Justin Theroux Was an 'Emo Kid' Fan ofBeetlejuice: 'Everyone Related to or Wanted to Date' Winona Ryder (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Justin Theroux on April 9; Winona Ryder in ‘Beetlejuice’.Photo:Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty; TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty; TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy

ForJustin Theroux, a self-described former “emo kid,” starring inBeetlejuice Beetlejuiceis a full-circle moment.

“I have such a soft spot in my heart forBeetlejuice,” says the actor-filmmaker, 53, of directorTim Burton’s 1988 comedy-horror classic.

Joining that film’s starsMichael Keaton,Winona RyderandCatherine O’Harain the new sequel is “one of those miraculous moments in life where you’re like, ‘Someone just handed me the key to the front door of that movie, and I get to walk into that world,’” he tells PEOPLE. “To step onto set and see Winona in her black petticoat dress and her black, sharp bangs and smoky eye — it just was so fun.”

Theroux, whose off-camera style has always skewed “goth-adjacent,” he says, felt a kinship with Ryder’s morbid character Lydia Deetz upon first seeingBeetlejuiceas a teen. “My relationship with the original was — I don’t want to say everyone’s relationship with it — but I think a large portion of the young adult ’80s population, [when] I felt like I was an emo kid, and I think everyone related to or wanted to date Winona’s character.”

Winona Ryder and Justin Theroux in ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’.Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

“He’s oily and unctuous and not very bright, but also deeply emotional,” adds the star. “He’s a really fun character to play. He’s insufferable.”

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Jenna Ortega, as Lydia’s daughter Astrid, joins Rory as “the only two people in the movie who haven’t seen the world yet. So in a weird way, we’re the eyes of the audience, we get to react to it in real time.”

Justin Theroux and Winona Ryder in ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’.Nicole Rivelli/Warner Bros.

Nicole Rivelli/Warner Bros.

Burton, 66, and returning screenwriters Alfred Gough and Miles Millar include in their long-awaited sequel plenty of callbacks toBeetlejuice: ornate production design for the afterlife, grisly practical effects for the recently deceased and the director’s signature stop-motion animation. “The sets are monstrous and wonderful, so the imagination part of the world itself is sort of done for you,” recalls Theroux. “So then at that point, your job only is to make Tim giggle.”

He and Ryder, 52, and Ortega, 21, “were so excited for our wardrobe,” he adds. “It was really fun to goth it up a little bit, put a little eyeliner on and play these characters.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceis in theaters Friday, Sept. 6.

source: people.com