00:00We worked with the choreographer. In both movies it was the choreographer, but we were free to come up with our own ridiculous moves.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at instances from both Beetlejuice movies where the actors and crew went off script, not to mention off the wall.
00:14A little gasoline, blowtorch, no problem.
00:19Number 10. Beetlejuice's look. Beetlejuice.
00:22Aside from ad-libbing an estimated 90% of his dialogue, Michael Keaton helped devise everything from how Beetlejuice walks to his iconic appearance.
00:39Makeup artist V. Neal initially followed the character's original design.
00:43Tim Burton thought he looked too, quote, nasty, giving Neal freedom to whip up something original.
00:48Keaton contributed, feeling Beetlejuice's hair should look like he, quote, stuck his finger in an electrical socket,
00:54that he should be covered in mold since, quote, he lives under rocks, and that his nose should be broken.
01:05The crew improvised the latter with fake lips, putting them on both sides of Keaton's nose.
01:10Keaton also asked the wardrobe department to send him costumes from random time periods.
01:15When Keaton walked on stage, Burton knew they were on the right track.
01:24Number 9. Justin Theroux as Rory. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.
01:28Returning to Beetlejuice 36 years later, Burton again gave the cast room to improvise.
01:33Justin Theroux took advantage of this as Rory, Lydia's sleazy boyfriend and producer.
01:46Speaking with Burton on how to play the character, Theroux developed Rory into an overly emotional narcissist
01:53who acts like he's the main character in a soap opera.
01:56At the same time, Rory is a people pleaser who desperately wants validation from Lydia and Astrid, albeit for his own selfish reasons.
02:04As over-the-top as Rory can be, Theroux and Burton wanted his codependent relationship with Lydia to feel believable.
02:10Beyond helping to mold the character's persona, Burton allowed Theroux to fill in the blanks that weren't on the print page,
02:17doing plenty of riffing on set.
02:33Number 8. Waiting Room Epilogue, Beetlejuice.
02:36Beetlejuice almost had a much darker ending with Lydia dying.
02:40The shooting script discarded this idea, ending with Lydia's levitating dance.
02:48There were still several differences between the two.
02:51Theroux's dancing style was a bit different from Lydia's,
02:54and the way he danced was a bit different from Lydia's.
02:57Work, work, work, Senora. Work your body line.
03:01There were still several differences, however.
03:04Instead of coexisting, Charles and Delia would have moved away, letting the Maitlands raise Lydia.
03:09Most notably, Beetlejuice's final scene in the waiting room wasn't in the script.
03:14One possible ending would have seen Beetlejuice running away from the sandworm, although this was seemingly never shot.
03:20The filmmakers decided that the titular ghost needed a proper exit.
03:24So they returned to the waiting room set where Beetlejuice tries to get ahead, but instead gets his head shrunk.
03:41In addition to ensuring Beetlejuice will live on in death,
03:44this 11th hour addition gave Keaton one last chance to get nuts.
03:49Number 7. A Schitt's Creek Nod, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
03:53Like Michael Keaton, Catherine O'Hara proved to be a master of improv in both films.
03:58Reprising her role as Delia Dietz, O'Hara came up with several touches, rewriting parts of her speech at Charles' grave.
04:08In one of the sequel's happiest accidents, O'Hara leapt at the chance to channel Moira Rose.
04:13At her art gallery, Delia is seen wearing black and white, waving her arms.
04:18Behind her is a projection of crows.
04:24Originally, different birds were to be used.
04:27When O'Hara realized the scene would feature crows though, she asked Burton if he wanted her to flap her arms like a bird.
04:33She isn't sure if Burton got the reference, but O'Hara knew Schitt's Creek fans would notice a parallel to the crows have eyes.
04:47Number 6. Save that guy for later, Beetlejuice.
04:50Michael Keaton was so unpredictable in Beetlejuice that Alec Baldwin had a hard time keeping it together whenever they shared the screen.
04:59One particular ad-lib nearly had Baldwin choking on his laughter.
05:03Seeking out a bio-exorcist, Adam and Barbara find themselves getting uncomfortably close to the ghost with the most.
05:09Between spouting several unscripted lines, Keaton spontaneously hawked a loogie into his jacket.
05:20To top this off, Keaton said that he was saving it for later.
05:29This is where Baldwin lost it, which is presumably why the film subsequently cuts to another shot.
05:35While Baldwin thought this movie might ruin his career at one point, there's no denying that he laughed a lot on set.
05:41We wonder if Beetlejuice is still saving that loogie.
