Justin Theroux Was an ‘Emo Kid’ Fan of Beetlejuice: ‘Everyone Related to or Wanted to Date’ Winona Ryder (Exclusive)

‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ star Justin Theroux has “such a soft spot” for Tim Burton’s 1988 original film

 

For Justin Theroux, a self-described former “emo kid,” starring in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a full-circle moment.

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

Joining that film’s stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara in 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.”

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Theroux, whose off-camera style has always skewed “goth-adjacent,” he says, felt a kinship with Ryder’s morbid character Lydia Deetz upon first seeing Beetlejuice as 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.”

Now, in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (in theaters Sept. 6), Theroux’s crush proves prophetic: he plays Rory, who is both Lydia’s clingy boyfriend and producer of her paranormal hit TV show. “He’s sort of one of my favorite things to play, which is confident and dumb,” he tells PEOPLE with a laugh.

“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.”

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Burton, 66, and returning screenwriters Alfred Gough and Miles Millar include in their long-awaited sequel plenty of callbacks to Beetlejuice: 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 Beetlejuice is in theaters Friday, Sept. 6.

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