Michael Keaton is an Academy Award-nominated actor who has been in numerous high-profile films that have both wowed critics and been massive box office hits. He’s been both Batman and Birdman. He’s been number one at the box office and in movies that were named Best Picture. To say Keaton is a great actor is an understatement, but there’s at least one time when the actor himself believes he sucked.
Michael Keaton and Tim Burton have worked together several times. After they stole the show together in the original Beetlejuice, he starred in both of Burton's Batman movies. Now, on the eve of the pair returning for the upcoming Beetlejuice sequel, Keaton says there was one time he let his director and friend down. Keaton thinks he “sucked in Dumbo.” He told the New York Times…
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. 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.
The last time Michael Keaton and Tim Burton worked together was on Burton’s last film. Keaton played the role of V.A. Vandevere in Disney’s remake of Dumbo. He is the film's antagonist, who obtains Dumbo as an attraction for his entertainment venue but then mistreats the elephant under his care. Burton had helped launch the massive franchise of Disney live-action remakes with Alice in Wonderland, but Dumbo failed to find the same sort of box office success.
It’s unclear exactly what Keaton thinks he didn’t do right in Dumbo. His being “clueless” could be a reference to him not understanding something about the character he was playing or some other element of the production like the visual effects.
One would think that if this were the case, the director would step in and help him out if there was something the actor didn’t get. It sounds like that didn’t happen because the director was perfectly happy with Keaton's performance. Tim Burton is in the interview alongside the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star, and bluntly responds to the assertion that Keaton sucked with…
I don’t even know what you’re talking about, but whatever.
For what it’s worth I’m absolutely with Tim Burton on this one. While the Dumbo movie isn't the best Disney live-action remake or the best Tim Burton movie, Michael Keaton is far and away the highlight of the remake and a big part of the reason the film is as good as it is. He has the most exciting and interesting role in the entire film. He basically plays the evil Walt Disney, which is a bold move that few actors could really pull off. Michael Keaton is one of them.
If Keaton‘s performance in Dumbo is one where the actor is terrible, then it only goes to show just how good an actor Keaton is. Even when he sucks, he’s still pretty great.
