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Mr. Beaks Presents An Interview With PUBLIC ENEMIES' Johnny Depp!
Okay, gang. I didn't get the fancy-shmancy one-on-one interview like that kneecappin' bastard Capone did with Michael Mann (and read that sucker if you ain't done so already), but I did get to hang out with a small group of smart online journalists and fire off questions at Johnny Depp, who stars as bank-robbing maestro John Dillinger in PUBLIC ENEMIES.
I'd never interviewed Depp before, and, honestly, didn't know what to expect. I also didn't know how to bring up the topics that really interest me - e.g. his mentor/protege relationships with iconoclasts Marlon Brando and Hunter S. Thompson, and the status of his stashed-away directorial debut THE BRAVE (which I believe is wrongly maligned) - in a press conference setting. But while I'm disappointed our time with Depp expired right at the moment it would've been appropriate to ask such questions, I still think we got a damn good Q&A out of Depp.
It helped that Depp was extremely gracious and friendly - no hint of an attitude with this guy. He's also not aging, which is both impressive and alarming. Over our twenty minutes, Depp shared with us his thoughts on Dillinger the man vs. Dillinger the folk hero, the differences between Michael Mann and Terry Gilliam, and what it was like portraying a historical figure who'd previously been brought to life by tough guys like Warren Oates, Lawrence Tierney and Robert Conrad. Enjoy!
Johnny Depp: My apologies for my tardiness.
Q: Christian said he loved shooting digitally, and that he'd love to do it again. What are your feelings on digital filmmaking?
Depp: It's got its advantages. The idea that you can keep rolling for fifty-two minutes. And it's relatively cheap; I think it's roughly a grand for a fifty-two-minute tape. There are advantages, and there are disadvantages. But I like the texture of [film]. I like the texture of... crude, grimy cinema. I actually prefer that.
Q: You did an incredible amount of research on Dillinger, but we're only seeing him towards the end of his life. What do you think gave him that sort of chivalrous side?
Depp: I think he's not unlike any other southern gentleman in a way. The fact that he made a relatively grave error in his youth in a fit of drunken ignorance - which I know I remember a few of those. (Laughter) And they sent him to prison for ten years. They really whacked the ball-and-chain on him for that. So coming out of prison in 1933, suddenly the world was in technicolor. Women were wearing tight clothes and skirts. It was a whole new world. So I think that southern gentleman was in there, and that guy who was a supreme existentialist who decided that "This day, every day, is mine."
Q: We've talked about your ability to play quirky characters sometimes. Do you consider Dillinger one of your "normal" characters, or a quirky one?
Depp: I think they're all normal. (Laughter) To me, I think they're all normal. But I think most people aren't the same. I mean, we're all weird when you get right down to it. Yeah, I would say he's one of the more normal guys. Normal just in the sense that he was nothing much more than an Indiana farm boy who stepped in a pile of something unpleasant. And then being in prison, or "criminal school" for ten years... that was his college education. And he became very good at what he learned. The fact that this guy became a sort of mythic Robin Hood folk hero... I mean, he really took the ball and ran with it. That's pretty normal to me. Most people run with it when they get the ball.
Q: There have been several Dillingers on film. In building the character, did you look at guys like Warren Oates so that you maybe wouldn't be touching on things that they did? Or did you just not want any part of that in your head space?
Depp: I mean, there's no way to not remember Warren Oates as John Dillinger. I remember seeing that as a kid and just loving it. But I did stay away from it when we were going to start this film because I didn't want to accidentally steal anything from the guy. He was so good. The one thing that stayed in my mind about the Warren Oates version - and, forgive me, I forget who directed it--
Q: John Milius.
Depp: John Milius, exactly. I felt that at the time he did it there was a certain amount of colors available on that palette that they put on the canvas. I feel like now, with the stuff that's come out... with the ability to have slightly more information with regards to Dillinger's personal life, there were a few more colors available. So that was one of the challenges for me.
