Beetlejuice Beetlejuice co-stars Jenna Ortega (Astrid Deetz) and Michael Keaton (Beetlejuice) have an epic conversation over a cup of java at the JW Marriott Essex House, New York. The pair chat through the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice experience and working with Tim Burton, to career pressures after getting their first gig.
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00:00That's harder, I think, for you to say here's my version of it.
00:04Definitely more pressure, but I also like to think about it because,
00:07I mean, Beetlejuice was only Tim's second movie, right?
00:10It must have been such a strange conversation to be,
00:12okay, so there's this peewee, peewee's big adventures guy.
00:14Totally.
00:22When did you first start?
00:24I dropped out of school to make some money so I could go back,
00:27and I started working in this little public television station in Pittsburgh,
00:32doing anything I could, anywhere.
00:34You know, at a public station, then shoot these little 16mm films,
00:37and I was one of the crew, so I'd set up a couple of lights
00:40and then need a guy to walk by and say something.
00:42I said, I'll do that.
00:43I started becoming more ambitious about it and actually putting myself out there.
00:48I wanted to act, but I loved stand-up so much,
00:50and the beauty of stand-up then and now is
00:54you're not waiting around to get hired.
00:55And I never did, like, jokes, jokes.
00:57I created scenes so I could play characters and things.
01:00Did you bomb?
01:01A few times, but oddly, at the beginning, I didn't.
01:04I mean, I kind of, off the bat, I went boom,
01:06and I got asked back in New York, me and Larry David,
01:10and I just met him.
01:10Nice.
01:11Yeah.
01:12He met this guy standing next to me and freezing cold,
01:14waiting outside in line to sign up.
01:17He was in a fatigue jacket, an old, like, army jacket
01:20that was his actual army jacket from the army, I think.
01:23And then, so like that.
01:24And then we did that, and on a whim, I moved to L.A. for the summer to get started.
01:30Then, I don't know what happened.
01:32I just started auditioning.
01:33I didn't know anybody.
01:34I had no idea you did stand-up.
01:35Oh, man, now I really feel like a journalist.
01:37Do you?
01:39Comedy, drama, do you?
01:40Is there anywhere your heart lies more,
01:43or is it really just dependent on the character or your experience?
01:45Totally dependent on the thing.
01:46Yeah, I thought so.
01:48That thing of, well, comedy is really, you know, death is easy, comedy is hard.
01:52It's cliche, but it's kind of true.
01:54If you want to be good at it, it's hard.
01:56Comedy is harder.
01:57But if you think of it like that all the time, I think it gets in your way.
01:59But if you want to be really good at it, it's about timing.
02:03It's about, does the timing work inside this vehicle?
02:06And is my style correct for the thing?
02:10If you play small, do you play big and all that?
02:12I don't know.
02:12I don't really analyze it very much.
02:14Yeah, well, that's also why there's that conversation.
02:16But you're very dry.
02:18Yeah, it's hard, though.
02:20Because no one is aware of whether or not I'm being serious.
02:24Yeah, which I love.
02:26As much as it pains me to admit you were right, Mother,
02:29I think I'm going to love it here.
02:31You sometimes get the tiniest crack in the corner.
02:35Yeah.
02:37That's me pretending that it's not happening.
02:39Because you figure, well, if I give in to really laughing, it's too vulnerable.
02:45Oftentimes, it's credit.
02:46Maybe it's that.
02:46Maybe it's a swallowing of, I can't let them know.
02:50Yeah, yeah.
02:50So what's that about?
02:51I'm not entirely sure.
02:52Were you like that when you were little, little?
02:54No.
02:54When I was little, I was just very bubbly.
02:56Silly and open and bubbly.
02:57Yeah, always wanted to chat up the adults at the birthday party.
03:00At what point did that change?
03:0216 or 17.
03:05I've really gone inside myself in recent years.
03:08Maybe it's just insecurity or I think also being a young adult for the first time
03:13and feeling the weight of the world and responsibility.
03:16My career is in a very different place than when I first started.
03:18I was like 9 or 10.
03:19So I think that that kind of pressure, if you're not familiar with it,
03:24I had never really been affected by opinions or thoughts of others.
03:28And I think that when you get older and there's so many people on your team,
03:31you're having all these conversations.