05:51Number 5. Jenna Ortega and Catherine O'Hara's dance moves.
05:57Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice naturally builds to a dance number, complete with lip-syncing.
06:03Although choreographer Corey Baker and associate choreographer Chris George Scott oversaw the grand finale, they wanted it to feel improvised.
06:21As such, they encouraged cast members like Catherine O'Hara and Jenna Ortega to play around.
06:26The Wednesday star is no stranger to improvised dancing.
06:30Although, she felt less self-conscious having others to collaborate with.
06:34Burton didn't always know what Ortega and O'Hara had in store.
06:43That is precisely why he wanted the cameras to keep rolling, letting them do whatever came to mind.
06:48While the finished scene is another instant classic, we're curious to see what dance moves might have been left on the cutting room floor.
07:00The blooper reel for this sequel must not be buried.
07:12Number 4. Take you with me, Beetlejuice.
07:15Catherine O'Hara ad-libbed arguably Delia's most memorable line from the first movie.
07:20Arriving at their new home in Winter River, Delia wastes no time redecorating.
07:31When Charles confronts her, Delia puts him in his place with her sharp tongue.
07:37Delia might be Charles' wife, but she is an artist first and foremost.
07:41Taking away her freedom of expression will send Delia on a one-way street to insanity.
07:46You had better believe that she will drag Charles along for the ride.
08:00Although the line itself is funny and relatable, the way O'Hara delivers it leaves us to wonder if Delia is already going insane.
08:07Originally, Delia was going to say, quote,
08:10the woman who lived here had the aesthetic instincts of Betty Crocker.
08:13Hence, why Barbara wanted to, quote,
08:29Number 3. Nice model, Beetlejuice.
08:31You gotta miss the good old days when a PG movie could get away with one F-bomb.
08:35Declining Beetlejuice's services, Barbara and Adam head home.
08:41The script then reads as follows.
08:44Beetlejuice walks to a tree and kicks it hard.
08:46The whole huge tree falls, kabloom.
08:49That's essentially how it plays out in the film.
08:51Although, Michael Keaton added one more line and gesture that left every parent questioning how family-friendly this film truly is.
09:00Within the context of the film, Beetlejuice is addressing Adam, who built the model.
09:12Behind the scenes, though, it's been rumored that Keaton was addressing the people who built the set.
09:17In any case, Burton was compelled to keep the profanity in, throwing in a honking sound effect for good measure.
09:23Number 2. Deo, Beetlejuice.
09:26It is impossible to imagine the dinner scene without Deo, but the banana boat song wasn't always going to be featured in the movie.
09:45In the screenplay, Delia, Charles, and their guest break out uncontrollably singing If I Didn't Care, an Inkspot song.
09:52When A Man Loves a Woman was suggested as an alternative, but Catherine O'Hara and Jeffrey Jones felt that Calypso music would be a better fit for the scene.
10:11The crew just so happened to have a cassette with the Harry Belafonte song, which reportedly wasn't expensive to license.
10:17Just as the musical choice was a late addition, the dancing was kept spontaneous.
10:22O'Hara told Entertainment Weekly,
10:33Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few other moments that weren't in the shooting script.
10:38Beetlejuice's introduction, Beetlejuice.
10:40The filmmakers scrapped the scripted intro with Beetlejuice puppeteering a corpse.
10:47Ghost with the most, Beetlejuice.
10:49Beetlejuice was going to call himself a high spirit.
10:57A little late to be neurotic, Beetlejuice.
10:59Delia's original line here was one of those shrimp dropped down by Kamali.
11:18Ringfinger, Beetlejuice.
11:20Funny how this came back in the sequel.
11:27It's Showtime, Beetlejuice.
11:29It was written as a direction, but not as a line.
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11:56Although it's become common knowledge among cinema fans,
11:59it's still surprising that Michael Keaton is only on screen for about 17 minutes.
12:05If they shot the script word for word, Beetlejuice might have had even less screen time.
12:11The scene where Beetlejuice officially meets the Maitlands goes by quickly in the screenplay.
12:16Keaton contributed an assortment of jokes and alternative lines.
12:29In Keaton's most extensive unscripted moment,
12:31he goes into Beetlejuice's backstory, claiming to be a student of Juilliard and Harvard.
12:36While we have a hard time believing that,
12:38the sequel would confirm he did indeed live through the Black Plague and it was a good time, for a while.
12:44Much like The Exorcist, this improvised monologue keeps getting funnier every time we see it.
12:56Do you have any behind-the-scenes trivia about the Beetlejuice movies?
12:59Let us know in the comments.
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