Michael Keaton sweetly reflected on his decades-long friendship with his “Beetlejuice” co-star Catherine O’Hara one week after her tragic death.
The “Batman” star attempted to recall his first meeting with the “goddess” while being honored as the 2026 Man of the Year by Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals in Cambridge, Mass., on Friday, per People.
Keaton explained that he met the actress shortly before they worked together on the 1988 Tim Burton-directed film, saying he was a big fan of her early 1980s comedy show “SCTV.”
“I was a big ‘SCTV’ fan,” the actor, 74, said. “I am the biggest ‘SCTV’ fan.”
Keaton struggled to pinpoint his exact first encounter with O’Hara, adding, “I remember we must have met or known each other a little bit, because, like myself, she has a big family. She’s one of seven, and I’m one of seven. And so somehow we got to be friends.”
“I think I was doing a movie in Toronto,” he continued. “I remember a night in Toronto where she had a summer [with her] brothers and sisters, and we were all shooting pool in some bar somewhere.”
“But I think I had known her before, kind of having a hard time remembering it,” Keaton said.
He gushed over being “giant fan, like everyone else,” saying that he knew O’Hara as “kind of a goddess” in the comedy sector.
The “Spotlight” star explained that others “knew how brilliant she was and how great she was,” and her rise to fame wasn’t a surprise.
Keaton also shared how he advocated for O’Hara to portray his ex-wife in the 2005 Michael Hoffman-directed film “Game 6.”
“I guess that was after the first ‘Beetlejuice,’” he said. “But I knew her before that … I don’t remember what the first time was when I met her, but we got to be friends in addition to just working together as well.”
Additionally, the “Home Alone” star and Keaton starred together in the 1994 film “The Paper,” and reunited for the 2024 Beetlejuice” sequel.
Keaton penned a touching tribute to O’Hara shortly after she died “following a brief illness” at the age of 71 on Jan. 30.
“We go back before the first ‘Beetlejuice,’” he wrote via Instagram, alongside a photo of himself and the “Schitt’s Creek” alum.
“She’s been my pretend wife, my pretend nemesis and my real life, true friend. This one hurts. Man am I gonna miss her. Thinking about [Bo] as well,” Keaton added, referring to O’Hara’s husband, Bo Welch, whom she was married to for 33 years.
O’Hara, meanwhile, was rushed to a Los Angeles-based hospital in “serious condition” around 5 a.m. the day she died.
The “A Mighty Wind” star was experiencing “breathing difficulty,” a 911 dispatch call obtained by Page Six revealed.
Her cause of death has yet to be revealed.
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