Intuitive tim has a fan in Colin

Actor Colin Farrell says working with Tim Burton on Dumbo was an “absolute joy” as the director has imbued the story with a “pervasive sweetness”.

Calling the filmmaker “intuitive”, the actor said Burton was the best person to direct the live-action remake of Disney’s 1941 animated classic.

“He really is so intuitive. Obviously, the story is imbued with an incredible sweetness – there’s this pervasive sweetness and sense of hope and playfulness to the whole thing. It could dip into the realm of being too sickly sweet, but Tim is constantly looking to pull it back. He has a high regard for the audience and doesn’t want to beat them over the head with the sweetness of the film.”

He goes on to add, “Having said all that, he has designed these incredible worlds, and the sets I’ve been on daily are like nothing I’ve ever seen. They’re so beautiful and so evocative, and if you have any sense of a child inside you, that’s provoked as soon as you walk on set. Tim’s incredibly engaged in the whole storytelling process. He’s feeling and breathing and thinking his way through everything the characters are going through onscreen. He’s just extraordinary to watch.”

In the film, the actor plays Holt Farrier, a former circus star who finds his life turned upside down when he returns from World War I. He has lost his wife and his circus act, and struggles to connect with his children.

The Lobster (2015) actor shared he has been a fan of the director ever since he saw his Edward Scissorhands (1990). “When I heard he was doing ‘Dumbo’, it seemed like such a beautiful marriage of magical, fantastical material and a director who’s so renowned for his incredible imagination and artistic virtue. [Saying yes] was a nobrainer,” the actor said about the film, which is the first collaboration between the actor and the director.

Actor Colin Farrell says Dumbo director Tim Burton (inset) has imbued the film with a ‘pervasive sweetness’