Couple of interviews

ezy · 04-13-2006, 05:00 PM

From: http://www.empireonline.com

In The Libertine, Johnny Depp adds another misfit to his impressive roster of cinematic outsiders. No, not Pete Doherty – John Wilmot, Second Earl Of Rochester, the infamous, hell-raising, alcohol-guzzling 17th century poet and playwright who courted scandal with such ribald works as The Quintessence Of Debauchery, before expiring of syphilis (surprise, surprise) at the age of 33. He was the Shane MacGowan of his day, Johnny tells us…

Rochester is a very interesting character – how aware were you of him before you were sent the script?
It actually, it all came about basically from a phone call about 10 years ago. I got a phone call from [the film’s producer and co-star] John Malkovich who asked if I had any interest in coming to Chicago to see a play he was doing called The Libertine. And obviously I jumped at the opportunity, went to Chicago, saw the play, had dinner with John afterwards and he informed me then that he wanted me to play the part in the film version. And my first reaction was, “Why don’t you do it?” because he was so good. And he basically said, “Well I want you to do it”. So it was at that point that I started learning about Rochester and reading his poems, his books, his plays…

He’s not that massively well-known even the UK. Was part of doing this for you to raise awareness of him?
I definitely wanted to raise awareness of him and at the same time kind of polish up the tarnished image or memory of the guy, cos for the most part for the last few centuries he was often written off as a pornographer or a satirist when in fact I think he was a great poet and a very important poet. He was a very complicated man who never got his fair shake in terms of history. He got a bit of a raw deal, I think. So yeah, it was an opportunity to salute him, you know? Write him a love letter in a way.

At the opening of the film, Rochester tells us, “you will not like me”. Do you think if, via a quirk of time and space, you could meet him today, that you’d like him?
I think so, yeah. I think I’d like him very much. In a lot of ways you can look at people over the years, writers, primarily guys like Jack Kerouac… He was a terrific writer and really changed the way people write. Like Rochester, Kerouac had his own sort of period where he self-medicated quite heavily. Hunter Thompson – you know, Hunter was a great friend a great hero, and another guy who, basically self-medicated. I’m not saying that that’s what everyone should do, but they were kind of… You know, in pain. They were looking for a way to deal with it. Someone else, one of the most important poets I think – for me at least – of the 20th Century is Shane MacGowan. Shane has certainly had a pretty bumpy road, and he has, uh, imbibed. You know? His intake has been pretty impressive over the years, but he’s produced some of the most beautiful lyrics that are a great gift to the world…

Rochester seems the kind of character that seems to interest you – someone who exists or thrives outside of society’s normal parameters. Is that a fair assessment?
Oh, yeah, you know, all my, the majority of my heroes have been almost exactly what you’re just described.

Why do you think you’re attracted to this kind of character?
Well I’ve always rooted for the underdog. I guess the consistent theme in the movies or the characters that I’ve been involved with is the… I guess they’ve been labelled, you know, odd or weird or outside or strange or freakish or whatever one wants to call it. I’ve always been fascinated by what kind of, what society deems as normal and abnormal. Because some of the things that are accepted on a daily basis are pretty strange to me.

Like what?
Well, I mean, even going back to like my childhood, for example, I remember as a kid growing up in the ‘70s and even then thinking the idea of resin grapes was odd. You know, on the table, these fake grapes – basically made of glass or plastic. Or macrame owls… And no one ever noticed, but to me it was strange...

INTERVIEW: DAN JOLIN

ezy · 04-13-2006, 05:01 PM

The Coolest Man In The World ™ for quite a few years now, Johnny Depp really needs no introduction. One of cinema's true mavericks, equally home on a pirate ship or in a Jim Jarmusch movie, his career has been going from strength to strength since Pirates of the Caribbean proved that his particular brand of weird genius could win over a mass audience. Now he's weirding out again as Tim Burton's Willy Wonka in a truly delirious turn. We talk to the man himself

With this role did you enjoy playing a character with almost no social skills?
Yeah I did. He has slightly twisted social skills. It’s good fun playing characters like Wonka and Captain Jack for example, of Raoul Duke from Fear and Loathing, who do things that I would never dream of doing or talk to people in a way that I could never bring myself too. There’s great safety in that in a way, learning to talk like them or be like them.

