'I sucked': Michael Keaton says he let Tim Burton down with Dumbo performance

Michael Keaton feels like he "sucked" in Tim Burton's 'Dumbo'.

The 72-year-old actor starred in the 2019 live-action remake of the classic Disney flick as the villainous V.A. Vandevere, though has now admitted he feels like he disappointed the director with his lacklustre performance.

He told The New York Times: "I think I let him down on one movie, but that’s just me, and it bugs me to this day.

"I was clueless on 'Dumbo'. I sucked in 'Dumbo'."

Burton added: "I don’t even know what you’re talking about. But whatever."

The pair have reunited for 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' – the legacy sequel to the 1988 comedy classic which sees Keaton reprise his role as the titular foul-mouthed ghost.

Although the 'Edward Scissorhands' filmmaker wanted to move the feature's story and universe forward with the upcoming picture, Burton insisted he wanted to keep Beetlejuice as "politically incorrect" as possible.

Speaking to Collider, he said: "I think Michael and I both love the fact that he was politically incorrect then, and he's politically incorrect now. I’m just laughing because somebody asked him the other day, 'Michael, how does Beetlejuice's character evolve?' And we just started laughing because he doesn't evolve — that's the whole point!"

The 'Batman' actor - who stars alongside Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe in the film- added the sequel would include a lot of "big swings" but said that the cast and crew had to be "a tiny, tiny, tiny bit more politically correct" in the new movie.

He explained: "There was a lot of [big swings] in the first one. It was like one gigantic big swing. Less so now because we knew we could get away with more.

"It's weird, we had to be a tiny, tiny, tiny, bit more politically correct, but we didn't even think about that too much. A couple of times, we went, 'Yeah, maybe not,' and then we went right up to it."