Micheal Keaton talks challenges of reprising beloved ‘Beetlejuice’ role

Michael Keaton, who is reprising his role as the ghoulish Betelgeuse, shared that he was taken aback by the merchandising of his iconic role.

The actor first played the role in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice in 1988 and now he will be returning to his beloved role in the upcoming Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sequel.

Keaton talked to Empire magazine about the “surreal” experience of finding himself back in character and had to look beyond the pop culture aspect of it.

“There’s been so much merchandising of it, I had to drop back to where it started,” he told the outlet.

“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].”

The actor said that it was a challenge as it was very off-putting for him to see the ubiquity of the character.

“That was f—k—g weird,” admitted Keaton. “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, f—k that – what was the thing that started this?’”

Despite this, Keaton feels confident that he was able to get back to Betelgeuse for Burton’s sequel.

“I love it,” he said of the movie. “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.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is slated to release on September 6th, 2024.