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Beetlejuice director Tim Burton hired Geena Davis because he didn’t understand the script - but she did
Tim Burton hired Geena Davis for Beetlejuice because he felt she understood the script more than he did
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When you watch the 1988 film Beetlejuice, you can feel Tim Burton’s influence in everything. However, it’s important to remember that while Tim Burton directed the film, he didn’t write the script. The screenplay was written by Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren, with story contributions from Larry Wilson. The script was brought to Burton, and while the director loved it, he didn’t fully understand it.
At least, that’s what he told Geena Davis, the actress who memorably played Barbara Maitland in the film.
“It was super fun,” Geena Davis said about the movie during a panel at GalaxyCon Raleigh 2025. “I was invited to meet with Tim Burton about it ,and I had read the script. When I met him, I was like, ‘I get this movie. I just get it. I really want to be in, because I really get this movie.’ And he told me later that he cast me because he felt like he didn’t get it, and that it would be very handy to somebody on set that knew what it was about, so that’s why I was in it.”
In other words, if you watched Beetlejuice and didn’t understand it, don’t feel bad, because that was the director’s initial impression too. Burton's loss was cinema's gain - and we all have Geena Davis to thank for it.
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