In the film Beetlejuice, Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin make the title character appear by saying his name three times — but makeup artist Ve Neill had to do it the hard way. Neill, whom you may recognize from her Oscar speeches (she’s won three times) or her appearances on the Syfy makeup competition show Face Off (she has been a judge for 12 seasons), was one of three artists who designed the makeup for Tim Burton’s 1988 black-comedy fantasy film. Though Neill had a hand in every character from Winona Ryder’s quintessential goth teen Lydia to the inhabitants of the undead waiting room, her proudest contribution was transforming Michael Keaton into Beetlejuice. To celebrate the film’s 30th anniversary on March 30, Neill spoke with Yahoo Entertainment about how she created the smarmy, ghoulish, and altogether perfect face of everyone’s favorite ghost-for-hire.

View photos Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara, Winona Ryder, and Jeffrey Jones in Beetlejuice. (Photo: Warner Bros./Courtesy of Everett Collection) More

“Tim had some drawings up on the wall, literally sketches of the character, which he did on all the movies that I’ve worked with him on,” Neill said about Burton, who famously draws his own concept art. “This particular character kind of looked like a derelict. So I copied the sketch; it was just up on a little cork board in this crummy little trailer that everybody was working out of. We were sort of the stepchildren of Geffen and Warner Bros. on that film, because they didn’t think we were going to amount to anything.”

View photos Beetlejuice makeup artist Ve Neill appearing as a judge on the Syfy special effects makeup competition Face Off. (Photo: Nicole Wilder/Syfy/Courtesy of Everett Collection) More

Neill took the drawing back to the makeup trailer, where she did her best to copy Burton’s sketch onto Keaton’s face. When she was done, “he just looked like a nasty old derelict,” Neill said. “He was filthy dirty. We put this pale yellow wig on him, and he looked weird and creepy. Really disturbing-looking.” She took some Polaroids for Burton, who had the same reaction she did: The makeup was far too “creepy-looking” for the film’s comedic trickster.

“So I went back and did it slightly differently,” said Neill. “He said, ‘No, it still isn’t right.’ I said, ‘OK — we want all these people in the afterlife to be kind of pastel-colored, right? Let me take him back to the trailer and do what I want to do.’ And he said, ‘OK, go for it.’”

Watch the trailer for ‘Beetlejuice’

In addition to Burton’s directive that the undead characters be made up with pale colors (“like Necco Wafers,” said Neill), Neill received a specific request from Keaton: “Michael said, ‘You know, I really would like to not totally look like myself, three-dimensionally. I’d like to have like a broken nose and some bad teeth.’” She and makeup artist Steve LePore had one day to deliver a makeup that would please both the director and the star. And neither of them had a prosthetic nose on hand.