Tim Burton praises actors’ work in “Big Eyes”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Tim Burton has said that the cast of his new film Big Eyes painted such a perfect picture of Margaret Keane's life that she couldn't believe how realistic it was, Belfast Telegraph said.

Big Eyes is about artist Margaret, whose overbearing husband passed off her popular paintings of children with huge eyes as his own work in the 50s and 60s until she took him to court. Director Tim cast Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz as the couple, and said: "When Margaret finally saw it, the best compliments were, 'Wow, that was Walter, that was the feeling'. She was very touched and a little freaked out."

Tim continued of the Keanes: "He had a very demonstrative, big personality and she was the opposite. She's one of the most private, shyest people I've ever met and back then, in the late 50s and 60s, at least in the suburban world, women didn't work.

"She admits she went along with it, and even in the courtroom, she didn't do it for vengeance, she needed this weight lifted. And when she wins, she's not out there on her soapbox - she's the most quiet, under the radar feminist. It wasn't thrown in your face, she was very internal about it. "It's hard to put that on the page. And that's what was amazing about Amy's performance, she was able to show that conflict subtly."

Explaining how he worked with Amy and Christoph, he said: "You try to gauge each actor. You try and get a sense of how each one works or likes to work.

"Christoph approaches something in a completely different way to how Amy does, so you just try and let them each breathe. I used to storyboard everything, but I got to the point where I thought, 'We've got two great actors here...' Sometimes it's good to just let that energy happen."