Tim Burton's 'Craziness' Leaves Fans Away

Tim Burton acts "crazy" and talks to himself on the street to stop people from bothering him. The 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' director admits he developed his unusual defense mechanism to avoid constant attention from fans.

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Burton said: "If you want people to leave you alone then appearing to be crazy is a good thing. If you're walking down the street talking to yourself people tend to give you a wide berth!"

"But I've always been blessed with being easily ignored or avoided. I think maybe it's because people think I look a little crazy."

Burton - who has two children, a one-month-old daughter, who he is yet to name, and a four-year-old son Billy, with long-term partner Helena Bonham Carter - claims he has always felt like an "outsider".

The eccentric filmmaker - who is renowned for his surreal, gothic films including 'Sleepy Hollow' and 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' - said: "I have always been an outsider. As a kid I identified with the monsters in the old horror films, like the 'Creature from the Blue Lagoon' and 'Frankenstein.'"