Beetlejuice director says the internet makes him feel depressed

Director Tim Burton has revealed that being on the internet makes him feel “quite depressed”.

Ahead of the opening of a serious profession retrospective in London, he informed BBC News: “Anybody who knows me knows I’m a bit of a technophobe.

“If I take a look at the internet, I discovered that I bought fairly depressed,” the 66-year-old said. “It scared me as a result of I began to go down a darkish gap. So I attempt to keep away from it, as a result of it would not make me feel good.”

The World of Tim Burton at the Design Museum features 600 items which organisers say give “a uncommon personal glimpse into his inventive course of” and goes on display in the UK for the first time on Friday.

Burton is best-known for directing films such as Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland, as well as Beetlejuice and its recent sequel.

Reflecting on his use of the internet, Burton said: “I get depressed in a short time, possibly extra shortly than different folks. But it would not take me a lot to begin to click on and begin to quick circuit.”

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 “actual ones”.

Burton was born in a California suburb just outside of Los Angeles but has lived in London for the past 20 years.

“I used to be a foreigner in my very own nation,” he told the BBC when asked about adopting the UK capital. “When I got here right here, at the same time as a foreigner, I felt extra at house, as a result of that is the place I feel snug”.

Burton has long been considered a “tortured outcast” and self-declared “weirdo”. As a child, he channelled his creativity into art and grew up watching classic horror movies and creature features which developed his love for monsters.

“It was very clear from King Kong to Frankenstein to Creature from the Black Lagoon that each one the monsters have been the most emotional. The people have been the ones that scared me,” he mentioned.

“They have been the indignant villagers in Frankenstein – like the internet – these anonymous faces [Burton makes monster roaring noises] and the monster at all times had the most emotion and most feeling though they’re appeared upon as a sure means.

“Every monster usually has some kind of pathos and some kind of humanity” that the people lacked he added.

Objects linked to movies starting from Catwoman to Corpse Bride have been loaned to the new exhibition from Burton’s private archives, movie studios, and personal collections of collaborators comparable to the designer Colleen Atwood.

What nonetheless scares Burton are the fast developments in synthetic intelligence.

“It’s something I can’t even quite fathom,” he mentioned, earlier than referring to an incident final yr the place AI was used to remodel Disney characters into Burton-style characters.

“Until it happens to you, really don’t understand it. But it was quite disturbing: intellectually and emotionally disturbing. It felt like my soul had been taken from me.

“It’s like when different cultures say, ‘oh, do not take my image, since you’re taking away my soul’. And that is how it’s. It’s one thing that is robbing you of humanity.

“All I can say is, like, I understand these other cultures when they feel like your soul is being sucked”.

Burton first started working as an apprentice animator at Disney and made immense contributions to stop-motion animation earlier than happening to direct blockbusters comparable to Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992).

When requested whether or not he would return to directing a movie from the superhero style, his response was a fast “no”.

“It felt new at the time,” he displays. “There was pressure because it was a big movie and it was a different interpretation of comic books. So that was a pressure, but it wasn’t the pressure that you would experience now.”

Burton demurs when requested about what he desires to shoot subsequent. Perhaps the horror traditional Frankenstein?

“No, no,” he laughs. “I’ve done my version with a dog [referring to his 2012 film Frankenweenie]. That’s fine.”

He admits to feeling invigorated with current successes of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and the Netflix sequence Wednesday, of which he directed 4 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 mentioned.

“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”.

More than 32,000 folks purchased advance tickets to The World of Tim Burton, making this the largest ever ticket pre-sale in the Design Museum’s 35-year historical past.

The exhibition has been staged in 14 cities in 11 international locations since 2014. But the London model shows greater than 90 objects which might be new.

Visitors may even be capable to see a recreation of Burton’s personal studio which features a miniature model of Godzilla on his work desk, reflecting his love of Japanese Kaiju movies.

But Burton had initially resisted permitting the exhibition to come back to London.

“It’s a strange thing, to put 50 years of art and your life on view for everyone to see,” he said.

“However, collaborating with the Design Museum for this final stop was the right choice. They understand the art”.

Tim Marlow, CEO of the Design Museum, mentioned: “During his extraordinary career, Tim Burton has harnessed a compelling mixture of gothic horror and black comedy, of melancholy and enchantment, of oddball whimsy and visionary range in the creation of fantastical filmic worlds.”

However when discussing his success, Burton tells us that he rejects the time period “Burtonesque” though it is broadly utilized in common tradition to explain 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”.

The World of Tim Burton runs from 25 October 2024 – 21 April 2025 at the Design Museum in London.