Q: How do you think this character is going to resonate now? Because we're in an economic crisis, and... Dillinger is a hero to a lot of people still. You kind of want to cheer. And his ability to work with the media so well... he really created himself as a folk hero, too. He played with it, and was smart about it. I think it's going to resonate even more now. Do you agree?
Depp: I certainly hope so.
Q: Yeah? Do you hope people start robbing banks soon? (Laughter)
Depp: I don't know if I'd go that far, but... People are different, you know. Unfortunately, people are different than they were back then. Back in 1933, there was some degree of innocence left. And today, on some level, we've really hit the digital wall. And a kind of a world where almost everything is available if you can make your way to it. I think people are radically different than John Dillinger, and I don't know if you could have a similar type of folk hero today. Maybe Subcomandante Marcos down in Chiapas, who's trying to protect the indians in Mexico; he might be the closest thing we can have.
In terms of innocence and purity... because in [the 1930s] the banks were clearly the enemy. They foreclosed and were taking peoples' lives away from them. Not that it's all that different now. Here we are teetering on this similar kind of recession/depression, and... (pauses) God, the banks are still the enemy, you're right! (Laughs) Well, I don't know... if somebody starts robbing banks... as long as nobody gets hurt, why not? (Laughter) I may start robbing 7-Elevens.
Q: There's a scene in the movie where Dillinger walks through the office of the FBI. Is that fact based, or was that [a creation] of the director?
Depp: No, he actually did walk through what was then called the Dillinger Squad. He pulled his car up out front with Polly Hamilton, walked into the Dillinger Squad all by himself, and wandered through all these cops. And his photo was everywhere. That's all true. He had an enormous amount of, for lack of a better word, chutzpah. He had an incredible confidence that truly... I mean, one of the things I admire about him is that sort of... to have gotten so far and to have become that kind of existentialist hero. Every day was his last. He had made peace with that. Yesterday doesn't exist, he just kept moving forward... there is something admirable about that.
Q: Did he feel like he was untouchable? That no one could get to him?
Depp: I think he felt the clock was ticking. I think maybe when you're on that adrenaline high, you may feel that sort of thing, that "No one can get me." But I don't think he was dumb, you know? And to feel like you're completely untouchable there's a certain amount of ignorance in that. I think he just felt like "I got that one, let's move on to the next. And what happens now?"
Q: A trait this character shares with actors is that he thrives on improvisation. He seems kind of conscious that he is immortal in some ways in peoples' memories.
Depp: He was certainly like an actor in [that], like I was saying before, if someone hands you the ball, depending on where you've been in your life, if you worked in sewers or pumped gas or worked construction... whatever you did, if somebody hands you the ball, you run with it as far as they'll let you. That's all I've been doing for twenty-five years. John Dillinger getting out of prison after ten years is, in a way, getting handed the ball. He started to realize... I wouldn't say that he... I hate the idea of him manipulating the media, because I don't think he did. I think he just understood the game. I think he understood that there was a game to play, and, because of his savvy and the stuff he'd learned while he was inside, he learned out to play the game well.
So, yeah, there are parallels. I also think Dillinger also had a semi-fascination with Hollywood and the idea of movies - and his legend, you know? Leaving his mark. I think most people have that, in a way.
Q:Johnny, we just saw pictures of you as The Mad Hatter, which looks amazing. I'm actually looking even further ahead and wondering what you're looking forward to doing with THE LONE RANGER and [PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 4].
Depp: Well, the Hatter was awfully fun, you know? Doing something like John Dillinger, a performance where it's so restrained because of the responsibility you have to that guy and his memory. The Mad Hatter was like being fired out of a cannon. The Hatter was great fun. And, again, it's one of those things where you're amazed you weren't fired. (Laughter)
And THE LONE RANGER... we're still in the super-beginning stages, so there are all kinds of possibilities. But I feel like I have some good ideas for the character that are interesting, that I don't think have been done all that much before.
And then there's another character. Oh, PIRATES! Yeah.
Q: It's so rare that an A-list actor does a character four times.