What was the appeal of playing Wonka? Were you a Gene Wilder fan?
Well I was definitely a Gene Wilder fan but that’s not what dragged me in. I must say that as much as I like Roald Dahl’s works – and the material was one of the seductive elements certainly – but more than anything it was the fact that it was Tim asking me to do it. As soon as he mentioned it and I said yes. I knew there were great risks involved, but that’s one of the exciting things for an actor.

What risks?
It’s a very well loved character both to fans of the book and of Gene Wilder’s brilliant performance in that early film. I knew I had to take it somewhere far away from where Gene Wilder had stomped. Having that amazing material by Roald Dahl and trying to interpret what he might have liked to have seen, what kind of character would he have liked. There’s such darkness and light in that story and such a subversive undertone, such a twisted perverted kind of side to the character that I ran in the direction that just seemed right to me.

What do you think about comparisons to Michael Jackson?
It actually never crossed my mind to be honest. He was never an ingredient or inspiration for the part. I guess on some level I can understand, the look a little bit, but you could just as easily think of some kind of reclusive germophobe like Howard Hughes. Roald Dahl wrote the book and wrote this character in 1964. Michael Jackson was a wee lad then so I don’t think he was his inspiration either.

Who was your inspiration?
When Tim and I talked about doing it there was no script at the time, there was only the book. It was a gift because I could use Roald Dahl’s work for my notes. What I started to think about, in my early research, was that I had these memories of children’s show hosts. When I was a kid, like 5 years old, watching guys like Captain Kangaroo and Mr Roger’s Neighbourhood, I remembered thinking even then how odd the way that they spoke was. That bizarre musical rhythm and cadence to their speech. So I took that and made that one of the main ingredients for Wonka. I was also thinking about game show hosts that I remembered on TV growing up and that perpetual grimace grin. They’re not like that at home; at least I hope they’re not. They go on stage and put a mask on then do their thing then take it off again. The Prince Valiant haircut came to me early when I was doing little sketches of what might be right. I thought of this strange, almost like a Brian Jones bob with really shorts bangs. I was thinking that obviously he’s lived in this self-induced isolation and removed himself from the modern world, so his point of reference would be very very dated. He’d be in the back somewhere. So I thought maybe he’d locked himself in a room with a stack of Herman’s Hermits records. And also that became part of the speech. It would be very dated, like when I talked jive to one of the kids.

Did you test the character on your kids?
It’s funny because normally I would never ever go through the script, and I’d be mortified if I found myself reading as a character. With Wonka I tested it a little bit on my daughter, Lily Rose. It felt like I was going in the right direction. A lot of times what happens is that you come up with these ideas and you never really get to try them until the read through. So you don’t even know the guy until they do the sticks and Tim says action. With Lily Rose I was talking to her one day and many times we’ll play Barbies and she’ll say “Daddy don’t use that voice; just be regular”. One particular time I started to do the Wonka voice a little bit and she started to light up, like "Where’d that come from?" So then I thought I was on the right track

Do you stay in character between takes?
No I never really bought into that. The image that really stays in my head thinking of that is some guy playing Henry VIII and walking over to the craft services table and eating a handful of fritos instead of a chicken leg. I think once you’ve got the character, once you know the guy, it’s pretty simple to slide in and out.

How were the kids?
They were great. For about the first ten days you’d get these (shocked) looks. They’d check each other out and they weren’t quite sure how to deal with it. They caught on and started to enjoy it.

As an actor do you appreciate that Tim does so much on set rather than in the computer?
It makes all the difference in the world because everything’s there. It’s a gift, especially for kids. Imagine these kids who have never been on a movie set before. To have all these things, to see, to touch and in the case of the chocolate river, to smell. It smelled bad. After a couple of weeks it really got funky. I really appreciate that old school way that movies were done a long time and should still be done. I also appreciate that there are times when you must use CGI and it works as a creative tool.

