'm doing this. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!

The thing about Beetlejuice, the first movie, he's not in it very much. And we didn't want to put him that much more in it. But we wanted to give a little bit more of a sense of him, like, what's he been doing for 35 years? Well, listen, when people ask, what has Beetlejuice's characters changed? It's like, well, I start laughing because what do you mean? Beetlejuice changed. Yeah, so we wanted to see a little bit about him in the afterlife, what he's been going through, but also give him a little bit of a backstory. We didn't want to go too far. I didn't want to say too much about him. But this little bit of a taste of a backstory was something that I thought was sort of fun and interesting to see. He hasn't evolved at all, except maybe a bit moldier, whatever. And the only difference was getting a little bit more insight into into his life you know his job at the afterlife his ex-wife dolores you know all these things were but even with that like even his backstory i don't want to give too much backstory yeah that can't exactly go through the front door

We discussed the boiler room. It was just, you know, we just were going with the vibe of the afterlife and, you know, just making it like a pool kind of office, you know, real estate office, call center office, but in the afterlife. When you're making up a set, you know, you put in lots of things, posters, this is and that's, and it's like Delia's catalog for her art show. I mean, there's lots of beautiful things and artwork to go into it, but, you know, you have to go on Zoom to find all these. So the whole thing is full of things, but nothing that comes up to mind. The shrinkers escaping the afterlife. Again, these are the things that nobody really knows or cares about. But the interesting challenge, and this is the things that maybe slow things down, is, like, they can't see out, you know? It's literally like the old Halloween costume, like, here, put a head on your shoulders and run around. go get some candy. Now, the only difference with this is these guys couldn't see out of the shirts. We didn't have the time to overly design it so they could actually look out their shirts to actually see anything. So it really was like last minute Halloween costumes. Like, okay, guys, tie up your ties and run down the stairs as fast as you can. Hands on your head, asswipe, or I'll spray paint the wall with your brains. Oh, dude. That was way too forced. Remember, throw it away. Underplay it. You gotta keep it real. Warning. Olga, what the hell is going on? We got a cold 699 violation. You mean to tell me a live one illegally broke into the afterlife? Time to call the ghoul squad. I need a hard target search for two suspects. It's like a dead version of Chips or Adam-12. This is Wolf, you know, sort of inspired by those kind of cop shows or Hawaii Five-O and Adam-12 or Chips. Leave no gravestone unturned. Help sift through the sands of Titan if you have to. Men, this is what you've been training your entire deaths for. And remember, Gotta keep it real. Yes! What the hell? Where am I? What? No. Santa Claus has always been scary to me, so... I remember when I was a child, like, in Burbank... somebody knocked on the window and it was like a neighbor dressed as Santa Claus. And it was the scariest thing I ever seen. It was like, oh my God. It was like that scene in Tales from the Crypt where Joan Collins gets attacked by a psychotic Santa Claus. So I've always had a fantasy about Santa Claus getting stuck in the chimney. So, you know, you get to make your dreams come true here. Next. Paris and I talked about the lighting in the afterlife. I mean, we had a color scheme that we kind of identified. But then there was a thing about just not making it feel dead, just giving it a slight undulation. So it's got some weird life to it, even though it's sort of a hypnotic kind of hum that goes up and down. So it just didn't feel singular. So, you know, it's something we didn't want to make it annoying, but we wanted to give it a little bit of breathing. I needed your life so that I could walk free again. She's got a seat on the Soul Train, one way to the great beyond. If you hustle, you can make the 835. Thank you very much. I never agreed to this! How do I cross back over? Get this stamped first, window 11. The transfer isn't permanent till then. Dad? Bastard. Dad? Dad! Help me! Dad! Astrid! Soon, my beloved.

you and me without the bullet hole. You don't even know where we're going. You go back down hallway three, right through the ninth door, and right to the Soul Train. Where are you going? Soul Train, for me, came from my love of Soul Train. When I was little, you either American Bandstand or Soul Train, and most people were Soul Train because it was so entertaining. I remember every Saturday afternoon watching it. You know, the line, the dance, the music. I mean, Don Cornelius. even though it was mentioned as a Soul Train hit. So it just became, obviously, a literal connection for me. So that's something that I remember watching every Saturday. This is the 835. To the plate we are. For me, Don Corley is, yeah, was Soul Train. So with respect to the state, it wasn't meant as any kind of, just, you know, it was meant as a sort of a tribute. So I think they understood that, and I'm glad that they let us portray that. The Soul Train sequence, I discussed with the choreographer, Corey. I didn't want it to come across too much like an overly choreographed thing. I wanted it to be a bit rough and a bit, you know, choreographed, but a bit rough. So I was a bit, it wasn't vague, but it's like, Sometimes things a bit feel too choreographed or too little. So we just try to find the right balance of choreography and roughness and spontaneity and kind of mix it up.

trying to ride on the coattails of Dune, but very badly. So, no, the sandworm is not that. Obviously, in the first movie, it's even less than Beetlejuice. It's a touch, a flavor, and again, a little more stop motion, you know? It's the same, pretty much exactly the same, same technique, different artists, but nothing magical, just fun to make. Take my hand!

