Willem Dafoe provides details on his role in upcoming Beetlejuice 2 film directed by Tim Burton
- Actor, 68, spoke with Variety at the Marrakech Film Festival in Morocco
- He said he plays a B-movie action star who's a police officer in the afterlife
- Among the actors returning for the sequel include Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara and Michael Keaton
Willem Dafoe has provided new details about his role in the forthcoming Tim Burton film Beetlejuice 2.
The Oscar-nominated actor, 68, spoke with Variety Sunday at the Marrakech Film Festival in Morocco about his part in the long-awaited sequel to the 1988 film.
'I play a police officer in the afterlife, so I’m a dead person,' Dafoe told the outlet. 'And in life I was a B-movie action star, but I had an accident and that’s what sent me to the other side.
'But because of my skills, I became a detective character in the afterlife. So that’s my job. But it’s colored by the fact of who I was [when I was alive]: a B movie action star.'
The Spider-Man actor added, 'I haven’t seen any footage yet, but it was fun to do.'
![The latest: Willem Dafoe, 68, has provided new details about his role in the forthcoming Tim Burton film Beetlejuice 2. Pictured Friday at the Marrakech Film Festival in Morocco](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/11/27/02/78263619-12794153-image-a-31_1701052478410.jpg)
The latest: Willem Dafoe, 68, has provided new details about his role in the forthcoming Tim Burton film Beetlejuice 2. Pictured Friday at the Marrakech Film Festival in Morocco
![Return: Among the actors returning for the sequel include Michael Keaton, who plays the titular role](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/11/27/02/78263873-12794153-image-m-33_1701052524757.jpg)
Return: Among the actors returning for the sequel include Michael Keaton, who plays the titular role
The Appleton, Wisconsin-born actor did not appear in the original movie, though he was in a pair of notable films in 1988, the year it was released: alongside Gene Hackman in the crime drama Mississippi Burning, and as Jesus in Martin Scorsese's controversial The Last Temptation of Christ.
Keaton told Empire Magazine, this past June, 'Beetlejuice is the most f--kin’ fun you can have working. It’s so fun, it’s so great. And you know what it is? We’re doing it exactly like we did the first movie.
'There’s a woman in the great waiting room for the afterlife literally with a fishing line - I want people to know this because I love it - tugging on the tail of a cat to make it move.'
New additions to the franchise include Dafoe, Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci, and Justin Theroux. Amid the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike, Ortega was pictured filming on the Boston set of the film earlier this month.
The motion picture is slated to arrive in theaters September 6, 2024.
Dafoe was supported by wife Giada Colagrande, 48, during a rare red carpet appearance at the festival in Morocco on Thursday. Colagrande who wed the star in 2005, showcased her sensational curves in a figure hugging white gown.
The loved up couple strolled hand-in-hand along the red carpet with Dafoe later wrapping his arm around his wife's waist.
![Good time: Dafoe said of working on the sequel, 'I haven¿t seen any footage yet, but it was fun to do'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/11/27/02/78263625-12794153-image-a-34_1701052630308.jpg)
Good time: Dafoe said of working on the sequel, 'I haven’t seen any footage yet, but it was fun to do'
![Sweet: Dafoe was supported by wife Giada Colagrande, 48, during a rare red carpet appearance at the opening of the Marrakech Film Festival in Morocco on Thursday](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/11/24/19/78210477-12788549-image-a-17_1700855551042.jpg)
Sweet: Dafoe was supported by wife Giada Colagrande, 48, during a rare red carpet appearance at the opening of the Marrakech Film Festival in Morocco on Thursday
![Suited and booted: The American actor was dressed to impress and cut a suave figure in a black tailored tuxedo which he layered over a matching shirt and dickie bow](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/11/24/20/78210479-12788549-image-a-18_1700856019783.jpg)
Suited and booted: The American actor was dressed to impress and cut a suave figure in a black tailored tuxedo which he layered over a matching shirt and dickie bow
Although they keep their relationship relatively low-key, Willem - who married Giada just one year after they met - previously shared details of his romance with the Italian beauty in an article written for The Guardian.
The lovestruck actor explained: 'I met my wife on the street in Rome in 2004. I knew of her because I'd seen her films and we had some mutual friends.
'Getting married was very impulsive and romantic. We were having lunch and I said: "Do you want to get married tomorrow?" I called up City Hall and they said: "If you get here in the next couple of hours, you can register and then you can get married tomorrow." So we ran down there.
'We married the next day with just two witnesses, our best friends: my manager and her editor.'
The actor previously revealed how he once shared a loft with an ex-girlfriend... and the man she left for him.
Opening pened up to Esquire about his early days as a struggling actor, when he became romantically involved with his Wooster Group theatre director Elizabeth LeCompte, who was dating fellow actor and group member Spalding Gray at the time.
'It was complicated, because we were all working together,' Dafoe recalled. 'In fact, the three of us lived in the same loft, but we divided it in half.'
The couple went on to spend 27 years together and produce one son — Jack — now 41.
![Style: Meanwhile Giada, who wed the Spiderman star in 2005, showcased her sensational curves in a figure hugging white gown](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/11/24/20/78210483-12788549-image-a-19_1700856035603.jpg)
Style: Meanwhile Giada, who wed the Spiderman star in 2005, showcased her sensational curves in a figure hugging white gown
![Love: The loved up couple strolled hand-in-hand along the red carpet with Willem later wrapping his arm around his wife's svelte waist](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/11/24/20/78210481-12788549-image-a-20_1700856037836.jpg)
Love: The loved up couple strolled hand-in-hand along the red carpet with Willem later wrapping his arm around his wife's svelte waist
One of eight children to a father doctor and nurse mother, Willem revealed he was the only one his parents didn't put through school because he didn't go into the medical field.
'My parents were like, "When you really know what you want to do, we’ll help you,"' he said. 'They put all my brothers and sisters through undergraduate and graduate school. Me, nothing, because they thought I was goofing around, but I was okay with that.'
He revealed he worked part-time at a bindery and then a luncheonette counter: 'I knew that if I really needed money, it would be a phone call away, but I kind of enjoyed the romance of living paycheck to paycheck.'