Digital Journal, July 4th
2009
The Johnny Depp Interview:
On Dillinger, Mad Hatter
& Capt Jack Special
By
Earl Dittman
In Public Enemies,
Michael Mann's new biopic about mobster John Dillinger, Johnny
Depp portrays the notorious gangster. The box office star
discusses Dillinger and his future roles in Alice In
Wonderland, Dark Shadows, Lone Ranger, Quixote and Pirates
4.
What is it about outlaws
like Jesse James and John Dillinger? What's the
fascination?
“Well, they get away with
things that we don’t get away with, especially Jesse James
back in that era. He was the sort of precursor to John
Dillinger in a way. John Dillinger in 1933, when the banks
were the enemies and the government were… I mean J. Edgar
Hoover was teetering on criminal himself. So John Dillinger,
as the common man, stood up and said, ‘No, no, I’m not gonna
take it. I’m gonna get what I believe is mine.’ Am I done?
(laughs) I don’t know? Should I say anything else?”
Dillinger was once of the most wanted men (by
the FBI) of his time. Since you are one of the most wanted
actors in the world, if you had the opportunity to go aware
without being noticed, where would you go?
“Ooohh wow! God, that’s a very good question.
I mean, off the top of my head, where I could walk and be
completely anonymous? I’d walk through Disneyland with my
kids. That’s what I’d do. I’d go in every ride and I’d walk
through Disneyland with my kids and let them experience all
the those most kids do. They don’t get to with daddy. When
daddy walks through Disneyland with them, things get weird.”
(laughs)
In the Michael Mann-directed Public Enemies,
Dillinger seems very comfortable with all the attention he
gets from the public and the press. Have you come to terms
with fame? Are you finally comfortable with being a
celebrity?
“I’m not. The thing I’m
infinitely more comfortable with is the process and the effort
of making the character and the collaborative process in
making the movie, basically. Then there’s this other stuff
that goes along with it that I don’t think I will ever
understand, but I do appreciate as a part of the gig, which is
certain amount of attention that, I suppose, goes along with
it. I mean, the alternative is the drag. The real drag is that
if there’s no attention, well then the job goes away, doesn’t
it?”
Have you ever fantasized about being a Robin
Hood kind of person -- taking from the rich and giving to the
poor?
“That’s what I’ve been doing for
the past twenty-five years. (laughs) I mean, it’s true. I
started out printing silk screened t-shirts, I sold ink pens,
I worked construction, I worked at a gas station and pumped
gas, I was a mechanic for a little bit and I went down into
sewer lines. I had a lot of somewhat unpleasant gigs for a
time there. And ever since, I suppose somewhere in 1986, I
started to take from the rich.” (laughs)
Why do you think Dillinger liked the attention
and the spotlight so much?
“John
Dillinger, I think, just like any red-blooded American, was
handed the ball and he ran with it. And that’s not any
different than what happened to me a very long time ago.
You’re handed the ball, and you go as far as you can go until
somebody says, ‘All right, kid, you’re done. Get off the
ride,’ and I think that’s what Dillinger was doing. Although
Dillinger, obviously … the clock … he knew that the clock was
ticking. His situation was infinitely more grave than mine. He
knew he had a very short period of time to deal with and he
had made peace with that. So, that’s what he was doing. He was
kind of the ultimate existentialist, figuratively -- he’d move
forward constantly and never went back.”
You seem very comfortable in the era of John
Dillinger. Do you think that, conversely, you would be alright
in this day and age or a duck out of water?
“Oh, I think I’d probably run screaming. (laughs) I
truly do. I mean, we’ve gone so… it’s so wide a world now, and
I’m shocked at things that I see. I’m shocked at things that
are available on the internet. I’m shocked at what technology
is promising in the next couple of years.”
In your next film, Alice In Wonderland, which
is being directed by your good pal Tim Burton, you play the
Mad Hatter. What kind of influence did you bring to your
character? Did you go straight to the book in order to create
him or did you bring any external work and your own signature
to the character?
“Well, certainly the
book. The book has a basis for everything. There are little
mysteries, little clues in the book that I found fascinating,
that were keys to at least my understanding of the Mad Hatter,
like him saying, ‘I’m investigating things that begin with the
letter M.’ That was huge for me, because when you do a little
digging, you realize you’re talking about a hatter, a man who
made hats, and you go back and look at some of the history.
