As an adolescent misfit, Hadley Freeman fell in love with the warped movie worlds of Tim Burton. What happened when she met Danny DeVito, Colin Farrell and her idol himself?
When I was an oversensitive, confusedly furious and faintly morbid teenager in the 90s, there was one film director who seemed to know my soul better than anyone. And that director was, of course, Tim Burton. Pee-wees Big Adventure was the first of his films I saw, after being taken by a friends mother, who mistakenly thought it would be a typical kids movie as opposed to one of the more slyly subversive takes on modern US life. I was far too young to appreciate all the jokes, but there was something about the colours, the hyperrealism and the Danny Elfman music that intrigued me. It was like being kissed for the first time: you dont really get whats happening, but youd definitely like to investigate further.
By the time Burtons great late-80s and 90s films came along Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns and Ed Wood (surely one of the greatest movie runs of any modern director), I was primed to fall headlong in love. It is hard to think of another clutch of films that capture in a more heartfelt way what it feels like to see yourself as a freakish outsider. As I entered a rocky puberty, followed by disastrous teenage years, these movies were like my internal soundtrack, each one investigating the subject more deeply as my own hormonal misery deepened.
Something else was kicking in for me, too. I was starting to see how Burtons movies linked together visually: the model towns, the holes in the roofs, the black-and-white stripes. Even the characters Jack Nicholsons Joker is recognisably an evolution of Michael Keatons Beetlejuice. And I loved seeing Keaton move from Beetlejuice to Batman, playing the weirdo in both. Burton was then considered something of an anomaly in Hollywood, the opposite to your usual director. But the truth is, he taught me how to watch movies.
Looking back at the few photos I allowed to be taken of me during my teenage years, I noticed that the fictional character I most closely resembled was Allison, the self-consciously weird outsider played by Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club. But as I entered my 15th year by then refusing to brush my hair and finding myself riddled with, among other things, OCDs that made me fearful of touching anything, and left my hands cracked and bleeding from compulsive overwashing the one I related to most deeply was Edward Scissorhands. When I read in what was then one of my most treasured books, Fabers Burton on Burton, that when Burton was younger he was so unhappy he used to hide in the closet, pull at his wisdom teeth and bleed all over his office, I knew for sure I had found a kindred soul.
Its not so much that Burton was my childlike thing I put away as an adult, but there did come a point when we outgrew one another. I stuck with him up to Sleepy Hollow because, even if I didnt love Johnny Depp as much as I did Michael Keaton, I still got such a kick out of seeing Burtons signature in every frame and because I thought (and still think) that making visually bland movies is analogous to writing only in cliche. You are disrespecting your audience by serving up such thoughtless, personality-free fare. Burton taught me that.
But with Sleepy Hollow, it began to feel like what had once made Burton feel distinctive was calcifying into a cliche itself. Then he entered what we Burton fans call the dark ages Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and we clung to promises that his next film would be a return to form, the way Woody Allen fans once did.
Recently, he has returned to form, although, for me, seeing movies such as Dark Shadows and Big Eyes is a bit like meeting up with your teenage boyfriend: youre glad things have worked out for them, but you feel a little wistful for the lost youthful magic; something that has much to do with you as it does with them. But Burtons earlier films still touch a tender part of my heart. When Batman Returns came out in 1992, it was widely deemed a bit of a disappointment compared with the original film, largely, I think, because people felt there were too many characters (ie two villains), a complaint that seems adorably quaint now that we are in the era of endless X-Men spin-offs. But when I watch it now, I find it thrilling to see Burton allied with such obviously kindred spirits, namely Keaton and Danny DeVito, who so effectively embodied his vision that they changed their own images for ever.
And Burton obviously loved both of them, working with DeVito two more times, in Mars Attacks! and Big Fish. So, although I wasnt wildly overexcited when I heard that Burton was directing Dumbo (another Disney remake just what the world needs), my inner teenager melted a little when I heard that DeVito and Keaton would be working with him. And when I was then asked if I would like to spend a day on the set watching Burton directing it, my inner teenager became my desperately overexcited outer adult, and I was on the next bus to Pinewood studios, in the incongruously uncinematic setting of Slough.
If Burton was ever going to direct a straightforward childrens movie, then Dumbo the story of a freakish outsider is clearly a more natural fit for him than, say, Cinderella. And judging from the storyboards I am shown backstage, this one seems sweeter and more geared to children than his Alice in Wonderland was: the sets are all in very un-Burtonesque warm and cheerful colours. There is even a happy parade of pink elephants, a last-minute reference to the 1941 cartoon.
When you work with Tim, you always pay homage to Tim. But with this movie, I didnt put in any of the expected touches, not even a black-and-white stripe, says Colleen Atwood, the films costume designer, and regular Burton collaborator.
