Den of Geek, July 1th
2009
Johnny Depp: Public Enemies
press conference report
Johnny Depp was in London last week
talking about his new film, Public Enemies. We were there, and
here's what he had to say...
By
Michael Leader
Public
Enemies, the new film from Michael Mann, tells the story of
Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger. Starring as
Dillinger is Johnny Depp, who is already courting a small
amount of Oscar buzz if any of the pre-release reviews are to
be believed. At the film's press conference, Depp sat down and
answered questions from the assembled journos.
Suave and dapper in a waistcoast and open-cuffed
shirt, he cuts a sensual, catlike figure - as iconic and
enthralling as his screen roles. From his entrance, he had the
crowd in the palm of his hand, pausing to regard an oversized
film poster draped behind the stage. In a moment of awkward,
bashful humility, he laughed, and said "Well, that's entirely
too large, is it not?", before easing into his designated
leather armchair.
In the conference, he touched on his reaction to
his popular image, his long career, as well as his approach to
playing notorious Public Enemy Dillinger. Check out the
transcript below.
..........................................
John Dillinger is an absolutely bona fide
folk hero, but what was the draw of playing this outlaw whose
name is virtually synonymous with the gun-slinging American
past?
Well, first and foremost, when I was like 9 or 10
years old, I had a fascination with JD, I don't know why - and
probably not a healthy one. I think it was something about the
twinkle in his eye; there was something mischievous that
intrigued me. But, in terms of taking on the role, the idea
that the guy was called Public Enemy Number 1, but, if you
really think about it, was never an enemy of the public. That
I found intriguing and challenging.
What is it about this character of John
Dillinger that you think fascinated the public? And, famously,
he died after watching Manhattan Melodrama, what would be the
film you'd like to watch before you died?
[Laughs] If I had to see a last-ever film, it
would be Withnail & I, without question! I think,
especially with a guy like John Dillinger, if you think about
where we were in 1933 - well, it's not unlike where we are
now. The banks were sort of the enemies, and it was taking the
knees out from under everyone. Displacement was a kind way of
putting it - their lives were being ripped from them. And
there's JD, who arrives as one of those people who've been ten
years in prison for some youthful, ignorant, drunken crime.
Ten years, and he arrives on the scene in the ultimate
existential arena, and says 'I'm gonna stand up against these
people'. So I think, for me, what's fascinating is the guy who
says 'I'm not gonna take it'.
In reference to a short scene where JD
sings the country standard The Last Roundup, after a jail
break] First Sweeney Todd, and now this, it was almost as if
you were looking to crowbar in some singing...
I almost broke into dance... I just might now!
Why not? Just wondering if you've been
bitten by the singing bug?
I've only been bitten once, and it was an
indirect bite. No, no, no. I sang the one time on Sweeney
because, well, basically I had no choice.
But you sang well in this. I know it was
only a few lines....
Oh, yeah! I do sing in the film - is it in? I
haven't seen it!
Any recording contracts come your way
yet?
You know, some people better stay in their own
little arena. [laughs]
How did you research for the role? Did
you watch previous films about him?
I certainly had a strong memory of Warren Oates'
John Dillinger in the John Milius film [Dillinger, 1973]. But,
I hadn't seen it in years. I do remember there was a certain
palate that was limited. And I thought there were more colours
to be offered - without being too esoteric about it. If you
think about the information that has come out since - some of
Dillinger's own words have surfaced. So there's a bit more to
the story, a little more dimension. And that was what I was
hoping for, to add some of that.
Stephen Graham [Baby Face Nelson in
Public Enemies] over here is our rising star - how did you two
get on?
We hated each other, and we fought constantly.
[assembled journos laugh] I think he's magnificent, one of my
favourite actors of all time. What he did in This is...
[journos, in unison, 'England!'] England... absolutely
destroyed me. What he did, and what Tomo did in that film of
Shane Meadows', took me to my knees. He's someone I'm going to
fight to get... I'm going to force him to be in every film I
do - even at gunpoint!
You've mentioned you've not seen the
film, and did a double-take at the poster as you came in - do
you not like looking at yourself? And what's it like now that
you're a big star?
If I can avoid the mirror when I brush my teeth
in the morning, I will. I find security and safety in the most
profound degree of ignorance. If you can just stay ignorant,
almost everything will be ok. Just keep walking forward, and
it's ok to notice things, and look at things, but, to judge
things will bog you down. So I don't like watching myself in
the movie, because I don't like to be aware of the product, I
like the process. I enjoy that. That [pointing at the
oversized poster] is... not my fault. I didn't do it!
In terms of your success, can you get
your head around it? Did you think your time had come?
I went through 20 years of basically what the
industry defined as failures. So for basically 20 years I was
defined as box office poison. And I didn't change anything in
terms of my process. That little film Pirates Of The Caribbean
came around, and I thought yeah, that would be fun to play a
pirate for my kiddies, and all that stuff. And I created the
character in the same way I created all the other characters,
and... nearly got fired. And thank god they didn't, because it
changed my life. I'm hyper, super-thankful that radical turn
happened, but it's not like I went out of my way to make it
happen.