‘Hatters’ — there’s the term that this guy or that guy is ‘mad
as a hatter.’ There was reason for that, and the reason for
that was mercury poisoning. They got mercury poisoning because
there was mercury in the glue. So they start to go a little
sideways.” (laughs) So I found out what the ‘M’ was and why
they went nuts. So that became a huge
thing.”
What’s so special about
your relationship with Tim Burton? It seems as though Tim
likes to do whatever you please.
“The
most special things that he, very luckily, has given me are
about seven jobs. That’s the most amazing thing. I’m looking
forward to the eighth and the ninth. I don’t know — there’s no
real definition other than we have a — there is some kind of
connection, some sort of understanding that Tim and I have
that is, at most times, unspoken. Most people, when they hear
Tim giving me direction while we’re talking about the
characters or something on the set, people are baffled,
completely befuddled. They don’t know what we’re talking
about. A guy actually came to me one time after watching Tim
and I talk for ten minutes and said, ‘I didn’t understand a
word you guys were saying.’ So, yeah, it’s one of those things
you don’t question, but I sure love him, you know.”
What’s the status with the big screen version
of Dark Shadows that you’ve been planning to do for
years?
“Well, Dark Shadows is happening.
Tim is working on Alice In Wonderland, at the moment, which is
obviously quite a large piece of work there. So when Tim is
done with Alice and we get the script, the script is very,
very close, we get the script in order, we’ll probably attack
it next year which is exciting, very exciting. Like a lifelong
dream for me.”
You’ve really have been fascinated with Dark
Shadows all of your life?
“I loved the
show when I was a kid. I was obsessed with Barnabas Collins,
and I have like photographs of me holding Barnabas Collins
posters when I was five or six or something. (laughs) I’m very
excited to do it.”
It's so rare we see an A-list actor to play the
same part four times like Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates
Of The Caribbean film franchise.
"Call
me a glutton.” (laughs)
So, is Pirates Of The Caribbean 4 ever going to
see the light of day?
“It’s looking very
good. What we’re trying to do is just get the script in order,
make sure that it’s the right thing to do. If we get a great
script, it would be a ball...I think, for me, because I love
the character so much, and I enjoy playing the character so
much and people seem to like it, if there's an opportunity to
try again, you know, it's like going up to bat. You want to
get back out there and try and try and try and see what you
can do. I enjoy playing Captain Jack very much.”
Fans of the series love Captain Jack so much it
really doesn't matter what the story is.
“Well, at this point, what I'm trying to do is change it
into a Beckett play. (laughs) I don't know? It could be
anything now at this point. Jack Sparrow could be some geisha
clothing. I don't know? We could explore other possibilities.”
The other day, Megan Fox told me that she wants
to be your wife in the next Pirates movie.
“Oh, really? (laughs) Where is she?
That’s very sweet. That’s very sweet.”
Looking ahead, what are you looking to do with
The Lone Ranger?
“The Lone Ranger… We're
still in the super-beginning stages, so there's all kind of
possibilities, but I feel like I have some good ideas for the
characters that are interesting, that I don't think have been
done before. There's someone else. Another character. Oh,
Pirates.”
Your old friend, (director) Terry Gilliam is
talking about remounting the Don Quixote film project that the
two of you attempted to make a couple of years ago. Has he
talked to you about it? Are you interested?
“Yeah. We've talked about it. I love
Terry and I'd do, personally, anything the guy wants to do.
The thing is, with Quixote, first, you know, my dance card is
pretty nutty for the next couple of years, so I'd hate to have
to put him in a position or ask him to be in a position to
wait for me. That would be wrong. But, also, in a way, I feel
like we went there and we tried something and whatever it was,
the elements and all the things that got up underneath us were
there and happened and were documented well and were
documented well in the (documentary) film Lost in La Mancha,
so I don't know if it's, I hope it's right for me to go back
there. I don't know if it's right for Terry to do again, but
if he wants to, I’ll be there.”
You portrayed John Dillinger as a man with a
sense of humor. Was it written in the script that he was
really a funny guy or is that something that you
added?
“Well, he definitely was a man with a
sense of humor, and I just happened to be a sucker for humor.
So anywhere I can sneak in something that I find potentially
or funny… it goes fair with this little brownie automatic
camera, hands it to a cop and says, ‘Would you take my
girlfriend a nice photograph?’ (laughs) That’s a guy with a
sense of humor. (laughs) And he was also a guy who at the same
time has some sort of great, wonderful outlook. Like I said,
he knew the clock was ticking, he knew his time was up, he
knew there wasn’t much more to go and he was gonna make the
best of it in any case. Pretty
amazing."
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