Michael Keaton recently shared to The New York Times a bit of regret over his performance in Tim Burton’s 2019 live-action “Dumbo” film. The Oscar nominee played a greedy amusement park owner in the film opposite a cast that included Colin Farrell, Eva Green and Danny DeVito. “Dumbo” earned mixed reviews from critics and was seen as a financial disappointment for Disney with just over $350 million at the worldwide box office.
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“I love working with Tim so much, but I don’t think we ever really analyzed why we work pretty well together; we just do,” Keaton told The Times. “I think I let him down on one movie, but that’s just me, and it bugs me to this day. I was clueless on ‘Dumbo.’ I sucked in ‘Dumbo.'”
Burton joined Keaton in The Times interview and butted in to say: “I don’t even know what you’re talking about, but whatever.”
Critics were divided over Keaton’s villainous turn in the movie. Variety’ s Owen Gleiberman wrote in his review that “Keaton’s performance as the dastardly Vandevere is disappointingly thin; he’s a bad guy with a sandpaper voice but no layers.”
Keaton’s disappointment in “Dumbo” mirrors that of Burton, who has been quite honest in the years since the film’s 2019 theatrical release about how making a Disney tentpole of that size was not the most enjoyable experience. In a recent interview with Variety , Burton said he contemplated ending his directing career after the film.
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“Honestly, after ‘Dumbo,’ I really didn’t know,” Burton said. “I thought that could have been it, really. I could have retired, or become… well, I wouldn’t have become an animator again, that’s over.”
Burton credited the upcoming “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” for “reenergizing” his interest in filmmaking, adding: “Oftentimes, when you get into Hollywood, you try to be responsible to what you’re doing with the budget and everything else but sometimes you might lose yourself a little bit. This reinforced the feeling for me that it’s important that I do what I want to do, because then everybody will benefit.”
Speaking at the 2019 at the Lumière Festival , Burton said, “The thing about ‘Dumbo’ is that’s why I think my days with Disney are done. I realized that I was Dumbo, that I was working in this horrible big circus and I needed to escape. That movie is quite autobiographical at a certain level.”
Keaton and Burton have been longtime friends and collaborators having worked together on “Beetlejuice,” “Batman,” “Batman Returns,” “Dumbo” and “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” The latter is opening in theaters Sept. 6 from Warner Bros.
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