Depp: Man, call me a glutton, you know? I honestly... if we can get the screenplay right to PIRATES 4 - because virtually no cinema is perfect. So PIRATES had its own thing, and I suppose PIRATES 2 and 3 had their own thing. It got a little confusing here and there. Not that I've seen the movies, but I hear tell. (Laughter) 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, that if there's an opportunity to try again, 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 again. I enjoyed playing Captain Jack very much. At this point, what I'm trying to do is trying to do it like a Beckett play.
Q: SPARROW'S LAST TAPE?
Depp: Yeah.
Q: [Drowned out by laughter, but the question was basically "Is the studio eager to make it like a Beckett play?"]
Depp: It could be anything at this point. Jack Sparrow could be in some kind of geisha clothing. I don't know. We could explore a lot of possibilities.
Q: Have you talked to Terry Gilliam about THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE?
Depp: We have talked about it. But to be honest, the thing about Terry... I love Terry, and I'd do anything the guy wants to do, but with QUIXOTE... my dance card is pretty nutty for the next couple of years. So I'd hate to put him in a position - or ask to be in a position - where he'd have to wait for me. That would be wrong. But also... I feel like we went there and 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 in that film LOST IN LA MANCHA. So I don't know if it's right for me to go back there. I don't know if it's right for Terry to, but if he wants to..."
Q: Terry Gilliam and Michael Mann seem like two sides of the same coin. They're guys who are very detail oriented and create worlds, but they seem like they do it in very different ways. Could you compare Mann and Gilliam?
Depp: There's almost no way to compare the two. The only thing you can say - in terms of Terry and Michael and their similarities - is their drive or passion, an intense scratching out the truth of the moment, or really seeing as much as they can get out of a moment. But they're very, very different. Terry giggles a lot. (Pause. Then a smile. The room laughs. Depp answered the question to his satisfaction.)
Q: They show MANHATTAN MELODRAMA at the end of the film. And as you're watching it, as you're watching Clark Gable and William Powell in the scene, it does sort of connect to [Dillinger's] idea that he's something of a star. But what's interesting to me is that Dillinger is, like, the first rock star, and these are movie stars. With Bonnie and Clyde, it's the same thing. These outlaws who are living on the edge during the Depression. Would you agree with that?
Depp: Oh, yeah. At that time, Dillinger and those people - not all of them, but a good majority - were the common man standing up against the establishment. "I've had it up to here, so now I'm going to get some. And I'm going to get some at whatever cost." You know, there are comparisons of Dillinger as the Robin Hood of that time, and there is some truth to it. When farmers were in the bank with their life savings, he did actually hand it back to them and say, "I don't want your money. I came for the bank's money. The bank's money is my money, and I'm taking it." That's not to say he was a saint, but he was a kind of man's man at that time. He stood up against... certainly the government and J. Edgar Hoover. At best, they were slimy. Who were the criminals really?
Q: And he was incarcerated for so long--
Depp: For a hideous mistake, yeah.
Q: And it still happens today.
Publicist: We have time for one more question.
Q: I'm just wondering if you could speak about working with Marion. There's so much that's not on the page that establishes their relationship.
Depp: Well, she's great. She's just simply great. She was there months before she started shooting. She went to a Menominee reservation and spent time with Billie Frechette's family. She's deeply dedicated and worked so hard on her accent. I thought she was amazing. She was perfect for Billie Frechette. You know when you read some stuff about Dillinger, and how he felt about that women... they were these uninvited, perfectly matched [outsider] people. Her being half-French, half-Menominee Indian at that time, and him being an ex-con who'd never been able to keep a woman in his life - his mom died when he was little; there was the whole heartbreak of that. When they met, it was absolute fireworks. I honestly believe that John Dillinger, had he not been sold out by Anna Sage, would've made one last hit, gone to South America and waited for Billie. I'm totally convinced of it.
PUBLIC ENEMIES blasts into theaters July 1st. Can't go wrong with Michael Mann, Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard and tommy guns. See it.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
Publicist: We have time for one more question.
