The 72-year-old Hollywood star is reprising the iconic role for the upcoming sequel to the 1988 horror comedy classic, and before agreeing to the comeback, he wanted to ensure Beetlejuice wasn't steering the story.
He told GQ: "The idea was, no, no, no, you can't load it up with Beetlejuice, that'll kill it."
He explained: "I think the Beetlejuice character doesn't drive the story as much as he did in the first one. He's more part of the storyline in this one as opposed to the first one, which is a case of this thing comes in and drives the movie a little bit."
Tim Burton's character remains a "sicko".
Keaton said: "He's a thing. He's more of a thing than a he or a she, he's more of an it.
"And I'm not saying 'it' to be politically correct. I just viewed it as a force more than anything. I mean, there's definitely strong male energy, like stupid male energy, which I love. You don't want to touch that because it's not like you go, 'Well, it's a new year and this thing would now act like that.'"
Burton recently revealed the 'Jack Frost' star was "possessed by a demon" when he got back into character.
The 65-year-old director and his co-stars found it surreal how he jumped right back into his alter ego like it was yesterday after 36 years.
The 'Edward Scissorhands' filmmaker told Empire magazine: "It was like he was possessed by a demon, because he just went right back into it.
Catherine O'Hara (Delia Deetz) said: "It was insane. Insane."
Jenna Ortega (Astrid Deetz) chimed in: "It was like an animal with a gun had just walked into the room. To watch him physically change and appear and Michael Keaton to be gone, and for me to be dealing with this Beetlejuice guy...It blew my mind."
Keaton insisted on playing the same version of the trickster ghost, which was difficult considering how much "merchandising" there has been of it since.
He explained: "There's been so much merchandising of it, I had to drop back to where it started.
"I had to go, 'What was my unusual imagination even thinking about when I was developing it in the first place?' As opposed to seeing a coffee mug or a golf-club cover [adorned with Betelgeuse's face]."
It was "off-putting" for him when he came to channel the mischievous spirit again.
Keaton added: "The ubiquity of Beetlejuice as a character in the culture created its own challenges."
That was f****** weird.
"To be honest with you - I'm being very frank - it was off-putting, to look and go, 'I don't want to look like all these little things, f*** that - what was the thing that started this?'"