We spoke with Justin Theroux and Monica Bellucci about their roles in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

It’s been 36 years since the original Beetlejuice film hit the screens. The improbably strange and inventive meditation on death was a surprise critical and box-office success.

Tim Burton was still a relatively unknown filmmaker. He was a failed concept artist with Disney, working on films like Tron, The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron. His designs never made it on screen. Burton had moderate success with a short film narrated by Vincent Price called Vincent and made his first feature, Frankenweenie, in 1984. Paul Reubens saw and loved the movie. He asked Burton to direct Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, which was a huge return on investment. Beetlejuice was his next film.

Since then, the film world has changed drastically. Despite a few bumps, Burton has continued to see box-office success. While many beloved American filmmakers struggle to get films made, Burton’s budgets have steadily risen. As cinema struggles to compete against TikTok and social media, he’s likely one of the few filmmakers who is still a household name. 

His nouveau goth style has become something of a punchline. But even his haters must admit that his directorial style is distinct and unmistakable. While his films have mostly moved away from the artisanal handcrafted style of his earliest films, embracing instead glossy CGI spectacles, it’s undeniable that he’s held onto his voice. 

After nearly four decades, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice brings us back to Winter River, Connecticut. While this sequel stays true to the original film, it also introduces some new characters as part of its contemporary update. Cult MTL was able to sit down and speak with two new additions to the cast, Justin Theroux and Monica Bellucci.

It would be a mistake to assume nothing has changed since 1988. Burton, along with writers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, bring the film into the new century. Lydia (Winona Ryder) has a popular TV show where she confronts the supernatural for a rapt audience. She works with her boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux), the show’s producer. Inspired by shows like Ghost Adventures, the program flirts with authenticity and artifice. Theroux admits to getting drawn into those types of shows during the pandemic: “They’re kind of fun to watch, sort of background-while-cooking type shows.”

Lydia now has a teenage daughter, Astrid (Jenny Ortega), a pariah at her private school. The pair have a rocky relationship that will be tested when the whole family has to return home to Connecticut after a tragedy. It won’t be long before Beetlejuice is summoned once again.

An upwardly mobile Hollywood type with a penchant for wellness and spiritualism, Rory acts as Lydia’s rock, much to the chagrin of her family. Theroux explained that they imagined him “as a sort of guru-ish and yogi-ish guy who shapeshifts to be more like his girlfriend.” 

While the couple makes a performance of being very loving, Theroux points out they’re actually rather toxic. “Rory is one of those people who has the appearance of caregiving and being concerned about his partner. But really, he lures her in to make himself the victim all the time. So he’s sort of a victim in the relationship, or he wants to be seen as sort of the put-upon victim. So that just made us laugh. We just thought, oh, this is so toxic, this relationship.” 

Building on some of the themes from the original film, a lot of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is structured around the question of what it means to have a loving relationship. Each character struggles with love and loss in their way. While love can be revelatory and transcendent, a bad relationship can drag you down (sometimes all the way down, into the underworld). 

Monica Bellucci also joins the film as Beetlejuice’s long-lost wife, Delores, a bride of Frankenstein-esque villain who’s hungry for souls and revenge. Bellucci was attracted to the character’s duality. “She’s full of rage, but also funny. Even though she’s dead, there is so much emotion there. For me, she’s a metaphor of life because she’s full of scars but she’s strong and she’s coming back. In real life, we have the same fight many times. There’s something human about her.” While troubled, or in Bellucci’s words “poisoned,” the love that fuels Delores is very true. “When you say yes to a character,” says Bellucci, “even though it’s different from you, you have to have passion and compassion.”

In many ways, Rory and Delores embody different ways of confronting death. Part of the appeal of Beetlejuice has always been its lighthearted approach to grief and the afterlife; through these new characters, we can see fresh perspectives on this. 

Theroux particularly is attracted to Burton’s approach to comedy. “You know,” he says, “we should all be trying to find joy in our lives at all times. It’s obviously very difficult. Even something as simple as stubbing your toe or not being able to hail a taxi cab can be very frustrating. Then, there’s death in and of itself, but if you train your brain to see the irony or humour in it, it makes life easier.” 

Part of Burton’s approach to the film is to remain true to using practical effects and sets, grounding the film in reality. The impact on the actors is clear. 

To become Delores, Bellucci went through three hours of makeup every day. “It all helped me get into character. Then we get to wear the amazing costumes of Colleen Atwood and step into these beautiful sets.” She explains how Burton helps create the strange world. “Tim loves to draw — there are always drawings of characters and situations.” The tangible world feels like a return to Burton’s roots. “Instead of a green screen,” Belluci says, “you have real monsters to react to. You can go further with your fantasy and your imagination.” 

“It’s so great to be able to have the actual thing in front of you,” says Theroux. “As a viewer, we have all had that experience where we see a movie that has so much CGI or everything is completely manufactured. It can almost feel overwhelming sometimes. This sort of gets back to genuine quality filmmaking, where the size and the scope of it is digestible.” On set, it also helps things feel more real. “As an actor, of course, it’s fabulous when guts blow all over you, they actually blow all over you, you know?”

This artisanal quality feels rooted in Burton’s long-standing appeal to audiences. Even as he tackles old IPs, whether it’s Dumbo or Alice in Wonderland or Beetlejuice, it remains authentic and tangible. Rather than something generic and cookie-cutter, it feels like the work of a human being. For Theroux, the experience paid homage to the experience of watching the first film as a young person. He explains that the first Beetlejuice film “obviously had a big impact on me, and on culture. I loved watching this film because it reminded me why I love that film.” ■

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opens in Montreal theatres on Friday, Sept. 6. This article was originally published in the Sept. 2024 issue of Cult MTL.

---

For our latest in film and TV, please visit our Film & TV section.