Its not fair to have complained in one breath about Burton repeating himself and in the next to whinge that a movie doesnt look sufficiently Burtonesque, so I force myself not to miss the old gothic monochrome too much. And the sets and costumes do look undeniably beautiful, or as Colin Farrell puts it more succinctly when he walks in and does a double-take at all the costumes on their rails: Oh, fuck!
Farrell plays Holt, Dumbos handler, and he proves himself to be a fully paid-up member of the Burton fanclub when he immediately, and somewhat randomly, starts talking about images of Burtons childhood you can find online: Have you seen that one of him from when he was 10 or so, and hes wearing a Halloween costume that is straight out of The Nightmare Before Christmas? Its such a touching testament to how those images in childhood bed into you, and he gets that
When I ask if Burton reminds him of anyone else he has worked with, Farrell instantly names Yorgos Lanthimos, with whom he worked on The Lobster and The Killing of the Sacred Deer: With Yorgos, the work almost destroys him. I dont even know if he sleeps during the shoot. And Tim is emotionally, physically and intellectually invested in every detail. After all this time, he still cares about EVERYTHING. One of the things that surprised me is how much actual set there is here. You know, I was talking to someone from the [live action] Lion King and, Im sure it will look beautiful, but theres nothing on set [because its all CGI]. Its just a fucking cameraman and some green screen. But we have a whole big top here!
At this point, something more vaudevillian than Burtonesque happens (or maybe its just the revenge of the Lion King): Farrells wooden chair breaks underneath him. Farrell braces his elbows on the table as it breaks, so he doesnt fall on the floor, but rather stays in a seated position above a vanished chair. 20th Century Fox better pay for this, he grins, utterly unflustered. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a movie star.
DeVito, still in costume as the circus ringmaster, comes into the dressing room. Some actors look disappointingly different off-screen, but he looks even more DeVitoesque in person, wearing a top hat about twice as tall as he is.
Wheres the Guardian? I love the Guardian! You like my hat? Hahaha! he cackles. Right, which ones the trick chair? Youre not gonna get me like you got Colin!
This is DeVito and Burtons third film together fourth if you count Burtons cameo as a corpse in DeVitos movie Hoffa, which DeVito very much does: Wasnt that cool? Theres Tim!
Is Burton the director he has worked with the most? Mmm I think so. Well, except Ingmar Bergman. Ha!
In Burtons films, DeVito invariably plays a top-hatted impresario. Why does he think Burton associates him so closely with top hats? Ha! I dont know. I just feel like Im part of the palette Kandinskys world, because Tim is an artist.
So no worry about repeating himself? Oh God, no. And its really fun that Michael [Keaton]s here, too, because, unlike in Batman Returns, this time hes the bad guy and Im the good one, so thats progression. Ha! Also, I get a naked scene in this. Did you know that? Im in the bathtub. In Big Fish, you got to see my tush, so when Tim said: Danny, theres a naked scene in Dumbo I was like: Sign me up! Anyway, gotta go. Ill keep reading the Guardian! Ha!
DeVito has to film the last scene in the movie, and I follow him out on to an enormous stage set, mocked up to look like the most lavish fantasy circus of any childs dream, replete with a marching band and acrobats. There are 350 brightly costumed extras, half as many as in other circus scenes. DeVito jokes around with them, keeping spirits up during the boring technical adjustments. The whole tent is a rainbow of sepia-tinted colours, except for one small square black tent in the middle which is, inevitably, where Burton is based. He pops out of the tent, all in black, a beetle among fireflies, and pats DeVito on the shoulder. You just start when youre ready, he says exploiting the kind of mutual trust that can only come from a 25-year working relationship.
But DeVito keeps fluffing his short line, promising the circus audience advancements instead of amazements.
Burton laughs: Never mind! Action!
DeVito continues to garble the line. At last, he gets it. I vote for that one! That was the best take yet! he crows.
What are you doing here? Star Wars is just across the road, you know, ha-ha! Burton says, suddenly appearing next to me, unexpectedly tall and even more unexpectedly cheerful. I cant really talk about the movie because I dont know if its a comedy or drama yet. I never do. Ill let you know when Im done, he says, slipping back into his tent.
Burton has to go back to work and I have to go home. I no longer need Burton, or any film director, to understand my soul, but as I sit on the bus looking out the window at the landmarks of Slough, I think about how I got to spend the day, watching Burton direct DeVito, 25 years after I fell in love with Batman Returns. As Farrell said, the images from our childhood bed in for ever, and Burtons movies will always be among those bedded-in images for me. I suspect hed hate being told that, but I know hed understand.
Dumbo is released on 29 March