Q: I'm just wondering if you could speak about working with Marion. There's so much that's not on the page that establishes their relationship.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
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I saw this last week. It was all right/
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He's a charming fucker.
Never tries too hard, just says enough. Good stuff. -
I feel like I already read this a couple weeks ago. Was there a preview or a did you guys post it, then yank it because the studio wanted you to wait?
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in Chicago last week?
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Jun 30, 2009 4:50:30 PM CDT
I'm glad Depp acknowledges the Pirates 3 story confusion....
by gibsonusa returns
I hope be works to ensure that Pirates 4 is tight and focused...and not too long. 1.5 hrs is long enough for such a movie imo.
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from others, because he has not seen any of his films.
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I think just the Pirates bit was posted. I was a little confused to when I read this.
Depp's interviews are always a fun read. -
Or maybe it's French living and cigarettes. The sumbitch looks younger every year.
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Even for The Dark Knight I don't remember seeing him on any talk shows or anything really? Is he just that grizzled and angry? Such a mysterious person.
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of a Starbucks employee.
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There is a scene in the movie where Dillinger is hiding out at a place called Little Bohemia is northern WI. It is an old resort in Manitowish Waters WI where I have a cabin. I have dined there many times, and they still retain the old windows where the bullets pierced and an old balcony that is all shot up too. They even have a collection of Dillinger's personal belongings that he left as he fled. It is all very authentic and cool. If you are in there neighborhood, you should check it out. They shot there on the actual location for the movie, and there are multiple shots of the place. The food is decent too. Can't wait to see it on the big screen! Cheers.
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...I just wish they would show alittle more than depp wielding around his tommy gun.
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complete and total shit idea. Nothing against Depp (he's a fine actor). He's too big a name for the flick. My vote goes to Michael C. Hall as The Riddler.
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Seems to be taking a back seat more and more. And when it does come out, there's more and more padding in it each week..... Does Johnny Depp ever laugh?
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Every single villian in Batman since Nicholson has arguably been a big name, except for maybe Begins.
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There is absolutely nothing this man can't do and I really don't think he's ever given a bad performance, even with mediocre scripts. I even love his work in the 9th Gate.
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I'm 99% sure Depp is the only actor an audience would accept to replace ledger, because of all the good will he has built up with the cinema going public. I don't think in a million years he would do it, out of respect for Heath. As for Depp playing The Riddler, i just can't see a way to do the character and give him good conflict with Batman.
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Jun 30, 2009 5:59:07 PM CDT
So um..it's not really an "interview" is it then.
by glory_fades_immaxfischer
You were basically at a press conference..wow..AICN..
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THERE - WILL - BE - NO - JOKER in Batman 3.
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Jun 30, 2009 6:22:46 PM CDT
I hate when actors say they don't watch their movies...
by zombieheathledger
Can you imagine any other profession saying this? Pavrotti? Yeah, I sang "Ave Maria" but I never gave it a listen. Orson Welles? Yeah, I acted out War of the Worlds across the airwaves that caused people to freak out and some even kill themselves but I never really gave it a thought to listen to the playback. What bullshit is this? What hubris! Look how quirky I am! I'm even so above seein MY OWN MOVIES. I think he's just trying to be eccentric like his idols Hunter S. Thomson, etc, as Depp makes it a point to say he doesn't watch himself in every single interview. Sure you don't, Johnny. We believe you. Just like Michael Jackson had vitiligo, yeah right. Celebrities are full of themselves and full of shit. I like Johnny Depp but I can't stand this type of ego-fueld crappola.
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Also, good thing you didn't put the Hello, How are you's and all that stuff ;)
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well i can relate, i know i hate seeing myself in photos or video footage. if i ever became an actor, i know i wouldnt be able to watch my movies. if i was doing a movie based on something i was a big fan of, i might try but yeah. i can get why many say that. though with all the premieres (especially for major movies), it seems hard to believe they dont see it at least once.
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but you asked about marion post coital
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Because they always see the mistakes no matter what. Judi Dench is the same plus. Plus, theres the vanity issue. Most people hate how they look on camera.
