Beetlejuice can haunt Us anytime! Twenty-seven years after Michael Keaton first wreaked havoc on the Deetzes in Tim Burton's 1988 comedy, Winona Ryder is gearing up to reprise her role as Lydia Deetz in an upcoming sequel. Appearing on Late Night With Seth Meyers on Monday, Aug. 10, the Heathers actress dished what she knows about the film — and why she sometimes gets held up at TSA because of it.
"I think I can confirm it, because Tim Burton did this interview," Ryder, now 43, began. "It was very hush-hush, top secret…and then he was doing some press for Big Eyes, and he did an on-camera interview and he said, 'Oh yeah, we're doing it. And Winona's gonna be in it.' I mean, if he said it, I can."
Unfortunately for fans, the Golden Globe-winning star is just as light on details as the general public. "I really don't know much more than anybody else," she admitted.
In any case, there's already plenty of buzz for the sequel — not to mention a lot of love for the original. Ryder — next appearing in HBO's Show Me a Hero — said she still gets approached about the movie, even by kids who weren't yet born when it came out.
"I love that, I'm so touched by that. Because how do they know?" she said. "There's so much CGI and Middle Earth and there's all this stuff, and that they love Beetlejuice — that must mean there's something very sort of pure about it."
Older fans love it, too, of course. Maybe a little too much.
"I hesitate greatly to say this, so much that I might not say it," she told Meyers. "At airports, going through security, I have not been let through security unless I said [Beetlejuice three times]. In a very sweet way — TSA people, I love you!"
"That's like the best thing that could happen to you in TSA," Meyers joked back. "I'd rather say Beetlejuice three times than go through the stuff that I've gone through at TSA. That's not bad!"
She agreed — but there's still a part of her that's a little afraid to summon the ghost. "Obviously it's better than being strip-searched or tasered, but I'm very superstitious," she explained. "So now that I think there's going to be a sequel, I'm like, 'What if I say it three times and then…?'"
