EntertainmentMoviesFantasy MoviesBeetlejuice BeetlejuiceBeetlejuice Beetlejuice’s Jenna Ortega on ensuring Astrid wasn’t Lydia Deetz 2.0: “Tim just kind of takes a step back and lets you do what you need to do"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
EntertainmentMoviesFantasy MoviesBeetlejuice BeetlejuiceBeetlejuice Beetlejuice’s Jenna Ortega on ensuring Astrid wasn’t Lydia Deetz 2.0: “Tim just kind of takes a step back and lets you do what you need to do"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
Beetlejuice Beetlejuicestar Jenna Ortega has opened up on Tim Burton’s hands-off approach to directing, and how she ensured her character wasn’t just a rehash of the franchise’s original teen,Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz.
“There actually weren’t a lot of conversations with other people, which I think is really exciting and [the thing that’s so] different about working with Tim, because usually you do have those conversations,” Ortega tellsGamesRadar+andInside Total Film, explaining how she brought Astrid to life. “I love being able to share and collaborate on ideas for a character, but Tim just kind of takes a step back and lets you do what you need to do.
“If you have questions or if you have concerns, he’ll talk to you about them. But for the most part, we just kind of showed up and we did it,” she smiles. “I didn’t want [Astrid] to be Lydia, so I just made sure she had similarcharacteristics, like just being very self-assured and opinionated and very aware of who she was. The writers also did a wonderful job of establishing that for me, then it was more so just working with Catherine and Winona a lot of the time, and they’re so great at what they do, and so nice and so comforting that I didn’t have to worry about chemistry too much, everything just kind of fell into place.”
(Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures)
O’Hara, who worked with Burton on the 1988 flick, had a similar experience. “We just winged the whole thing,” she laughs, before adding: “No, it’s so freeing to just be trusted in that way, to you know, just come in and do it. Of course, you’ve got the script to work with. But Tim is also really collaborative and really loose about letting you improvise, and encouraging that, and improvising himself. It’s very creative. It’s a very creative vibe.”
In the first film, the ghost-seeing Lydia regularly clashes with her eccentric, screechy stepmother Delia, as the latter sulks about moving to the suburbs. In the follow-up, Astrid and Lydia have become semi-estranged since the death of Astrid’s father, due to Lydia’s busy schedule and former’s lack of belief in all things otherworldly.
“It wasn’t really discussed, but we all just knew that Delia and Lydia would be in a new place,” says O’Hara. “And I think I got to show that I actually loved my husband. Delia was in a rough place in the first movie. He’d taken her from where she thinks she’s comfortable; in the urban environment with her artist friends, well, people she thinks are her friends. She doesn’t really have any friends. Nobody appreciates her art. Her husband paid for her gallery show that we see [in the sequel]. I’m sure that was never discussed. But, you know, you just make up stuff, help your own character.”
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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice releases on September 6. In the meantime, check out our guide to the most excitingupcoming moviesheading our way.
Listen out for more of our chat with Ortega and O’Hara on the upcoming episode of the Inside Total Film podcast, which is available onApple,Audioboom,Spotify, and more.
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1
Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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5
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