"When we did Beetlejuice, I had no idea what it was about," Baldwin told GQ. "I thought my, all of our, careers are going to end with the release of this film. Maybe we're all going to be dead."

It was Keaton as the title role who not only impressed Baldwin, but gave him hope for the film's possible success, he said.

"Michael came and knew the secret," he began. "Because I would act and then I would have some doubts. I was much more neurotic about what I would do, and I was very young starting out in films. And Keaton just came out and he was like the comedy Annie Oakley. He was so self-assured. He just tore it up."

One of the more gross-out moments is when Beetlejuice spits a loogie into his coat, saying "Save that guy for later." That was improvised, Baldwin revealed.

"And I thought I was going to choke, I was laughing so hard off camera," he said of the joke.

As for director Burton, Baldwin remembered him being brilliant, but quirky.

"He would sit at a desk and draw the characters ... and he would never look up at me," Baldwin said, adding that one day the actor suggested to the director that he do his character, Adam Maitland, more "posh," like late actor Robert Cummings.

"Tim was looking down at a piece of paper and maybe this is the only direction Tim gave me the whole entire movie. He would look up and go, 'No. Don't do that.' And then go back to the paper and draw," Baldwin said. "But, when you're around Tim, he was just such a crazy professor. That's one of the earliest movies I made, and you see everything that's brought to bear in making movies in a movie like that."

Beetlejuice the musical opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre in April.

Baldwin stars in the upcoming Framing John Delorean, which is out in limited release Friday.

Watch Baldwin discuss a number of his roles, below.