One of Alec Baldwin‘s first major film roles, coming off a string of TV shows, was Tim Burton‘s Beetlejuice in 1988, wherein he played the character of Adam Maitland; after he and his wife Barbara (Geena Davis) die in a wreck, they set out to reclaim their home by haunting the new residents in the afterlife. Over 30 years after its release, Baldwin reflects on Beetlejuice in a video shared by GQ this week, recalling that he was convinced it was going to ruin his career!
“When we did Beetlejuice, I had no idea what it was about, I thought maybe all of our careers are going to end with the release of this film…. we’re all gonna be dead,” Baldwin admitted. “But when you’re around Tim [Burton], he was just such a, kind of, a crazy professor. That’s one of the earliest movies I made, and you see everything that’s involved with making movies brought to bear in a movie like that.”
Baldwin also touched upon the lessons he learned from Michael Keaton on the set of Beetlejuice, “The thing I remember most was Michael. Keaton knew the secret. I would act and then I would have some doubts. I was much more neurotic about what I would do when I was very young, starting out with films. And Keaton just came out – he was like the comedy Annie Oakley. He just was so self-assured. He just tore it up. We were doing a scene where he spits the loogie into his jacket, which he completely improvised. I thought I was gonna choke, I was laughing so hard. Keaton amazed me.”
You can watch the full GQ video profile below, which kicks off with the Beetlejuice talk.