Santiago, we just wanted somebody. These parts are very short, but... that just had a good vibe to him. You know, somebody who's strong, simple, emotional, because he's... To have his performance come through, you know, half eaten by piranhas, you know, made it fun. Because actually, I didn't really like the dialogue. I thought the dialogue was really, really cheesy. Until I imagined him being eaten by piranhas, and I loved the dialogue. I thought it was brilliant. I know you can't see me, but I chicken on you both all the time. And I don't want to be the reason that drove you two apart. You need each other. You make each other better. Always have. We gotta get back to Winter River. You can't leave until Esther gets her life back. Let's go. The go patrol found the bridge and sealed it. Any sign of Mr. Beetlejuice or the flesh bag? Still looking. but we did find something that might help.

This is gonna go. Your shriveled lips will start flapping, or I'll crack your itty-bitty skull like a goddamn walnut. Where's Betelgeuse? Lori? Father, I'm seeing these shrunken-head people everywhere. Well, I'd be not afraid, for then eyes will see strange things. Are you filled with fear and trembling? Yes. I'm shedding my pants. What are you doing here? I never really go back and watch. Sometimes I'll sneak a peek at something or see something because, you know, it's emotional to me or something that I remember, but I don't really. The sense of deja vu really came with the cast. That was the most interesting. The secondary to that would be some of the sets, you know, like the waiting room. The exterior of the house, you know, and shooting in the East Corinth, which was the original location for the film, and building the house on the exact spot where we built the last one. You know, that was all kind of special kind of moments that I can relate to the first one. The model, it's like the house, the model. There was a few items like that that we didn't want to redesign the wheel. That's the model, that's the model. That's the house, that's the house. And so, you know, we put our energies into other things. Oh, you know what? My husband's here. Charles Dietz. Yes, he can fix us. You call him. He can fix us. He can fix anything. Not anymore. He can't. Oh, wait. Wait. I know people. Oh, I know people. I have people. What? No. Beetlejuice. Oh, no. Beetlejuice. Oh! I get it. Now that you're dead, you want to hang out with me. Michael and Kathy didn't have many scenes in the first. They don't have many of this. But look, they're both such, like, comedy great icons. You know what I mean? So just seeing them together for even a little bit was really special.

Yes, is necessary. But you know what? He deserved it. There you go. Kiss ass. We blew some air. We sucked off a name tag. We sucked off the strings on his lips. So no, very simple, you know, eyeballs popping. Again, they're not going to win any Academy Awards for special effects, but it works for this. Ah!

The lucky thing for me was like Neil Scanlan on this movie. He did what the actors did, was do things quickly. But it's hard, you know, for an actor, it's one thing. For him to go make a puppet and do this and that, you know, these things usually take months and months. He did these things very quickly. And so sometimes I'd throw at him, hey, we need a this or that, and he'd go, oh. And then sometimes very, very quickly he would come around with it, which was, you know, keeping it all in the spirit of improv. And like I said, with physical effects, that's very hard to do. I think it is strangely difficult because everybody, you know, gotten so used to CG, but I mean the studio, look at the end of the day, even if they had any reservations, it was very clear about making this movie. If I was ever going to do it, it had to just be simple. I felt it's better for me to do what I want and feel passionately and personal about it rather than trying to tick the list from studios, you know? And I kind of went off the rails a little bit by trying to just play the game and do all of that. And so for me, this one was very simple. This is the way we want to do it. This is how it's going to happen. They were very supportive of that.

