Burton’s Demons

As weird and wonderful film director Tim Burton’s take on ‘Alice in Wonderland’ opens, he talks to The Independent about the origins of his demons and original outlook. “Recalling his formative years in suburbia he says: ‘I was always a loner and spent a lot of time by myself, making up stories and that kind of thing. We lived near a cemetery, so I’d like to go there and wonder about the scary guy who dug graves. I never really hung out with other kids and always found it difficult to really connect with people, in particular, girls. Looking back, it’s kinda scary how solitary I was. I think if you’ve ever had that feeling of loneliness, of being an outsider, it never quite leaves you. You can be happy or successful or whatever, but that thing still stays within you. Growing up, I had these two windows in my room, nice windows that looked out on to the lawn, and for some reason my parents walled them up and gave me this little slit window that I had to climb up on a desk to see out of. I never did ask them why. But my parents are dead now, so I guess the question will remain unanswered as to why they sealed me in a room. I guess they just didn’t want me to escape. I don’t know. In movies you kind of work out your issues, but then you realise that those kind of traumatic issues stay with you forever so somehow they kind of keep recurring. No matter how hard I try to get them out of my head, they sort of stay there.”