Michael Keaton initially turned down ‘Beetlejuice’ because he is "lazy".
The 65-year-old actor admitted he was reluctant to take on the role of Betelgeuse in the 1988 iconic movie alongside Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin and Winona Ryder because he didn’t understand director Tim Burton’s vision and he wanted to spend time at home.
He explained: "Sometimes I’m lazy. I just go, "Ah, I don’t know. I’m breeding one of my dogs, or I didn’t take a vacation I should go.
"Sometimes it’s that. Mostly it’s just that I don’t know how to do it. Tim couldn’t really express what Beetlejuice was. It wasn’t so much, ‘No, I refuse’; it was, ‘I really like this guy, but I don’t know what he’s talking about."
The director and actor also worked together on the 1989 movie ‘Batman’ and Tim admitted that it was Michael’s psychological approach to the part that convinced him to cast him as the caped crusader.
Burton said: "When it came to ‘Batman’, I’d been meeting with these beefy action-hero types, then Michael arrives… He comes in with this whole psychology, approaching it with an almost manic-depressive quality in mind. I thought: now I get it."
And Quentin Tarantino convinced Michael to star in ‘Jackie Brown’ by getting him drunk.
He told the Daily Telegraph: "I said, ‘You can find 10 guys who can do this better than I can do it,’ and then he got me drunk."
Michael Keaton: ‘I almost turned down Beetlejuice’
