Tim Minchin Talks Recent Career Devastation, #MeToo, and Confirms an Australian Production of GROUNDHOG DAY

The Guardian recently chatted with Tim Minchin, known best on Broadway for composing and writing the lyrics for Matilda and Groundhog Day, to talk about Squinters, an upcoming ABC TV comedy Minchin will be starring in. Minchin also talks about his recent career devastation, politics, and his thoughts on the #MeToo movement.

Minchin has just made the move from Los Angeles to Australia a day before the interview, immediately commenting, "It's awful living there with Trump. I'm so glad I'm [out of that country]. I think it's really broken."

The past year, Minchin's career turned for the worst when the film he had moved to L.A. for and spent four years on was scrapped in March after Comcast acquired DreamWorks. Larrikins was supposed to be an animated musical starring Hugh Jackman.

"I said no to a tour every year, to two or three different fantastic Broadway projects, to TV shows," Minchin said of his sacrifices for the film. "I said no to so much, because I went, 'I'm the director of a $100m movie and it will all be worth it.' And then, just binned. It was unbearable."

Not long after, Minchin found out that his musical Groundhog Day would be closing on Broadway. "I thought that show was f-ing amazing," he said. "So that was even more heartbreaking."

Minchin assures that, like Matilda, Groundhog Day will be coming to Australia and he insists "it will be amazing."

When asked about the #MeToo movement, which he watched unfold during his time living in LA, Minchin commented, "That's a huge conversation. I think it's going to do us a sum total of good."

"I guess I feel scared that I'm going to get hurt," he said. "But I keep saying to myself, 'Don't be such a f-ing narcissist, it's not about you. This isn't the time for powerful white men to have thoughts about that topic.'"

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Photo Credit: Walter McBride