Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: Where is Ve Neill

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Legendary makeup artist Ve Neill created the iconic looks in the original 1988 Beetlejuice,

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directed by everyone's favorite purveyor of goth antiheroes,

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Tim Burton.

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Ve recounts her first meeting on the lot with the young director that led her to

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getting hired for the bizarre and hilarious cult classic that became Beetlejuice,

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starring Michael Keaton,

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Winona Ryder,

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Alec Baldwin,

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Gina Davis,

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and Catherine O'Hara.

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Okay, Vee, come on in.

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So I get there and it's on the lot at the Culver City Studios,

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that little tiny lot that looks like gone with the wind from the front.

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Yeah.

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And they are in this shitty old broken down production trailer.

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And I'm thinking, oh, God, this really is a low budget movie.

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And there was this board up on the wall that had these like little pencil sketches

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on it of some creepy looking dude,

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you know?

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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And so he said, okay, you can go in and talk to Tim.

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So I walked in the room and here's this scruffy kid with his hair all over the place,

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sticking out everywhere in a rumpled up white shirt.

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And I thought, wow, I thought, well, he is an artsy fartsy type, so I guess it's okay.

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So we just started talking and we kind of hit it off.

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I thought, and I thought, well, this is good.

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This was a good first meeting.

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Their amazing collaboration led to the iconic Beetlejuice.

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Green hair, a stinky old wig, the white makeup, moss growing out of the neck.

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Ve sent a PA to the hobby store to buy fake moss.

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And V says.

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And I went and I sent a runner to go to a hobby store and get me some ground up foam,

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colored foam and some moss and stuff.

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And I said, this guy comes out of a grave.

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We want him to look like he just crawled out from underneath a stone.

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So that's when I put all the moss, like he had moss growing out and everything.

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And Tim goes, oh, my God.

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He said, OK, that's good.

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So he wound up liking what I did.

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And that was really fantastic.

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And so that's how we did it.

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Well,

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flash forward to 2024 and the upcoming fall release of the long awaited sequel,

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Beetlejuice,

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that is overflowing your feed right now on IG.

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice with Michael Keaton,

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Winona Ryder,

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Catherine O'Hara returning alongside Jenna Ortega,

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Monica Bellucci,

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Justin Theroux,

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and Willem Dafoe.

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So he brought all his creatives back, right?

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No Ve. Wait, what?

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You might ask.

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Yeah,

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I said no V.

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Today's episode will delve into her amazing work,

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which won an Oscar,

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on your favorite movie.

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And I might ask you, how or why didn't she come back for the sequel?

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I do happen to know that she was not asked.

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I, for one, already have my tickets to see Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.

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Of course, I will do my due diligence.

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Now,

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I'm the biggest Tim Burton fan from Pee-wee's Great Adventure through Ed Wood and

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Edward Scissorhands,

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which all had V.

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Neal on them.

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Need I say more?

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But early reviews and fan feedback on social are saying, on the nice side, this is Beetle Burton.

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A strong dose on Tim.

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Light on Beetlejuice original vibes.

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Many fans are saying some stronger things like, did anyone bother to watch the original?

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And what is up with the makeup?

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Now,

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I couldn't help but wonder if V not being on the crew,

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V being so intrinsic to the creation of Beetlejuice,

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made the sequel a little less innovative.

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I've heard that the 4K Netflix budget bonanza vibe feels like a far cry from

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sending a PA to the hobby store to buy a train set moss to glue on my...

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What do we think?

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Ageism?

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V is 73.

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70 is the new 50.

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Not buying that.

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V is Johnny Depp's personal makeup and hairstylist on a billion films we all know

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and love and are award-winning,

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and also frequently works with director Tim Burton.

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She was a makeup artist on Beetlejuice,

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Edward Scissorhands,

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Batman Returns,

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Ed Wood,

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Mars Attacks,

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Sweeney Todd,

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all of which were directed by Burton.

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She won Oscars for her work on Beetlejuice and Ed Wood.

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Okay, so what happened?

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I'll be interested in your comments, pre- and post-film.

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What do we think?

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V has been mum's the word,

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class act as always,

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but I have a feeling that Tim might have just overlooked his key collaborator,

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and that might have cost him making a truly original sequel.

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On Beetlejuice Beetlejuice on IMDb, I counted 36 hair and makeup department crew.

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And of course, I'm the HMU department's champion.

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I love all artists, so I don't want to speak ill of who replaced me.

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I just want to know why and how that went down.

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It looks like a very complex group of HMU prosthetics,

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wig makers,

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personal makeup artists,

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etc.,

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all very famous and skilled for the record.

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Maybe things just got too big, too complex.

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The original seems like a band of misfits who created a truly original film,

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an unforgettable version of the afterlife.

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Dancing shrimp,

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Winona Ryder's Lydia,

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we love her,

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we dress up like her for Halloween,

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and the lovably gross,

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obscene dead party guy hankering Geena Davis.

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Beetlejuice.

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I wonder if Tim felt like, I can't ask V because I have to hire 35 other people to execute my ideas.

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I mean, that's one theory.

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Well, Tim, I wonder if sometimes one is better.

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I don't know.

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We'll see when it comes out.

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Beetlejuice is dropping on the 6th of September, and I want to know what you think.