‘Beetlejuice’ Turns 30!
Learn how the makeup artist created the smarmy, ghoulish, and altogether perfect face of everyone’s favorite ghost-for-hire.
By Admin on March 29, 2018
Can you believe that Beetlejuice, starring Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis is turning 30!? Really though, the film came out on March 30, 1988, 30 years from tomorrow!
IMDB‘s synopsis about sums up this classic, saying, “When a recently-deceased ghost couple find their now-vacant home invaded by an obnoxious family, they hire a sleazy ghost who gets rid of humans to help them.”
It turns out that the film’s star Michael Keaton had a pretty intricate makeup routine. An article on Yahoo says, “In the film Beetlejuice, Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin make the title character appear by saying his name three times — but makeup artist Ve Neill had to do it the hard way. Neill, whom you may recognize from her Oscar speeches (she’s won three times) or her appearances on the Syfy makeup competition show Face Off (she has been a judge for 12 seasons), was one of three artists who designed the makeup for Tim Burton’s 1988 black-comedy fantasy film. Though Neill had a hand in every character from Winona Ryder’s quintessential goth teen Lydia to the inhabitants of the undead waiting room, her proudest contribution was transforming Michael Keaton into Beetlejuice. To celebrate the film’s 30th anniversary on March 30, Neill spoke with Yahoo Entertainment about how she created the smarmy, ghoulish, and altogether perfect face of everyone’s favorite ghost-for-hire.”
Her full interview is here.