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Jun 30, 2009 6:52:18 PM CDT
If you were making 20 million a movie wouldn't you...
by zombieheathledger
want to watch your performances to make sure that you could improve your craft? I still call bullshit. If you ever ask any celebrity about somebody else's work the answer is always the same "I haven't seen it." I think celebrities go out of their way to distance themselves from the "normal" people and pretending like they're so above it all that they don't even see their own 20 million dollar performance seems disingenious to me.
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I get cast in stuff occasionally, nothing big, an ad here or there, but I can't handle watching myself in anything. It's weird, I'm not thinking about it during the shoot, I'm just being a goofball, overacting, ect., but if I see myself doing that, it's deeply disturbing.
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... you all aren't being paid 20 million plus a picture with the entire world discussing your performance. When you have that kind of responsibility to carry a picture isn't it kinda your duty to watch and critique and improve yourself? Don't you owe it to the studios who fork over the massives salary not too mention your fans? I mean, film is forever. Case in point, I remember reading a Michael Cain acting for film book once and he said that he once watched a movie of himself and it drove him nuts that he was a)blinking so much and b) that when speaking to the other actor in the scene in a close up he kept switching which eye he would look into of his scene partner while he was in close-up speaking. He said he learned from that to A) not blink for as long as he could as it added power to his stare and b) to pick one eye when speaking to your scene partner and stick to it, don't bounce back and forth. And you know, when I watch Michael Caine, I'll be damned if I don't watch for that sometimes and he's absolutely right it does make his performance more compelling, particularly in close-up. Conversely, whenever I see an actor over-blink (Ben Affleck) it drives me nuts or when I see an actor switch from eye to eye in rapid session while they are speaking, it's distracting. My point is, is that even little things like that can be learned and improved from watching your performance, or so sayeth Michael Cain, who I'd wager knows a bit about the craft of acting on camera by now, yes?
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Seriously, the guy is consistent even when the movies are bad. It doesn't matter wheter or not you watch yourself because you're always going to wish you did things differently.
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Jun 30, 2009 7:23:15 PM CDT
How can you hone your craft if you don't review it?
by zombieheathledger
By memory? Even stage productions film themselves.
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Jun 30, 2009 7:56:48 PM CDT
I agree, IMO Depp is the only one that could replace for Batman
by gibsonusa returns
If you cast a no-name, or a relative unfamiliar face...that person could be labeled a wannabe.
You cast Edward Scissorhands, and its considered "cool" imo -
Hey Beaks, next time grow some balls and ask those questions.
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You forgot to ask Depp about the lights. Was Bale happy with them? ; )
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Jun 30, 2009 8:04:50 PM CDT
Ask DEPP if he'd be the villian in GHOSTBUSTERS.......
by gibsonusa returns
Him and those two claymation dogs.
That would rule. -
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Transwiki:On_the_lam
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Michael Caine On Acting. A damn good book and video series and a must watch for anyone who wants to see the difference between stage acting and movie acting (or more precisely, "reacting").
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Jun 30, 2009 9:09:47 PM CDT
"They're very, very different. Terry giggles a lot..."
by seppukudkurosawa
Read: Mann's a bitch to work with.
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Digital can look just fine when shot right... but for some reason, michael mann always uses low light and slow shutter and it just makes the digital look like horrible old video. he's the ONLY big name film maker who does it. seriosuly, even i know how to shoot digital and get rid of that LOOK.... whats his problem??
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The way people talk about Transformers 2 being a big mess and no plot and hard to follow and making no sense... THAT'S how i feel about the Pirates films. judging by Depps responces i think he feels the same way. best review of Pirates was from 'ask the ninja" -- "It's like they got a bunch of monkeys to type randomly, then they put all the pages into a cannon and fired and then picked up all the mess and there was the script... and everyone is a pirate, even if you weren't a pirate in the film before, now you're a pirate - i don't want to spoil the film, but ...it's not very good."