Thank you for saving my life. I'm so sorry I never believed that you saw ghosts, and I'm just sorry for all of it. Astrid, I... Lydia, come on, you're late! Oh, my God, my wedding! Wait, Mom, with everything that's happened tonight, you know you don't have to do this, right? I know, but if I don't do it now, I'm never gonna do it. But are you sure about this? Rory loves me, and that's gotta be enough. Quickly, my dear. Come, come. The lost lamb is welcomed into thy house with open arms. Oh, my God. I thought you got cold feet. Oh, no, blame me. She just saved me from my date from hell. Who are all these people? It's just a couple of influencers. Nobody under five million followers. And I think we have a Netflix executive in there. We doing this? Where's your dress? All that matters is that I'm here now, so let's just skip straight to the vows. Wait, where's Delia? Weddings, relationships, yeah. Sometimes they go right, sometimes they go wrong. The fair amount that I've been to, they usually end up going wrong, but there's an occasional nice one. I'm really more nightmare material, but thanks. You're Beatles, so you slowly... Part of the deal is you can never, ever say my name, ever. What deal? The deal she made to save you. By the way, you can call me dad. Lydia. You agreed to marry him? I was desperate and it was my only option. Lydia, what's going on here? Wow. Awkward. You haven't made much progress since our last session, so I'm going to suggest some drug therapy. Don't be afraid to share when you're ready. I always thought your whole act was bullshit. I never believed in ghosts, spirits, or any of it. What? All this time? Why the hell did you want to get married? Money. I knew I could make more as your husband than I could as your manager. And I never had a dead fiance. I just went to that survivor's retreat so that I could meet weak women and exploit them. And I hit the codependent lottery when I met you. How about a little physical therapy? Whoo! Rory getting punched is something we all wanted to do early on, but we waited till this moment. It was a group effort. Influencers, I don't know where I've been for a while, so I didn't quite understand this world. Hi, my name is so-and-so, and I got over 8 million followers. Hi, my name is so-and-so, I got over... It's an equivalent of me going like... Hi, my name is Tim Burton, and my films have grossed over $1,400,000. You know, I mean, who'd cost that? So I'm in a whole new world. Now, all very nice and very, I met some amazing people. It's just a world I don't understand. The ending was always very much in play, and it was pretty late, I think. that came up with this. And it really, again, it goes back to me trolling my old, my jukebox. And I remember this, having the Richard Harris album and just being kind of amazed by it because I didn't really, I knew Richard when I was younger, I didn't know really who Richard, I knew he was an actor, but then as a singer, I didn't quite. So some reason this song kept playing in my mind, just being very, I just felt this wedding to me and it felt, big and operatic and somewhat strange and cheesy but beautiful and big and I just started thinking about it and then I started listening to it and I started it just sort of formed in my mind and started formulating and I was a bit worried because I was thinking about it I didn't really know how to present it to anybody I mean to Michael or anybody really and so it was kind of an ongoing thing and it was kind of organic all the way up through it. I mean, it wasn't like it was overly, overly, overly planned. It got to the point where we had an idea about it and it solidified it. And I just said, you know, I'm not gonna just have to, I wanna make sure this is what it is. And so, you know, it was a bit risky because nobody really knew what it was gonna be or what we were doing, even myself. So it was kind of, again, very organic and, you know, But I went with the song and I went with the emotion of it and it felt right for the sequence for me. With certain lyrics in the song, like looking at the sun or doing... this and loves of my life or everything you know the song suggested itself from you know the cake and the rain i mean some things are very literal you know and some things are a bit more abstract and you know the sort of idea of like the more demon possession people sort of singing and dancing against their will or with their will, you know? So it became very sort of free form in people's reactions. Like Catherine, we see Catherine react or you see Jenna react. It's kind of a mixture of confusion and joy and whatever. And so those kinds of things were very hard to talk about and something that just sort of, You know, but the good thing about the music is everybody gets into it. You know, you can hear it, you can feel it. A big crescendo come running down the aisle and do a nice plié or whatever. You know, it all sort of starts to make itself apparent. Once we started doing it, people were starting to get it, you know, and it was good. I mean, again, this is where, you know, sometimes music on the set really, really helps. It works good with musicals. It works good with certain things. It sets the tone. Even though it's a bit organic and moving, there's a structure to what you're basing it upon.

I enjoyed making the whole film because all the reasons I've said, the cast, the energy, the desire to kind of move quickly, all these things feed into an energy that, you know, I mean, sometimes if you have actors, sometimes you don't get along or whatever, it can change the dynamic of what, even though it can be fine, change how you feel and what you're doing. It's not like you want everything to be like cute animals in the forest, snow white, you know, everybody's like happy, you know, I mean, but it does help when every energy is like in sync on a certain level. And so I think my enjoyment came from all of those elements. The planets aligning at the right moment, a certain thing that can not always happen when it does, you know, for a project like this is important.

