Michael Keaton advised against screen time in ‘Beetlejuice 2’

Michael Keaton got candid on how much time he thought his character Beetlejuice would need to “drive the movie.”

“The idea was, no, no, no, you can’t load it up with Beetlejuice, that’ll kill it,” Keaton opened up to GQ magazine about his take on the total screen time of his lead role in Beetlejuice 2.

“I think the Beetlejuice character doesn’t drive the story as much as he did in the first one. He’s more part of the storyline in this one as opposed to the first one, which is a case of, this thing comes in and drives the movie a little bit.”

The star also compared the sequel to the 1988 original.

“The [original] was so fun and exciting visually. [The sequel is] all that but really beautiful and interestingly emotional here and there,” Keaton said. “I wasn’t ready for that. It’s great.”

Further, Keaton shed some light on the personality of Beetlejuice.

“He’s a thing. He’s more of a thing than a he or a she, he’s more of an it,” Keaton said.

“And I’m not saying ‘it’ to be politically correct. I just viewed it as a force more than anything. I mean, there’s definitely strong male energy, like stupid male energy, which I love. You don’t want to touch that because it’s not like you go, ‘Well, it’s a new year and this thing would now act like that.’”