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I liked the first two Pirates movies. The third on was an overblown mess, though. For the next one, I hope they don't try to get all "amibitious" with the with 15 unconnected subplots in an attempt to make it "epic". A simple, tight (under two hours) adventure movie with Depp hamming it up as Jack Sparrow is all people really want to see. They don't need to try to make it "mythic". Depp is the real deal, though. I look forward to Public Enemies.
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I agree. I must've read Michael Cain's book like 10-15 years ago and what he said was so basic but made such sense you wonder why you've never thought of the lessons he gives before. That's why Michael Caine has been so awesome for four decades in the movie business now I guess.
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Just be straightforward. Like someone said, there doesnt need to be so many different subplots. It doesnt need to be some overblown wannabe-epic....with a tv soap opera season's worth of stories packed into an extended overblown 2.5 hr movie. A super refined, entertaining, 1.5 hr of fun is perrfect.
Also, I hope they limit the use of CG water...its just not convincing or scary. When they were dueling on the whirlpool, it did not feel scary AT ALL because it looked like a videogame. Real water makes the difference imo. -
on the DVD, they actually did shoot most of it with real water. They built two huge ship replicas in a soundstage and had huge wind and machines throwing water on everyone.
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Even what he considers his trash (21 Jump Street) I consider treasure. Been a fan since 95 with Don Juan DeMarco and Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands. He was my pick for Joker before Heath was announced, and he's my pick if nolan comes back and does another with the clown prince of crime. Oh, and maybe not worrying about your looks helps keep him young. I remember reading Tracy Lords saying that she never saw him look at his reflection, and that most actors do.
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Where they are jousting on the ship as the ship spins. At that point I couldnt even tell if it was real actors...cause it looked like CG animated people...along with the water.
Once it starts looking like Shrek at Sea, its not scary anymore. -
I'm sure there's a lot of things you could complain about in the pirates movies, but special effects is not one of them. The whirlpool sequence in World's End made me dizzy, whether it was CG water or not (the effects were so seamless that I wasn't really thinking about it). The pirates trilogy has some of the best use of CG I've ever seen, blending real sets/people and CG perfectly. The CG works because it's extending reality. Davey Jones feels real because the CG is playing off of the actor's performance.
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Jun 30, 2009 11:53:57 PM CDT
i loved pirates 1 and 2, fucking fun movies, 3 was so
by supercowbell5thecowbellhasspoken
god damn boring, long, crappy story, and missing all the fun of 1 and 2.
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One is still the best. Dead Man's Chest had too many repetitive action scenes. World's End was very imaginitive, and I like all the "boring" character stuff. But that's just me.
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You say that Depp is egotistical for claiming not to watch his movies. But you're claiming that he's lying simply because, and think about this, you claim he's lying because if you were a movie star, you'd watch your movies. So...Depp is lying because he claims to not do what you would do? And you're claiming his lies are "ego fueled?" It takes a rather large ego to accuse someone you don't know of lying about something you don't know anything about.
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I just don't understand why he doesn't want to talk about 21 Jump Street. That was an awesome show and he was awesome in it.
If they ever do another Joker Depp is definitely the man.
You want to get the job done? Then hire Depp. -
back in time to the Golden Age of Piracy. Stop dancing around the elephant in the room. Let's see some actual piracy -- broadsides, looting, pillaging, filthy lucre, Silver Train, Sid Meier-y kind of stuff, with a little fantastical nautical loresprinkled in. Less self-referential bringing back previous characters. Tightly wound plot like the first one. No dual protagonist heroes, like the first three, though. That was the downside of Tron.
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This guy is a class act.
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Came out of the 80s as an icon (this was in the 90s). He countered that Tom Cruise came out bigger and better. Well that may have been the case, but as of the 21st century JOHNNY DEPP > tom cruise MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
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Is there any sense that if this movie does well (which I am not really sure will be case) that Mann might still be able to put back together that awesome-sounding Hollywood Backlot period piece that Leo Dicaprio was attached to around the time of the strike??
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If that's all you got out of my posts on the subject then your reading comprehension level is somewhere between retarded monkey and that kid actor with down's syndrome. My points went wayyy beyond the overly reductive way you put it and I have said all that I had so say on it and consider the topic exhausted. Moving on.