03:33And so many people have an opinion on your life and what you should do with your life
03:37and what's right and what's wrong.
03:38And I think as a young person and potentially because of the day and age that it is now
03:42with the internet, I think that sometimes the pressure feels more substantial.
03:48I'm also an immense overthinker.
03:51You're going to pass through it.
03:52You're going to have to come out the other end of it.
03:54But I mean, I got a lot to say about that.
03:56So when you got the call, you already knew Beetlejuice and Batman.
04:02You said, oh yeah, I definitely want to meet that person.
04:05Well, yeah.
04:06I mean, Tim...
04:07Or did they just say...
04:07Hey, you know something?
04:08I just remembered yesterday as well.
04:12I remember auditioning for Dumbo.
04:14I actually auditioned for Dumbo.
04:16Really?
04:16I was like 14 or something like that.
04:19And I was so excited.
04:20I couldn't believe that Tim was making a movie.
04:22It had been a minute.
04:22I was like, oh man, this would just be an incredible opportunity.
04:25I was very used to being told no.
04:27Like, you know, because they tell actors don't have to be, you know,
04:30feel some type of way about that.
04:31But I remember Dumbo being one that for weeks I was just gutted.
04:35And I thought, what if I never get the opportunity to work with him again?
04:38Oh, wow.
04:39Did you tell him that?
04:39No, I told him twice.
04:40No.
04:41When you first worked with him, it was on the show.
04:45Correct.
04:45Right, right, right.
04:46Yeah, yeah.
04:47The first time that I worked with him, because TV moves so fast
04:49and you're trying to get so many pages, so many scenes in a day,
04:52maybe that kind of made him nervous.
04:53I don't think he had done TV before.
04:55And he was always very kind, very considerate.
04:57But I wasn't used to him being so trusting of the people that he hires.
05:00Yeah, right.
05:01So by the time I got to Beetlejuice, it was so refreshing
05:03because I understood that when he didn't give notes
05:06or when he didn't have much feedback on the acting portion,
05:09it was more so because he was allowing me to just do whatever I felt I needed to do.
05:13Right, right.
05:13And if he really had something to say, then he would say it.
05:16Yeah.
05:16I don't think we have a process.
05:18I'm not trying to be anything.
05:19It's just he's so unbelievably visual.
05:23But once you buy into that, you say, I really like this world.
05:27I like his way of thinking.
05:28Then you say, oh, OK, I want to fit into your world.
05:31So here's my contribution to it.
05:33Here's what I want to do.
05:34I attended Juilliard.
05:35I'm a graduate of the Harvard Business School.
05:37I travel quite extensively.
05:38I lived through the Black Plague, and I had a pretty good time during that.
05:41I've seen The Exorcist about 167 times, and it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it.
05:47I think the first day I showed up on Beetlejuice, I just started going.
05:50And then he said, oh, OK, let me now show you some of these sets.
05:56And here's what's going to happen in this set.
05:58I got to do a photo shoot for GQ in about an hour and a half.
06:02Yeah, they've been after me for months, doing some kind of underwear deal.
06:05I don't know what.
06:06There's discussion, but there's not that much discussion during the shoot, do you think?
06:10No, no, not at all.
06:11I think that's what threw me off guard as well, because the first character I had with him,
06:15Lindsay Adams, obviously there's been so many interpretations already.
06:19She wasn't an original character.
06:21So I really wanted to talk to him about what that looked like in his world and his perspective.
06:26And he just didn't have much to say.
06:28So I think that that stressed me out a little bit.
06:30But once I saw the sets, and once I spoke to him a little, and obviously having so much of
06:34his film history to look back on, it changed my physicality immensely.
06:39Really?
06:39Yeah, the way that, depending on how tight we are, how far we are,
06:42it completely alters the way that I stand, the way that I carry myself.
06:46His visual direction.
06:48Yeah, really.
06:49Yeah, because you're really fitting into the picture.
06:52Yeah.
06:52Literally the picture.
06:53Very still, no swinging of the arms, perfect posture, no blinking, you know, like it was a whole.
06:59It's true.
06:59I didn't think about that.
07:01It's actually harder, isn't it?
07:03To play a character that's been done two, three, four times before.
07:08I wouldn't say that it's harder because I can't think of Beetlejuice.
07:11I can't compare anyone to Beetlejuice.
