Beetlejuice 'Banana Boat (Day-O)' scene, a (mini) oral history with Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara

It's time to jump in the line once again! Thirty-six years after the release of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice — as a sequel starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, and Jenna Ortega is about to hit theaters — the famous "Banana Boat (Day-O)" scene stills plays like an ear worm in our heads, so much so that there's an homage to it in the new film.

In the original, Charles (Jeffrey Jones) and Delia Deetz (O'Hara) host a dinner party in their haunted house for guests: interior designer Otho Fenlock (Glenn Shadix), Delia's agent Bernard (Dick Cavett), writer Grace (Susan Kellermann), and Ballantine Books editor Beryl (Adelle Lutz). The evening takes a turn when ghosts take over their bodies and force them into song and dance to the tune of Harry Belafonte.

Ryder (who played Lydia Deetz) and O'Hara (who played Lydia's eccentric stepmother Delia Deetz) sit down with Entertainment Weekly to share behind-the-scenes memories from this sequence.

CATHERINE O'HARA: That would be just great fun looking around the table and seeing everybody do the moves, putting their asses up at the air towards each other. Dick Cavett at the table. 

WINONA RYDER: Dick Cavett! That was a big one for me. 

O'HARA: And then great live effects. I've told this before, but our faces were attacked by shrimp cocktail. There was a man, a crew member, under each of our place settings under the table with a shrimp glove on that sat on the shrimp cocktail dish until the moment when they're supposed to attack our faces. They'd get a cue, and being human beings, there'd be a little delay or there'd be jumping the cue. So you never quite knew when it was going to happen, even though it was so fun. It made it really scary. When I first saw the movie and it came to that scene...I think we shot it for a couple of days, all day long. And we all added moves. We had a choreographer, but we all got to add our stupid moves. When you're shooting it, you could sort of tell, but you can't tell. I mean, we were having our own fun, but you don't know if that translates to the movie. And I remember seeing a screening with a regular crowd of people and they applauded at the end of that. The editing of it was...The idea was great and the song is so great, but then just the way it was put together, I had no idea it was going to be that fun and powerful and memorable. 

RYDER: I think I dragged my chair away and I pumpkined out. I wanted to do it, but I was also like, yeah. Was Robert Goulet one of the [dinner] guests? 

O'HARA: No, he was Maxie Dean. I actually got to say his name in this movie [Beetlejuice Beetlejuice]. "Is that Maxie Dean?" He was never on camera. I just wanted his name in there. Wait! Lydia was at the table. 

RYDER: I was at the table. 

O'HARA: This is terrible, I can't even picture it. 

RYDER: And I saw some ghost and then you guys start doing it. 

O'HARA: They didn't possess you? 

RYDER: No, I kind of just back away. Because I was a minor and I probably had to. [Ryder was 15 years old when she filmed Beetlejuice, and child labor laws restrict the amount of hours young actors can work.]

O'HARA: But also they liked you. The ghosts liked you. 

RYDER: Yes.

O'HARA: I'm just getting it right now. We're both like, 'So what happened in the movie?' So they didn't possess you. They were trying to scare us away. 

RYDER: Yeah. 

O'HARA: Oh gee, boy. It's all coming back to us now, isn't it? 

RYDER: I don't think there's a shot of me watching though. 

O'HARA: There must be. 

RYDER: I don't know. 

O'HARA: Tell us! Has somebody seen the movie lately?

Beetlejuice is currently available to stream on Max. The sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, will open in theaters this Friday.

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