Did you improvise on the film?
Oh yeah, Tim and John August are great about it. It’s some kind of illness. I can’t help myself; I need to do it. If I don’t I feel like I’m held captive or something. There are times when you know that you’re doing it too much and you kind of have to stop yourself, but there are times when I feel very strongly about adding something. The trick is that you can say anything, do a take of anything and then go back to the page.

And you do the same with Captain Jack?
Oh yeah, and Ted and Terry who wrote Pirates were so gracious because there I was, at the read-through, saying, “I’d like to do this, this, this and this, and say this and this.” And they were so sweet about it. Now on Pirates 2 and 3 they’ve been incredibly open to my suggestions and line changes. So it’s been fun.

How is it shooting the two films at the same time?
Well it’s a lengthy process; it’s going to take us a while. As much as we can we’re doing 2, but every now and again you might have to slot something in for 3. The majority of what we’ve done so far has been 2 and then we’ll do 3 after the hiatus.

After working with Tim five times, do you feel like you're his onscreen alter-ego?
Tim was the guy back in 1990. The only other guy who’s gone out on a limb for me was John Waters on Cry Baby. So I’ll always be thankful to John for that. Tim’s risk was quite a bit higher, to cast me as Edward Scissorhands. That’s something I will never forget. I also know that over the years he’s had to knock heads with studios because I wasn’t very popular at studios. He’s fought long and hard battles to get me in and won. So on that side there’s a bond and a love and a respect that will be there forever. The other side is that he happens to be one of the most interesting filmmakers of all time. I just feel really lucky to be chosen by Tim. I don’t know about representing him on screen, but I think we do have a similar outlook on things. Similar sense of humour, sense of the absurd.

You’ve always been a respected actor but you’re now a commercial star. How did that change things?
I’ve never really thought about it so much. Somebody mentioned something about some Forbes list. It just made me laugh. If that’s where they want to put me this week, then great. That doesn’t mean I’ll be there next week. It’ll always change. At the same time, because I’ve always been doing the things that I’ve chosen to do, I feel good for that small core group of people – and I hate to use and won’t use the word ‘fans’ – who have stuck with me all these years. Great masses of people decided to watch Pirates of the Caribbean, which has done great things for me and my career. These people have stuck with me and now I’m happy for them that they don’t have to hang their heads in shame… at least not so much.

Pirates is your first sequel. What was your reason for wanting to revisit this character?
For me there was one reason and one reason only, which was Captain Jack. Just selfishly to have the opportunity to play Captain Jack again. Some people could look at it and say “Aha, Depp’s sold out”. I don’t believe I have and it wasn’t my intention to sell out. But I wanted to play Captain Jack again because he’s so much fun to play and there’s so much more to explore. I’d keep going; if they want to do Pirates 6 and 7, I’m there, why not? In Pirates 2 and 3 you’ll get to see new layers of Captain Jack. You get to see him in different situations; situations that he can’t talk his way out of. There’s a lot of fun stuff.

Is Keith Richards going to be in it?
It’s looking very good. I’ve spoken to Keith about it and he’s been super sweet and keen to do it. It’s look very good but we’re just hoping we can work out the dates with the Stones tour and everything. But if that happens man, talk about a dream come true. Get to be a pirate with Keith Richards? It doesn’t get any better than that.

Are you going to produce your own movies?
Well my sister and I have a little company and we’re looking at a couple of things. We’ve made some fairly recent acquisitions that are pretty exciting. Some I’ll be in and some of them just to see that they get made. Some pretty special stuff. We’re very excited about the new Nick Hornby novel, The Long Way Down, and a great book from an Australian writer named Gregory David Roberts called Shantaram(?), which is a beautiful book. I think I’ll be in Shantaram. It seems like the right thing to do. I’ve spent some time with Greg and it feels like the right thing to do. It’s an area that I haven’t really explored as an actor and I’d like to try.

**KeiraLover** · 04-14-2006, 02:14 PM

Thank you! I cannot wait for the Pirates sequels! I love Captain Jack!

