Tim Burton is airing out his issues with Disney.
During a recent press conference, Burton criticized Disney for becoming “very homogenized” and said that the studio is only focused on the Marvel, “Star Wars” or Pixar films.
Burton also admitted he was “fired” by the studio several times throughout his career.
“My history is that I started out there,” Burton said. “I was hired and fired like several times throughout my career there. The thing about ‘Dumbo’ is that’s why I think my days with Disney are done. I realized that I was Dumbo, that I was working in this horrible, big circus and I needed to escape. That movie is quite autobiographical at a certain level.”
A representative for Disney did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Tim Burton said he might be “done” working with Disney following his experience filming the “Dumbo” remake.
(Sylvain Lefevre/Getty Images)
A crisis and PR expert explained to Fox News Digital that the studio’s consumers and customers likely aren’t concerned about who will or won’t work with Disney.
“Disney has weathered its share of crises, and it will continue to,” said Dave Quast, senior vice president of Red Banyan.
“Disney’s customers are likely much more concerned about whether their kids enjoy Disney movies and whether they can afford to take their kids to theme parks with sky-high ticket prices than they are about movie studio ‘inside baseball.'”
TIM BURTON MIGHT BE ‘DONE’ WORKING WITH DISNEY AFTER ‘HORRIBLE BIG CIRCUS’ FILMING ‘DUMBO’
However, Burton isn’t the only A-lister who has had issues with Disney.
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp has said he won’t ever return to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise after feeling betrayed by Disney.
(AP, File)
Johnny Depp said he was fired from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise after ex-wife Amber Heard wrote an op-ed in which she hinted that she was a victim of domestic violence.
(Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
Johnny Depp was fired from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise in 2018. The actor argued during his 2022 trial against ex-wife Amber Heard that the op-ed she wrote in the Washington Post led to his firing.
Heard had written an article that claimed she was a victim of domestic violence. Although she didn’t mention Depp by name, the actor argued that the article had ruined his career.
Despite gossip that the actor would return to the franchise, Depp shut down the idea during his trial testimony.
“If Disney came to you with $300 million and a million alpacas, nothing on this earth would get you to go back and work with Disney on a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ film, correct?” Heard’s attorney asked during the actor’s testimony – referencing a report that had surfaced in the media that claimed Depp would return as Captain Jack Sparrow.
“That is true,” he replied.
Depp went on to tell his own lawyer, Camille Vasquez, that he felt betrayed by Disney.
Depp was awarded $10.35 million in damages after a jury found that Heard had defamed him.
Hilary Duff
Hilary Duff and Disney parted ways after a “The Lizzie McGuire Movie” reboot failed to materialize. The actress shared a message to Instagram seemingly revealing that she and the studio had different ideas for the show.
(Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Epic)
While Hilary Duff didn’t outright criticize Disney, she made it clear in 2020 that she had a disagreement with the major studio.
“Was incredibly excited to launch ‘Lizzie’ on D+ and my passion remains,” Duff wrote in an Instagram post at the time. “However, I feel a huge responsibility to honor the fans’ relationship with Lizzie who, like me, grew up seeing themselves in her. I’d be doing a disservice to everyone by limiting the realities of a 30-year-old’s journey to live under the ceiling of a PG rating.”
“It’s important to me that just as her experiences as a preteen/teenager navigating life were authentic, her next chapters are equally as real and relatable,” she added. “It would be a dream if Disney would let us move the show to Hulu, if they were interested, and I could bring this beloved character to life again.”
However, the project never saw the light of day.
HILARY DUFF REVEALS THE ‘LIZZIE MCGUIRE’ REVIVAL IS NOT HAPPENING AFTER FAILING TO AGREE WITH DISNEY
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus has seemingly said that she was taken advantage of while working for Disney Channel.
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Miley Cyrus starred on “Hannah Montana” from 2006 until 2011.
(Bob D’Amico/Disney Channel)
Miley Cyrus starred on Disney Channel from 2006 until 2011 in the hit show “Hannah Montana.” In 2016, she revealed that she was the “least paid person” on the teen show and hinted that people might have been taking “advantage” of her.
“I just wanted to be on TV,” Cyrus told Elle magazine. “I mean, at one point – they’ll probably kill me for saying it – I was probably the least paid person on my [‘Hannah Montana’] cast because I didn’t know any better. I was just like, ‘I can be on Disney. Yeah, I want to do it.’ My name was Miley on my show, but I didn’t own my name – we didn’t think about that. Like, ‘Yeah, you can use my name on your show, sure.'”
“My mom started understanding how many people take advantage of a child, so she hired smart people to protect me in that way,” Cyrus continued. “I’m happy that when I was younger, people protected me and put me in a position where I can now control my music.”
Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez has said that she felt that she had “signed [her] life away” when working for Disney.
(Phillip Faraone/Getty Images)
Selena Gomez starred as Alex Russo in “Wizards of Waverly Place.”
(Eric McCandless/Disney Channel via Getty Images)
Selena Gomez has also shared a similar sentiment when it comes to Disney.
“I signed my life away to Disney at a very young age, so I didn’t know exactly what I was doing,” Gomez said during the virtual Hulu panels of the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in 2021.
The star was promoting her new series, “Only Murders in the Building,” in which she actually played a character her own age.
“The level of sophistication of the material is the first reason why I wanted to do this,” Gomez continued at the time. “But when I was a kid, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just running around on set, and now I just feel like a sponge and I soak up all the wisdom that I can.”
She added, “It’s … really nice to be back on TV, and it’s nice to be cast as my actual age, which never happens. So, I am very happy to be doing this. I was just a kid. I didn’t know what I was thinking.”
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Oscar Isaac
Oscar Isaac claimed that a chance to show an LGBTQ relationship on-screen in a “Star Wars” film was shot down by the “Disney overlords.”
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Oscar Isaac characterized the studio as “Disney overlords” while promoting “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” The film was released in 2019.
The actor had seemingly pushed for a romantic relationship between his character, Poe Dameron, and John Boyega’s Finn, but Disney shot down the idea.
“I think there could’ve been a very interesting, forward-thinking – not even forward-thinking, just, like, current-thinking – love story there, something that hadn’t quite been explored yet, particularly the dynamic between these two men in war that could’ve fallen in love with each other,” Isaac told IGN at the time.
“I would try to push it a bit in that direction, but the Disney overlords were not ready to do that.”
Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato previously claimed that she was “overworked” by Disney.
(RB/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images via Getty Images)
Demi Lovato has also spoken out about her issues with Disney and her childhood stardom.
“I’ll always look at child stardom, at what I went through, as something traumatic for me,” Lovato told Spin. “No child should ever be in the limelight. It’s too much pressure. There’s an absence of childhood that you never get to experience. It makes things confusing because you develop problems from that experience, whether it’s addiction or trust issues or financial stress. It follows you into adulthood.”
The “Camp Rock” star also has claimed that she was “overworked” during her time at Disney.
“I would have people over for meetings on my lunch breaks because that’s how much I worked,” she recalled during a 2020 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “People would come in and I’d be covered in a blanket on the couch, and people would say, ‘Why is it 80 degrees in here?’ I would be like, ‘Because I’m freezing.’ They would be like, ‘Oh, my God, what’s wrong with you?'”
“I had an eating disorder, and I was underweight and freezing,” she added.
Lovato had claimed she wasn’t sleeping while filming “Sonny With a Chance” and that her schedule made her “angry.”
“I was so miserable and angry, too, because I felt like I was being overworked,” Lovato said.