You've played a lot of real-life figures
in Blow, and Donnie Brasco, and now in Public Enemies, what
attracts you to that? And, who do you want to play next?
Yeah... who would I like to play next. I don't
know, Carol Channing, maybe. I do like Carol Channing, very
much! I mean, in the digital age... you can almost do
anything. I could play a 12-year-old girl at this point - in
the digital age!
But approaching someone like
John Dillinger, as opposed to Jack Sparrow, is it as
in-depth?
It is, it's even potentially more so, because of
the amount of responsibility you have, to that person who
actually did exist. There's some sense of responsibility to
their legacy. With John Dillinger, there's an enormous amount
of information on the guy - we know where he was at 12:02,
when the banks were robbed. But there's a great gap with
regard to who he was. There's footage of him, there's endless
photographs of him - but there's no audio. There's just an
attitude. So, that was the dig - how do I find this man, how
do I find the way he speaks. And what made the connection for
me was that John Dillinger was born in Indiana, and raised in
Mooresville, Indiana, which was 2 hours from where I was born
and raised. It was at that point that I thought - ah, I hear
his voice now, now I know him, I know what he sounds like,
because it's not all that different. He was my grandfather,
who drove a bus in the day, and ran moonshine at night. He was
my step-father, who did time at Statesville Penitentiary. I
knew his voice then.
Looking at you in this film, you don't
seem to have changed much over the years. Do you have any
particular skin-care regime?
[Laughs] Clean living. Oh yeah, most definitely.
I say if you could avoid wine, I'd do it. And liquor,
definitely. Avoid liquor. Most definitely don't smoke -
anything. And stay in your room. And watch a bit of reality
television, that's how I do it.
Looking at the extraordinary range of
characters that you've played so far. Which has been the
closest to you personally, and which has been the furthest
away?
Well, the furthest away - oh boy, probably a
couple of them. But, furthest away... might be Willy Wonka
[laughs]. Let's hope that's the furthest! Closest to me, this
would be horrifically revealing, wouldn't it? There's probably
three, Edward Scissorhands, John Wilmot from The Libertine,
and maybe Dillinger.
There's a great attention to detail in
the film, in terms of shooting in real locations. How does
that affect your performance, to know you're in a location
where Dillinger himself was?
That was one of the amazing things that Michael
Mann provided us with, that level of authenticity, to be able
to break through the exact doors that John Dillinger broke
though. As opposed to shooting on some soundstage because it
was cheaper or handier to the studio. Michael was a real
stickler for that thing, and I will thank him forever for
that. To be able to go and fire my Thompson out of the very
window John Dillinger fired his Thompson out of during the gun
battle at Little Bohemia. You can't put a price on that thing.
To be able to walk in the same footsteps as he took, to walk
outside the Biograph theatre, and land exactly to the tiny
millimetre where John Dillinger's head fell, in the alley near
the Biograph was magical. I mean, you almost feel him
arriving. Not to be moony or spooky, but there were moments
when I felt his presence, moments when I felt a certain amount
of approval from the guy. When you're going to that umpteenth
detail, something's going on.
How did you find working with Christian
[Bale]? Are your acting styles quite
different?
I don't know if our acting styles are that
different...
Christian tends to stay in character, and
kept up the Southern accent between takes...
Oh, yeah, that kind of thing. Yeah, well I don't
do that. But, if you have to do that, that's ok. I enjoyed our
- basically - one scene together, besides when he and his
cronies croaked me outside the Biograph [laughs]. Yeah, it was
the scene in the jail cell, and I enjoyed it very much, it was
like, how'd you describe it, like a great sparring match. Two
guys in there with a similar respect for one another, trying
to present different angles to each other. Obviously he's a
very gifted actor, and very talented. When we saw each other,
which wasn't very much, we talked about our kids, just talked
about being dads. And that's where we really
connected.
Could you tell us about Michael Mann -
how was his style of directing?
I think, ultimately, Michael's style and my
approach did complement each other. There are moments where,
when you're building something, there will be things discarded
- things will get broken along the way. So it wasn't right off
the bat the easiest, but in the long run, what we were able to
figure out together, was that, he presents something, he'd
present something - we'd find a happy middle, and we'd get
there. And we always got there. I have a tremendous amount of
respect for Michael, as a human being but also as a filmmaker
- he's not joking, you know. He truly means it.
How difficult was it to let go of
Dillinger once filming finished? And which character over your
career has it been hardest to say goodbye
to?
There's been a few. The funny thing is, you
really don't say goodbye. There's a little chest of drawers in
here [points at chest], where you can always access these
guys. I'm not sure if that's healthy, but they're there.
Saying goodbye to Dillinger was tough, because it was like
saying goodbye to a relative. The most difficult to say
goodbye to? Well, Scissorhands was rough. The safety of
allowing yourself to be that honest, to be that pure, to be
that exposed. That was hard to say goodbye to. Wilmot, Lord
Rochester, on The Libertine, was incredibly tough, because I
felt like it was a very intense 40-something days where I had
the opportunity to be that guy. And I felt a deep sense of
responsibility, so it was like a marathon. And then, in the
end, it was like the light goes out and it's black.