04-13-2006, 05:00 PM	#1 (permalink)
ezy Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 368 My Profile	Couple of interviews From: http://www.empireonline.com In The Libertine, Johnny Depp adds another misfit to his impressive roster of cinematic outsiders. No, not Pete Doherty – John Wilmot, Second Earl Of Rochester, the infamous, hell-raising, alcohol-guzzling 17th century poet and playwright who courted scandal with such ribald works as The Quintessence Of Debauchery, before expiring of syphilis (surprise, surprise) at the age of 33. He was the Shane MacGowan of his day, Johnny tells us… Rochester is a very interesting character – how aware were you of him before you were sent the script? It actually, it all came about basically from a phone call about 10 years ago. I got a phone call from [the film’s producer and co-star] John Malkovich who asked if I had any interest in coming to Chicago to see a play he was doing called The Libertine. And obviously I jumped at the opportunity, went to Chicago, saw the play, had dinner with John afterwards and he informed me then that he wanted me to play the part in the film version. And my first reaction was, “Why don’t you do it?” because he was so good. And he basically said, “Well I want you to do it”. So it was at that point that I started learning about Rochester and reading his poems, his books, his plays… He’s not that massively well-known even the UK. Was part of doing this for you to raise awareness of him? I definitely wanted to raise awareness of him and at the same time kind of polish up the tarnished image or memory of the guy, cos for the most part for the last few centuries he was often written off as a pornographer or a satirist when in fact I think he was a great poet and a very important poet. He was a very complicated man who never got his fair shake in terms of history. He got a bit of a raw deal, I think. So yeah, it was an opportunity to salute him, you know? Write him a love letter in a way. At the opening of the film, Rochester tells us, “you will not like me”. Do you think if, via a quirk of time and space, you could meet him today, that you’d like him? I think so, yeah. I think I’d like him very much. In a lot of ways you can look at people over the years, writers, primarily guys like Jack Kerouac… He was a terrific writer and really changed the way people write. Like Rochester, Kerouac had his own sort of period where he self-medicated quite heavily. Hunter Thompson – you know, Hunter was a great friend a great hero, and another guy who, basically self-medicated. I’m not saying that that’s what everyone should do, but they were kind of… You know, in pain. They were looking for a way to deal with it. Someone else, one of the most important poets I think – for me at least – of the 20th Century is Shane MacGowan. Shane has certainly had a pretty bumpy road, and he has, uh, imbibed. You know? His intake has been pretty impressive over the years, but he’s produced some of the most beautiful lyrics that are a great gift to the world… Rochester seems the kind of character that seems to interest you – someone who exists or thrives outside of society’s normal parameters. Is that a fair assessment? Oh, yeah, you know, all my, the majority of my heroes have been almost exactly what you’re just described. Why do you think you’re attracted to this kind of character? Well I’ve always rooted for the underdog. I guess the consistent theme in the movies or the characters that I’ve been involved with is the… I guess they’ve been labelled, you know, odd or weird or outside or strange or freakish or whatever one wants to call it. I’ve always been fascinated by what kind of, what society deems as normal and abnormal. Because some of the things that are accepted on a daily basis are pretty strange to me. Like what? Well, I mean, even going back to like my childhood, for example, I remember as a kid growing up in the ‘70s and even then thinking the idea of resin grapes was odd. You know, on the table, these fake grapes – basically made of glass or plastic. Or macrame owls… And no one ever noticed, but to me it was strange... INTERVIEW: DAN JOLIN

