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20 Reasons to Love Johnny
by Vanessa Paradis1. HE'S NOT AN INTERPRETER, HE'S A CREATOR
When he plays a character, he makes him up at 50%, he grabs him and takes him very far. I would love to be able to do the same. For Ed Wood, whom he didn't know anything about, he made up everything. He put false teeth and made this weird accent. But one should never see his movies in French version. For Sleepy Hollow, a story which exists forever, he moved the detective into a scared unmanly character. Nobody dared to deal with him like that.
2. HE KNOWS HOW TO LOOK AROUND HIM
To come into his role, he often takes his inspiration from people he knows well. He seeks tips of personality which he mixes: madness here, lightness there.4. HE TEACHES ME ACTOR'S TRICKS
3. HE FEARS NOTHING
He isn't afraid of playing a bastard, a lousy or a perverse guy. He isn't ashamed. Still, each time he finds something, he thinks that he's going to be fired, that he goes too far. He doesn't fear to try, even in the extreme, he just fears not to do well. In fact, he always doubts.
Indirectly, yes. Looking at him, I learned to use gestures more. I used that here, there and everywhere. In Benny & Joon, whereas he has an important declaration to make, he plays with his look to break the rhythm and launch the action when nobody expects it. This play with the look inspires me a little sometimes...
5. HE MADE ME DISCOVER SILENT MOVIES
In particular the movies with Lon Chaney and Clara Bow.
6. HE ENRICHED MY RECORD LIBRARY
With the Latin Playboys, an underground fraction of Los Lobos. What? You don't know them? The first of their three albums is a bomb. And also with Iggy Pop, obviously.
7. HE LOVES GAINSBOURG, LANZMANN, VIAN AND BREL
He's got good taste. When he didn't speak French well, we spent hours translating their songs. They deeply moved him.
8. HE KNOWS FRENCH CULTURE BETTER THAN ME
And particularly history of France. One must say that I am a big idler and that my head is like a sieve. Still, I was good at school but I remember many less things than him. He is fascinated by great persons, even those who are repugnant to him. He wants to know the because of the why. Including about the dictators. Especially about the dictators. Architecture also fascinates him. When we go for a walk in Paris and one of us asks: "What is it, that stuff?", hop it's Johnny who answers! One must say that the boy reads non-stop: novels, biographies... and everything he reads, he remembers.François Villon and Arthur Rimbaud have no secrets from him.
9. HE LOVES LITERATURE
10. HE NEVER TOOK A FRENCH LESSON
But he loves to speak it. Not enough, I think. His favourite French expression is "de guinguois".
11. HE LOVES WINE
All the wines, or rather the good ones: bordeaux, bourgogne... all.
12. HE'S CHILDLIKE
And because of that he’s an excellent actor. The best of his generation in my opinion. Children play without being concerned with why, how they look, or what’s going on around them.
13. HE IS LOYAL TO TIM BURTON
The two boys are friends, above all. If they had met each other in grade school, they would have become immediately inseparable. They have so much in common. They’re always making asses of themselves as if they’re 8 years old. They constantly share books, films, paintbrushes, ideas, with one another. They laugh, they drink, and most of all, they trust each other.
14. HE WOULD DO ANYTHING TO HELP SOMEBODY
Whether it is somebody he loves or someone he feels for, he's absolutely sincere.
15. HE HAS INDIAN BLOOD IN HIS VEINS
I adore that. And with half Indian and half Irish. What a combination! And what a temper! If it doesn’t pass, something gets broken. That can make things a little difficult. But there is nothing better. It is a matter of taking the good with the bad in life.
16. HE IS ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL
There, when you see the photographs of Willy Wonka, you find that he is... Notice, me too... the problem, it's that the boy is too beautiful. However he does all that he can to make himself ugly. And if he had his way, he would do even more to disfigure himself for the physical transformation. But the studios hold him back. The producers know very well that they can more easily sell a movie with a sexier guy. It is necessary that they keep a little bit of his beauty. If it were up to him, he would have more freedom.
17. HE IS FASCINATED BY ODD PEOPLE
The majority of people to whom Johnny is attached are, how can I say it, magnificently odd.
18. HE DOES WHAT HE WANTS
He passed on the majority of the large blockbusters that were handed to him. He always chose his projects by his convictions and never went with the obvious.
19. HE HAS AN OBSESSION
His generosity. Yes, his generosity is an obsession.
20. HE HAS A FAULT
He is always right.
Translation by Abigail