07:13Right, that's why in a weird way, it's kind of easy.
07:15I said, here's what I'm going to do.
07:16Yeah, you know, it's not like anything or anybody.
07:19It's just what I'm doing.
07:21Oh, that's what you're doing.
07:22I love that.
07:23Right.
07:23Well, then if you're doing that, then let's do this.
07:26And I'd say, oh, cool.
07:27What if I go up to the tree?
07:29And, you know, the Wednesday character had been played in other media, right?
07:35Yeah, and so beautiful.
07:35That's harder, I think.
07:36Christina absolutely killed it in the 90s.
07:37For you to say, well, here's my version of it.
07:39Definitely more pressure.
07:41But I also like to think about it because, I mean, Beetlejuice was only Tim's second movie, right?
07:45It must have been such a strange conversation to be, okay, so there's this Pee-wee.
07:49Totally.
07:49Pee-wee's big adventures guy.
07:50Totally.
07:51I'd seen Pee-wee's, but I don't think, honestly, to be honest with you, I don't think I ever saw it
07:55all the way through at that point.
07:56So I meet him, and you know how he speaks.
08:00Yeah.
08:00And he's way more verbal now than he was then.
08:05I didn't know what he was talking about.
08:07I mean, he was trying to explain it to him.
08:09It wasn't bad.
08:10It was actually interesting.
08:11A few days go by, and I had another meeting.
08:14I just know this guy is something.
08:17And he had said a couple things that gave me an idea.
08:19Like he's born, he's from any time period, or he's of no time.
08:24He disappears.
08:24He might live in the ground or something.
08:27Wow, live in the ground.
08:28We never rehearsed.
08:30I never showed him anything.
08:32He was very clear about the striped suit.
08:34He was very clear about the white and the big dark eyes.
08:37And I started meeting him.
08:38I had called a makeup person.
08:40I talked about my hair, and I wanted to do this and that.
08:42I said, I want it like that.
08:44Electrified.
08:45Yeah.
08:46But I didn't think of the color.
08:47He came up with the color, I guess, or she did.
08:50I forget.
08:51But anyway, the advantage was we didn't know what we were going to make.
08:54He knew.
08:55That was the other thing.
08:56It was so fun to make.
08:58And I only worked like 15 days or something.
09:00You ready for this?
09:01There's going to be a screening of that movie you did with that guy, Tim.
09:04And I go, oh, yeah, OK.
09:07With an audience.
09:08They're going to screen it with an audience.
09:11And I went to see it.
09:12It was death.
09:14Crickets.
09:14People's faces are kind of going like this.
09:18And I thought, oh, man, that's too bad.
09:20That was really fun.
09:21And then I saw a trailer, and I went, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen.
09:26I hope the movie's that good.
09:27But it's fun to walk on a set, isn't it?
09:29Yeah.
09:30It's unlike anything you've ever seen before.
09:32It was the first time I had ever done coverage and been told to put a slight bend in my left
09:37knee so that I was straight.
09:41It's oddly messy.
09:42Yeah.
09:42Which is so funny considering the name and status and legacy that he holds.
09:48I don't know how similar the experience is to when you first shot with him versus now.
09:52Very.
09:53But yeah, it just feels very casual.
09:55And it's fun, isn't it?
09:56Yeah, so fun.
09:57I love that he doesn't have the shot list.
09:59He doesn't have any idea what he's going to do that day.
10:02But he does.
10:02He just does it.
10:03But for the most part, you know, he likes to keep it short and quick.
10:06Yeah.
10:06The first time I met with him, it was five minutes long.
10:09Yeah.
10:10We exchanged almost nothing.
10:11And there were some mornings on sets that I've worked with him where he doesn't even
10:15say much.
10:15He just shows me the image.
10:17We strangely have a very similar sense of humor.
10:21If I laugh, I know he would probably laugh and vice versa.
10:23So we've done a thing now where we almost speak in our own little sign language.
10:27Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:28Yeah, especially when you're going every day.
10:30You see it in Beatles and you see it in Batman.
10:32And, you know, he's very graphic.
10:35What he actually needs.
10:35It's not like he has to overshoot or over cover something because a lot of it is so
10:39focused on silhouette or a certain light.
10:43And if he likes one shot, he doesn't really want to deviate from it.
10:46Everything else is just kind of a waste.