04-13-2006, 05:01 PM	#2 (permalink)
ezy Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 368 My Profile	The Coolest Man In The World ™ for quite a few years now, Johnny Depp really needs no introduction. One of cinema's true mavericks, equally home on a pirate ship or in a Jim Jarmusch movie, his career has been going from strength to strength since Pirates of the Caribbean proved that his particular brand of weird genius could win over a mass audience. Now he's weirding out again as Tim Burton's Willy Wonka in a truly delirious turn. We talk to the man himself With this role did you enjoy playing a character with almost no social skills? Yeah I did. He has slightly twisted social skills. It’s good fun playing characters like Wonka and Captain Jack for example, of Raoul Duke from Fear and Loathing, who do things that I would never dream of doing or talk to people in a way that I could never bring myself too. There’s great safety in that in a way, learning to talk like them or be like them. What was the appeal of playing Wonka? Were you a Gene Wilder fan? Well I was definitely a Gene Wilder fan but that’s not what dragged me in. I must say that as much as I like Roald Dahl’s works – and the material was one of the seductive elements certainly – but more than anything it was the fact that it was Tim asking me to do it. As soon as he mentioned it and I said yes. I knew there were great risks involved, but that’s one of the exciting things for an actor. What risks? It’s a very well loved character both to fans of the book and of Gene Wilder’s brilliant performance in that early film. I knew I had to take it somewhere far away from where Gene Wilder had stomped. Having that amazing material by Roald Dahl and trying to interpret what he might have liked to have seen, what kind of character would he have liked. There’s such darkness and light in that story and such a subversive undertone, such a twisted perverted kind of side to the character that I ran in the direction that just seemed right to me. What do you think about comparisons to Michael Jackson? It actually never crossed my mind to be honest. He was never an ingredient or inspiration for the part. I guess on some level I can understand, the look a little bit, but you could just as easily think of some kind of reclusive germophobe like Howard Hughes. Roald Dahl wrote the book and wrote this character in 1964. Michael Jackson was a wee lad then so I don’t think he was his inspiration either. Who was your inspiration? When Tim and I talked about doing it there was no script at the time, there was only the book. It was a gift because I could use Roald Dahl’s work for my notes. What I started to think about, in my early research, was that I had these memories of children’s show hosts. When I was a kid, like 5 years old, watching guys like Captain Kangaroo and Mr Roger’s Neighbourhood, I remembered thinking even then how odd the way that they spoke was. That bizarre musical rhythm and cadence to their speech. So I took that and made that one of the main ingredients for Wonka. I was also thinking about game show hosts that I remembered on TV growing up and that perpetual grimace grin. They’re not like that at home; at least I hope they’re not. They go on stage and put a mask on then do their thing then take it off again. The Prince Valiant haircut came to me early when I was doing little sketches of what might be right. I thought of this strange, almost like a Brian Jones bob with really shorts bangs. I was thinking that obviously he’s lived in this self-induced isolation and removed himself from the modern world, so his point of reference would be very very dated. He’d be in the back somewhere. So I thought maybe he’d locked himself in a room with a stack of Herman’s Hermits records. And also that became part of the speech. It would be very dated, like when I talked jive to one of the kids. Did you test the character on your kids? It’s funny because normally I would never ever go through the script, and I’d be mortified if I found myself reading as a character. With Wonka I tested it a little bit on my daughter, Lily Rose. It felt like I was going in the right direction. A lot of times what happens is that you come up with these ideas and you never really get to try them until the read through. So you don’t even know the guy until they do the sticks and Tim says action. With Lily Rose I was talking to her one day and many times we’ll play Barbies and she’ll say “Daddy don’t use that voice; just be regular”. One particular time I started to do the Wonka voice a little bit and she started to light up, like "Where’d that come from?" So then I thought I was on the right track Do you stay in character between takes? No I never really bought into that. The image that really stays in my head thinking of that is some guy playing Henry VIII and walking over to the craft services table and eating a handful of fritos instead of a chicken leg. I think once you’ve got the character, once you know the guy, it’s pretty simple to slide in and out. How were the kids? They were great. For about the first ten days you’d get these (shocked) looks. They’d check each other out and they weren’t quite sure how to deal with it. They caught on and started to enjoy it. As an actor do you appreciate that Tim does so much on set rather than in the