Catherine O'Hara Almost Turned Down Beetlejuice For A Hilarious Reason

There are perfect performances, and then there's the late, great Catherine O'Hara as eccentric artist stepmother Delia Deetz in "Beetlejuice." It's impossible to think of anyone else as the self-obsessed and self-possessed Delia, who initially seems totally intolerable to her stepdaughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) and her house's previous homeowners, the ghostly Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis). Despite seeming like kind of a selfish monster in the beginning, though, we eventually see that Delia is just a strong-willed artistic type who just hasn't had much practice at being maternal. 

What's surprising is that O'Hara apparently almost turned down her role in "Beetlejuice" for a very silly reason: she couldn't stop giggling at the titular character's name. In a profile for the Globe and Mail, O'Hara admitted that she almost declined the role of Delia because she just couldn't stop picturing "Superman: The Movie" and "Network" actor Ned Beatty in the title role. (Um, wouldn't that have been "Beattyjuice?") Thank goodness she got over her hesitation, because "Beetlejuice" without Catherine O'Hara just wouldn't have been the same. 

While Catherine O'Hara was keen to point out that she had nothing against Ned Beatty, for some reason, that was enough to keep her away from "Beetlejuice" when she was first asked to be a part of it by producer David Geffen. As she explained to Parade Magazine in 2024, she was asked to fly from her home in Toronto to Los Angeles to meet director Tim Burton, only for her to end up going to the wrong Warner Bros. lot and missing him entirely. Despite that, she was still cast in the role of Delia, and the whole world was better for it. 

Notably, "Beetlejuice" also led to O'Hara meeting her husband Bo Welch, who was the movie's lead production designer (and even went on to direct the infamous 2003 live-action "Cat in the Hat" film adaptation, if you can believe it). This also meant that Welch got to design sculptures tailored to fit O'Hara's version of Delia, which is kind of sweet, even if one of those pieces of abstract art also pins her against a wall.

Burton's 2024 sequel, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," eventually allowed use to see Delia after she had grown a bit as a stepmother, though she's still as quirky as ever in the movie and even gets the most appropriately Delia-esque death possible. As for O'Hara herself, she was truly one of a kind, and her contributions to "Beetlejuice" helped make it the comedy classic it is today.

And to think ... it almost didn't happen because of "Beattyjuice."