'I'd had enough': Tim Burton was disillusioned with the film industry before Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

31 May 2024

Tim Burton had "lost interest" in movies before making 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'.

Tim Burton had 'lost interest' in making movies before Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

The 65-year-old director has returned to helm the long-awaited sequel to the 1988 horror comedy 'Beetlejuice' but confessed that he felt disillusioned with the industry prior to the project.

In an interview with Empire magazine, Tim said: "I actually had sort of lost interest in the movie industry. I felt like I'd kind of had enough with studios. I'd had enough of all this kind of stuff."

Burton explained that a significant appeal of the sequel was the focus on Winona Ryder's character Lydia Deetz rather than Michael Keaton's titular ghost.

The 'Edward Scissorhands' filmmaker said: "From that first (film), I really identified with Lydia. It was a character that I understood, that I felt very strongly about.

"The new film becomes very personal to me, through the Lydia character. What happened to Lydia? You know, what happens to people? What happens to all of us?

"What's your journey from a gothic kind of weird teenager to what happens to you 35 years later?"

Burton explained that he could relate to Lydia on a personal level as he has grown older.

He said: "Sometimes, as you get older, you lose yourself a little bit. That's very much how I feel, and felt.

"You go down a path – for me, I started making movies, I make some good ones, I make some bad, you take a journey. So that's what made this more of an important and personal thing for me, all those feelings.

"You have relationships that change you, you have kids that change you. After all these years, that became the reason to make it. I identified with Lydia back then, and I identify with her now."