computer? It makes all the difference in the world because everything’s there. It’s a gift, especially for kids. Imagine these kids who have never been on a movie set before. To have all these things, to see, to touch and in the case of the chocolate river, to smell. It smelled bad. After a couple of weeks it really got funky. I really appreciate that old school way that movies were done a long time and should still be done. I also appreciate that there are times when you must use CGI and it works as a creative tool. Did you improvise on the film? Oh yeah, Tim and John August are great about it. It’s some kind of illness. I can’t help myself; I need to do it. If I don’t I feel like I’m held captive or something. There are times when you know that you’re doing it too much and you kind of have to stop yourself, but there are times when I feel very strongly about adding something. The trick is that you can say anything, do a take of anything and then go back to the page. And you do the same with Captain Jack? Oh yeah, and Ted and Terry who wrote Pirates were so gracious because there I was, at the read-through, saying, “I’d like to do this, this, this and this, and say this and this.” And they were so sweet about it. Now on Pirates 2 and 3 they’ve been incredibly open to my suggestions and line changes. So it’s been fun. How is it shooting the two films at the same time? Well it’s a lengthy process; it’s going to take us a while. As much as we can we’re doing 2, but every now and again you might have to slot something in for 3. The majority of what we’ve done so far has been 2 and then we’ll do 3 after the hiatus. After working with Tim five times, do you feel like you're his onscreen alter-ego? Tim was the guy back in 1990. The only other guy who’s gone out on a limb for me was John Waters on Cry Baby. So I’ll always be thankful to John for that. Tim’s risk was quite a bit higher, to cast me as Edward Scissorhands. That’s something I will never forget. I also know that over the years he’s had to knock heads with studios because I wasn’t very popular at studios. He’s fought long and hard battles to get me in and won. So on that side there’s a bond and a love and a respect that will be there forever. The other side is that he happens to be one of the most interesting filmmakers of all time. I just feel really lucky to be chosen by Tim. I don’t know about representing him on screen, but I think we do have a similar outlook on things. Similar sense of humour, sense of the absurd. You’ve always been a respected actor but you’re now a commercial star. How did that change things? I’ve never really thought about it so much. Somebody mentioned something about some Forbes list. It just made me laugh. If that’s where they want to put me this week, then great. That doesn’t mean I’ll be there next week. It’ll always change. At the same time, because I’ve always been doing the things that I’ve chosen to do, I feel good for that small core group of people – and I hate to use and won’t use the word ‘fans’ – who have stuck with me all these years. Great masses of people decided to watch Pirates of the Caribbean, which has done great things for me and my career. These people have stuck with me and now I’m happy for them that they don’t have to hang their heads in shame… at least not so much. Pirates is your first sequel. What was your reason for wanting to revisit this character? For me there was one reason and one reason only, which was Captain Jack. Just selfishly to have the opportunity to play Captain Jack again. Some people could look at it and say “Aha, Depp’s sold out”. I don’t believe I have and it wasn’t my intention to sell out. But I wanted to play Captain Jack again because he’s so much fun to play and there’s so much more to explore. I’d keep going; if they want to do Pirates 6 and 7, I’m there, why not? In Pirates 2 and 3 you’ll get to see new layers of Captain Jack. You get to see him in different situations; situations that he can’t talk his way out of. There’s a lot of fun stuff. Is Keith Richards going to be in it? It’s looking very good. I’ve spoken to Keith about it and he’s been super sweet and keen to do it. It’s look very good but we’re just hoping we can work out the dates with the Stones tour and everything. But if that happens man, talk about a dream come true. Get to be a pirate with Keith Richards? It doesn’t get any better than that. Are you going to produce your own movies? Well my sister and I have a little company and we’re looking at a couple of things. We’ve made some fairly recent acquisitions that are pretty exciting. Some I’ll be in and some of them just to see that they get made. Some pretty special stuff. We’re very excited about the new Nick Hornby novel, The Long Way Down, and a great book from an Australian writer named Gregory David Roberts called Shantaram(?), which is a beautiful book. I think I’ll be in Shantaram. It seems like the right thing to do. I’ve spent some time with Greg and it feels like the right thing to do. It’s an area that I haven’t really explored as an actor and I’d like to try.

04-14-2006, 02:14 PM	#3 (permalink)
KeiraLover Keira Mod Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 1,455 My Profile	Thank you! I cannot wait for the Pirates sequels! I love Captain Jack!

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