He’s faced criticism in the past
Tim Burton has previously spoken out about why his films feature predominantly white casts as some people have branded the Beetlejuice sequel ‘racist.’
Burton is one of the most popular film figures in American cinema, famous for films such as Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands.
But he has faced criticism in the past for his films having a lack of representation and featuring predominantly white casts.
The criticism dates back to The Nightmare Before Christmas, which has been criticised for its villain, Oogie Boogie. One of the film’s screenwriters, Caroline Thompson, fell out with Burton over the character due to the fact Oogie Boogie is a derogatory term for African Americans in the American South, the Independent reports.
In more recent years, Burton has been criticised for not featuring Black actors in his films. According to Bustle, the first time a Black actor was cast in a lead role in a Burton movie was in the 2016 film Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, when Samuel L. Jackson played the role of villain Baron.
The film was also criticised for its lack of diversity.
Burton’s latest film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, was released last month. A sequel to his 1988 cult classic Beetlejuice, the movie has received largely positive reviews so far.
But Burton has faced criticism again from some online, who have labelled one scene in the film ‘racist.’
IGV reports that the scene that has come under fire is when main character Astrid Deetz, played by Jenna Ortega, is doomed to the the ‘Soul Train’ on the way to the Great Beyond.
The scene is a nod to the musical variety TV show Soul Train, which debuted on a local Chicago network in 1970, and celebrated R&B, soul and hip-hop.
However, given the criticism Burton has faced for previous projects, some believe the scene is disingenuous.
One TikToker said the scene felt “in your face and obvious.” They continued: “On surface level the scene is fine, but when you look under that though it felt suspicious.
“It really just felt as if that is how Tim Burton used those who look like me, and it just felt ‘ist’ and you know which ‘ist’ I mean.
“When you go past the surface level there is something very inherently wrong with it.”
Others agreed, with one person writing: “While I was watching the movie, my thoughts were ‘He finally hired a lot of Black actors but why only for this segment of the movie?’”
Another said: “During those scenes, I felt like it was weirdly disjointed and weirdly shoehorned into the story.”
A third commented: “I’m not Black but I felt like the scene was kind of racist.”
Addressing criticism for his casts back in 2016, the director said: “Nowadays, people are talking about it more.
“I remember back when I was a child watching The Brady Bunch and they started to get all politically correct. Like, okay, let’s have an Asian child and a Black.
“I used to get more offended by that than just… I grew up watching blaxploitation movies, right? And I said that’s great. I didn’t go like, okay, there should be more white people in these movies.”
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is currently being shown in cinemas across the UK. The film has grossed more than $190m worldwide and holds a score of 77 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.