10:48What's the thing you said?
10:49I'm still open for interpretation.
10:51I realize that I, in fact, this person, I'm open for other other people's interpretation
10:58of me.
10:58That's wild.
10:59It's a phase, you know, I mean, I think it'll last.
11:02Is it a phase?
11:03100 percent.
11:04When do you think you stopped feeling that way?
11:06There were certain things that I was too stupid, I guess, to even think about.
11:10You've got to just be like oblivious and confident enough to actually.
11:13Yeah.
11:14And you had that as a...
11:15Alejandro Iñárritu said I'm the most, I'm saying what he said.
11:20He's the most confident actor in the world, I've known.
11:23And it didn't start out like that with he and I.
11:25I guess that's true.
11:26Well, to some degree, I know it's true, but part of it's because I'm not smart enough
11:30to worry.
11:31Somewhere along the line, I made the decision, that's too much work.
11:35I'm too lazy to have to make myself too crazy.
11:38You know, I just don't have the interest in all that.
11:42I got to go, wait, I got to go make a living.
11:44I got to figure out what the job is, you know.
11:46Things are different.
11:47Also, I must say, you're a woman, judged way more, a young woman, judged even way more,
11:54and then forget about social media.
11:58That like quadruples everything.
12:00Saying this to you, you're going, Jesus Christ.
12:02No, I've already had the same, my brain has gone through the...
12:06Yeah, it's true though.
12:07I've looked at everything from every angle I possibly could.
12:09But you don't seem like it.
12:10You seem cool, cool as the other side of the pillow, as they say.
12:14I wouldn't say that I am, but I would say, and this year strangely,
12:17I'm so fortunate and lucky to be doing what I do.
12:20I actually enjoy going to work every day.
12:22You know, I figured it out when I was younger.
12:25I don't want to stop doing what I'm doing.
12:26So I'm going to keep doing it.
12:27And then the other things, it's like, how much I enjoy being on set.
12:30It's a very small price to pay.
12:32You got it.
12:33I'm not going to say anything.
12:34I'm not going to touch it because you already figured it out.
12:36That's exactly it.
12:37Anytime I get stressed out doing this sort of thing,
12:38it's never brought me anything in the first place.
12:40If you were to talk to one of your peers or someone your age,
12:45even if they're not in the business, would they be roughly in your,
12:47you know, on average, on average?
12:49You know, if you picked a friend or someone contemporary,
12:55either in the business or not in the business,
12:57where do you think, if you had a conversation for an hour,
13:00would you kind of be, they'd feel the same way you do?
13:04Or do you think you're different?
13:07Um, well, I wouldn't go, oh man, I'm different or I'm whatever.
13:11I think I, but I do, and I don't, again,
13:13I don't know if it's because I'm so analytical about things that I think
13:17sometimes it's hard for me to touch base with people my age.
13:22And part of that might be to working in such an adult environment
13:27since I was nine, 10.
13:28I'm probably most fearful around people my age
13:31because I don't know if I present myself a way that's, you know.
13:35More mature.
13:36Yeah, I feel like unrelatable or I feel like sometimes
13:39I have to speak differently or carry myself differently
13:42in order to assimilate myself because I do want to connect.
13:45And I do have some people that I have been able,
13:49but it's very few and far between.
13:51Honestly, a majority of my friends that are my age,
13:54I did, I've known since I was four.
13:56Yeah, yeah.
13:56I went to school with them, but again.
13:58And you still hang with them when you can.
13:59When I can, but that, I mean, it's less and less every year.
14:03I mean, I haven't seen them in over a year or so.
14:06That happens anyway, regardless of what you do.
14:08And a lot of it is, too, is like, you go to school with people,
14:12you spend all your time with that person.
14:13And are they cool?
14:15I think they're cool.
14:15I think they're the sweetest.
14:16Are they cool with you going, they dig what you're doing, they're happy?
14:19They're supportive, but only because they know it means something to me.
14:23They don't really care.
14:24Same thing with my family.
14:25None of my siblings really care.
14:26That's very healthy.
14:28Yeah.
14:28Yeah, I got lucky.
14:28They're respectful of it, but it's not like that.
14:30Yeah, that's who my family is for the most part.
14:33Right.
14:33Yeah.
14:33Not for the most part.
14:34It's exactly how they are.