Master Juice, you violated code 699. If you asked an actor, stand here for four days and don't move, or we can make a nice Madame Tussauds-like wax figure and have everybody stand there for a week, what would you choose? Sweetheart, you look fantastic. You look so... put together the tuxedo in the wedding scene was his original tuxedo michael i think he called warner brothers asked for it they had it which is interesting good and so for michael it was a big deal and good because a it still fit which is incredible so for him i think that would say but we didn't overly do that we didn't go let's pull out this costume that costume but that one was good and that's one that was original that's one that i think really Sort of helped him get back into it a little bit. So this is Sanwar at the end, again, without being literal or looking back at all. I mean, if I recall correctly, it was in the last... It kind of ended the wedding last time. So it's kind of like a wedding crasher, I guess. So... Watch out. Sandworms at weddings. Let's go. Hey! We had a deal. She didn't have to marry you. You violated code 699. Yet you illegally brought my mom into the afterlife. According to that book, that contract is null and void. Look, I'm sorry things didn't work out between us, but the 600-year age gap was a little bit much for me. Beetle... Beetlejuice. Getting into that rig wasn't so bad for him. It was like putting on, you know, one of those kind of samurai suits that you go... bump each other off or, you know, those balloon outfits. So I think wearing the Batman costume was probably much worse for him than wearing that.

got married in vegas should have got married in vegas was the last minute thing we like always we came up with a few different lines but since we've all said it that seems like the one that worked the best we're a little late boys tape off the crime scene call in forensics and keep the goddamn media away little lady you just popped his beetle juice say your goodbyes you can take a selfie now if you like but make it quick Sister, you're coming with me. What? What? Delia, what did you do? I fell for a scam. And I'm counting on you to claim a refund. Those snakes were actually poisonous, weren't they? Yeah. So I died of embarrassment. Your work's going to go up in value. Oh. Oh, well then. Mm-hmm. Delia, I'll miss you. No, you won't. I'll find Charles and we'll haunt you both until you beg us to move on. Nice work for a couple of flesh bags. Don't come knocking until it's your time. And in the meantime, Remember, you gotta keep it real. Come on, beautiful. We got a date with the commissioner.

I mean, it was more like reuniting lovers, you know? It's more reuniting when people are dearly departed than they're dearly reunited again. People, even from the back, even half their back, you know, when you sense the vibe of your loved one, love makes everything possible. This is the 1013 to the great beyond. All aboard the Soul Train.

I want to thank all you ghosties out there for all your support over the years. But this is my last show. I have spent so much time talking to the dead. It's time I started living. Castle Bran is, I mean, it's in Romania, and that was known as Dracula's Castle. And I'd been there a couple of times, you know, when I was in Romania. And so it had a certain, again, I tried to use a lot of things that mean something to me, whether they're just little tiny things or bigger themes or whatever. So all of these little visual references and nods, whether I want to talk about them or not, there's something personal about it. And, you know, this whole connection between the two of them wanting to visit scariest places, the weirdest places. So Dracula's castle was on the list. The ending, the dream, nightmare, I mean, first of all, it was never written that way. It had other endings, and I don't know what happened, but it just came to me, this idea. I think it stemmed from when Lydia says her speech about, you know, I want to, it's her last show, and I want to thank everybody, but I want to stop talking to the dead. I found that very emotional. I found that very, very much something... that I feel and felt. Because she shot that like in the first day and it wasn't until the end where it just hit me. And then it just led into this kind of like Brian De Palma-like ending, which is why we ended up using the music from it because it worked so well and it was exactly what the feeling was. So in respect to Carrie, in respect to Brian De Palma, I ended up using it because it just felt beautiful and right and, you know, like life, you know? Again, it's more of a quicker, montage-y version of it. All I can say is it just felt better than what was there before.

I just had the weirdest dream. We made up stuff all the time. Now, we didn't sit there and analyze, is this going to work? Are people going to get confused? Are they going to go this? Is this all real? Is this a dream? It's like, sorry, it's OK. This is Beetlejuice. So whatever. Bottom line is, that was a last minute thing. And I think that was Michael's thing, like, when he come up and says, weirdest dream. Because I've said that. And again, these are lines that just connected with me. I probably said that to somebody the night before, you know? I had the weirdest dream. Actually, some of my favorite moments are Jenna getting married and Jenna giving birth, because this is a 20-year-old. They go, how do you know how to look like you're getting married? I mean, it just made me laugh. I love when people act normal. That's my favorite thing, when, like, weird people act normal, and they do it really well. And I go, like, how do you know how to give birth? Do you know what I mean? It's like, seriously? She did it very realistically. And I mean, it just made me laugh. And if I think about her getting married or giving birth, I can make myself laugh quite easily. I would say to anybody who's sat through this commentary, I feel sorry for them. Well, thank you for listening to whatever it is that I said. You know, I hope you enjoy the movie and this. Thank you.