Michael Keaton Snuck Up Behind Jenna Ortega as Beetlejuice and Scared Her Before They Even Had Met: ‘He Had Molds Peeling Off His Face’

Jenna Ortega met Beetlejuice before she met Michael Keaton on the set of Tim Burton’s long-awaited “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” During an interview on “The Tonight Snow,” Ortega was asked about what it was like meeting an icon like Keaton for the first time when he’s playing one of his most iconic characters. The answer is scary.

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“He came up behind me,” Ortega said. “I was getting a hair and makeup test, and I got a tap on the shoulder and I turned around and it was a jump scare for sure. He was like, ‘Oh hey I’m Michael,’ and he had molds peeling off his face.”

“I played it cool and then it was cool until I met him for a second time out of hair and makeup because I introduced myself again because I forgot that I had already met him,” Ortega added while laughing.

The “Beetlejuice” sequel reunites Keaton with Burton and original cast members Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara. Newcomers include Ortega and Willem Dafoe. The plot centers on the strained relationship between Ryder’s Lydia Deetz and her daughter, Ortega’s Astrid.

In an interview with Vanity Fair earlier this year, Ortega described Astrid as “weird, but in a different way and not in the way you’d assume, I would say.”

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“The relationship between Lydia and Astrid, my character, is very important,” she added of the sequel. “And it’s also really strange because it’s a lot of catching up and putting the pieces together of what’s gone on in Lydia’s life since, which is nice, I think, for anybody who loves the character and is excited to see her again.”

Ortega added at the time that bringing the gothic aesthetics of the “Beetlejuice” franchise to younger audiences in 2024 is part of the reason she “was excited that they were bringing it back.”

“I feel like studios nowadays, of course they want people in seats and you’ve got to do reboots or sequels or things like that to get people entwined, but to bring ‘Beetlejuice’ back — of all of the stories –is so good because people need to revisit weird, strange, off-putting stories again,” Ortega said. “We need to introduce the younger generation that’s always on the phone to new artistic and creative ideas. The weirder you get with it, the more people you can get to see it, I think will probably do a lot for film in general.”

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” opens in theaters Sept. 6 from Warner Bros. after world premiering at the Venice Film Festival. Watch Ortega’s full interview on “The Tonight Show” in the video below.

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