14:35It's so nice.
14:36Because that could be, it's so nice.
14:38What a relief, right?
14:39Because can you imagine some of the craziest shit you hear from other families?
14:43People go nuts.
14:44People all of a sudden, families break apart because one person, my family was totally down.
14:50I can't imagine that being any other way.
14:55Yeah.
14:55That's a huge, if I didn't have that, if it wasn't that solid of a foundation, I think
15:00I would really be screwed.
15:02Have you ever had to reel yourself back?
15:04Daily.
15:05From what?
15:06I'm not saying in like a, oh, I'm feeling myself kind of way, but potentially.
15:10Oh yeah.
15:11Like you start falling over yourself a little bit.
15:13Yeah, you snap back to.
15:14Yeah, yeah.
15:15Cusack said this thing and I can never remember what it is.
15:18A kick in the head.
15:19Daily I see, especially some politicians.
15:22You just want to go, excuse me, just a little shot.
15:25Get it.
15:26Boom.
15:26Upside the head to kind of go, oh yeah, all right.
15:29Sorry.
15:30You know.
15:30Right.
15:31Yeah.
15:31Oh, for sure I did.
15:32For sure.
15:33I'd like to say, no, I was always down and cool and authentic.
15:37Nah, I'm sure there were periods where I was acting full of shit, but you're in a different
15:41time and different world.
15:42I hate to keep saying it, but women, it's harder a lot of the times because more is
15:46expected.
15:47Therefore, oh, she didn't look very pretty today.
15:49You know?
15:49Oh yeah.
15:50Well, I feel it too.
15:51I mean, you can even do a scene with someone, a romantic scene and suddenly you're being
15:54attacked for having to kiss a guy over, you know, it's, it's a very different pressure
16:00and it's obvious.
16:01It's so clear.
16:02And like, I've definitely-
16:02You make clear when you're at work, you feel it.
16:05More so like the press of it all.
16:07Yeah.
16:07Yeah.
16:07Oh yeah.
16:07Yeah.
16:08When you're having to do the, you know, inviting people to come watch it, you could feel it
16:11even from crowds occasionally, the kind of like tension or, I don't know.
16:17It's very easy for things to become misconstrued or, you know.
16:20Or blown out of proportion.
16:21Yeah.
16:21Or they love you and then they hate you and then they love you again.
16:24That's why you can't really, well, if I follow that, I'm going to have a heart attack.
16:27I think there's no normal way to go about it.
16:30Nowadays, and as someone who was also a people pleaser, I was so confused as to why.
16:37It's exhausting.
16:37Yeah.
16:38A young man in those early, like late teens to early 20s, that's a tricky time, man.
16:43That's a tricky time to be the guy because you have an unusual occupation.
16:47You don't have a normal-
16:48I have this theory because I want to go back to what you just said.
16:50You said, you know, about that time in your life being a very stressful time.
16:54I find that people, as someone who's in their 20s, often look back at their 20s and go,
16:58oh, you need to enjoy it.
16:59It's the best.
17:00Oh, I had so much fun in my 20s.
17:02That's, you know, when life really is.
17:03Is that people romanticizing it?
17:05Because it's terrifying, is it not?
17:06That's a very good question.
17:08Because mostly, I think they are romanticizing it because that's an easy thing to say.
17:13And just because you're not, if there are some that are or were, that doesn't mean
17:18it has to be that way for you.
17:20Right.
17:21You know, your 30s or 40s or 50s or 70s might be the greatest.
17:25Or maybe your teens were.
17:27Some of the stuff I look back and I go, whatever.
17:30Any year I thought of, oh, that was a rough year.
17:32That was terrible.
17:33Man, I was really sad during that time.
17:34Yeah, but you know what?
17:36There was something in there that was pretty good.
17:38You know what I mean?
17:39When I look back, but it's, you can't see it now.
17:43Don't expect yourself to see it now.
17:46You can't jump out of yourself and go, got it.
17:49That's a really difficult thing to do.
17:51That's an astute question.
17:53What if the answer is, now, those four years or two years or six months or whatever,
17:58they were pretty miserable.
18:00They probably were.
18:01So the world's not going to end.
18:02So that was bad.
18:03And then they'll get good.
18:04It gets worse.
18:05And then it goes fast.
18:08Faux show.