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Tim Burton has had a retrospective museum exhibit touring for 10 years. It includes everything from drawings, paintings, character sketches, recreations of his studio, and some work from frequent film collaborators, like costume designer Colleen Atwood. There are about 600 items in total. The exhibit has gone to 14 cities in 11 countries (it was in Turin, Italy last year when he was forced to take a hiatus filming Beetlejuice Beetlejuice because of the actors strike), and is now making its last stop in his hometown of 20 years, London. The World of Tim Burton is now open at the Design Museum, features 90 new objects, and will run for six months. Tim took some time off from filming the second season of Wednesday to visit and promote the final show opening. He talked to BBC News about what makes him depressed (the Internet), what makes him happy (clouds and dinosaur models), and the humane emotions of monsters:
The internet makes him short circuit: “If I look at the internet, I found that I got quite depressed,” the 66-year-old said. “It scared me because I started to go down a dark hole. So I try to avoid it, because it doesn’t make me feel good.” … Reflecting on his use of the internet, Burton said: “I get depressed very quickly, maybe more quickly than other people. But it doesn’t take me much to start to click and start to short circuit.”
Head in the clouds: The film-maker said keeping busy and doing simple things such as looking at clouds helps him feel better. As does his collection of ten giant dinosaur models that he keeps in his backyard including a 20ft T-Rex. Burton pulls out his mobile phone and proudly shows us a picture of a 50-foot Brontosaurus. He buys the ones you find at amusement parks, adding that actor Nicolas Cage has “real ones”.
He likes monsters because they’re emotional: “It was very clear from King Kong to Frankenstein to Creature from the Black Lagoon that all the monsters were the most emotional. The humans were the ones that scared me,” he said. “They were the angry villagers in Frankenstein — like the internet — these nameless faces [Burton makes monster roaring noises] and the monster always had the most emotion and most feeling even though they’re looked upon as a certain way. “Every monster usually has some kind of pathos and some kind of humanity” that the humans lacked he added.
Hollywood is Alice in Wonderland: He admits to feeling invigorated with recent successes of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and the Netflix series Wednesday, of which he directed four episodes. “The Hollywood journey is an Alice in Wonderland kind of journey. You go up, you go down, you go sideways. That’s the way it is,” he said. “What I realize now, maybe because I’m older as well, is OK I’m just gonna do what I want. And if you want to do it, fine. If not, then you don’t have to go on this journey with me”.
Don’t ‘esque’ him! However when discussing his success, Burton tells us that he rejects the term “Burtonesque” even though it’s widely used in popular culture to describe his oeuvre. “I never liked that,” he says firmly. “I don’t want to become a thing. It’s taken me my whole life to try to be something like resembling human”.
Oh, Tim. He’s just an emotional monster trying to process his feelings through art! I don’t know how to convince kids to get off the Internet and stare at clouds instead, but it’s a very endearing image to picture mid-60’s Tim stepping outside to calm down by looking up. But really, I’m gonna need a lot more information about this model dinosaur business. He has 10 giant dinos in his city backyard?! Is he living in one of the vacant palaces? Bitches from London, is it typical to have enough outdoor space to house a dozen 20 to 50 foot tall structures? And look, as a childless dog lady, it’s been awhile since I’ve visited an amusement park. But I do not recall big dinosaurs being a part of the scenery.
Anyway, I wish I were in London to see the show. I’m a big fan of his 2D artwork, especially his sketches and watercolors. The show runs until April 21, and then it’s all over. I’m still holding out hope that the stolen Beetlejuice sculpture will finally be recovered, and join the exhibit for the last few months.
Photos credit: Lucy Harvey / Avalon