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Depp does what he does well...period. Just like Cruise. He's a star. Loved him in Finding Neverland but he's always Depp playing (blank). Neither he nor Cruise is in the same league as Oldman, Lewis, Ledger etc. The best of this or any other generation??? C'mon.
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There are more good reviews than bad at this point - and a lot of the heavy hitters (Ebert, Travers, Phillips) really liked it. I'm still psyched.
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There are literally about a billion sites that spew out reviews and most of them are written by wannabes who think over-analyzing films with their pedantic, thesarus-infused banality is good critical writing. These same critics have also endorsed mediocrity like Drag Me to Hell so seriously, what the fuck do critics know?
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Well the review I read was by a highly respected Washington Post critic, not some douchebag in his mom's basement with a blog.
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as those actors you mention and frankly, Lewis isn't even an actor; he's a nut job who actually lives and simulates the experience which, when you really ponder the technique, isn't acting at all. As to Depp, he practically vanishes into every character he plays and his range is damn near limitless. You are of course entitled to your opinion but personally, I don't think very many actors could pull of Sweeny Todd, Jack Sparrow, Hunter S. Thompson, and a shiton others like Depp has and I certainly don't think any of the actors you mention have played nearly as wide a spectrum as Depp, though to be fair Ledger's run was cut woefully short.
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It's Baletastic. See it today, because you might die tomorrow.
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Is that really the same guy who played Captain Jack Sparrow? That's *acting*.
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The NY Times, Roger Ebert, Rolling Stone, and LA Times all loved it, to name a few. It seems to be pretty divisive with critics over all.
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You know you'll hate it. Nothing ever makes you ponces happy.
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I always see and hear Depp in every role. He has the range of a bb gun. Ed Wood and Willy Wonka both sound like Jon Lovitz. He's good but someone like Denzel has far more range and is never talked about in such glowing terms. Just my two cents. Look at Oldmans work from Prick Up Your Ears to Sid and Nancy to Dracula. Or Heath from Brokeback to Dark Knight...their voice and physicality changes in a way I've never seen Depp achieve. Not a hater...but can't go to the wall for the guy.
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It's just not that exciting or relevant. Depp is the best thing about it. Bring on Harry Potter.
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But what about Christian? Haven't seen him much re: promoting this movie. Its not like Michael Mann and mcg are on he same tier.
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Besides Joker can you name another role where Heath noticeably changed his voice, and no im not shooting you down im genuinely asking, his Joker is my fave character ever. And when I was sayin DEPP>cruise I was not just comparing them talent wise, but also personality, public response, etc. If you feel different then feel free to.
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Actually the only other film I've seen Heath in was Brokeback and it was after Dark Knight. Compare his voice in those two movies.I caught it on cable and watched some scenes to see Heath and was knocked out by the character he created.
Don't get me wrong...I like Depp much more than I used to. Neverland and his role in that black and white western with Mitchum (title anyone?) were cool. But when I watch Cruise and Depp I enjoy them on a different level than chameleons like Oldman and Lewis. -
who has played as many varied roles as Depp did? I don't think so.
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Loved the first 2 "Pirates". The third looked freaking amazing, but what a mess of a storyline. But I'm ready for another go. So I'm keeping my crossbones um, crossed that the 4th will rock out loud. And I can't wait to see the Alice movie too. The pics look fantastic. Thank god for Depp - does amazing work and seems like a decent chap as well. Actors like him give Hollywood a little class, not to mention magic, both of which it's lacked in recent years, what with too many actors acting like whores and talking like Democrats. Ptoo! I spit on them.
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I see Depp in most of his roles too but I don't see why you brought up Denzel as an example of someone with range. Denzel does about two things, albeit pretty decently: goddamn earnest as hell and goddamn hard as hell. Both usually involve waving a gun around. Brad Pitt has more range than Denzel, nevermind the type of Joker/Ennis Del Mar range Heath Ledger was starting to show.
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