This is a translation from portuguese to english of the lastest issue of brazilian magazine "Estação Aeroporto"
(Scans posted by Slo and I on the recent pictures thread)
THE MANY FACES OF JOHNNY DEPP
By Dani Ferrera
Mostly everything has being said about Johnny Depp: that he’s one of the greatest artists of his generation; about his commitment to the characters he plays, his love and his discreet life with his wife and children. He stars along with Angelina Jolie the thriller “The tourist” with its premiere scheduled to open January (note: in Brazil btw). In May he brings back to life for the forth time to the funniest bad boy Captain Jack Sparrow at Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Charming, smooth talking and insanely seductive, I’ll give you the man of many faces.
Johnny Depp first heard about “The tourist” through Graham King, his long time collaborator and producer of “The run diary”, his new flick schedule to open sometime in 2011. He immediately got interested not only for the opportunity to work with a director he admired, Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck but also with the chance to co-star with the amazingly talented Angelina Jolie. That was a combination he thought might work and it did extremely right. ‘The tourist’ is an action thriller with a little comedy attached to it based on 2005’s movie ‘Anthony Zimmer’ starring Sophie Marceau and Yvan Attal.
“My character is a math professor from Wisconsin. It’s not that he’s an idiot, he’s just pure. An innocent guy like most people is. He gets excited when towards Elise but have no idea what he’s getting into.”
How the idea of shooting “The tourist” happen?
I have a long time professional relationship with Graham King, who contacted me saying: “I want to talk to you about this great idea but before that have you seen “The Lives of Others”. I have seen it and absolutely loved it. It’s a great movie and Florian is obviously a talented man and then Grahan added: “This guy wants to make a movie called “The tourist” and also want Angelina Jolie on it”. Obviously I got interested.
Did you watch the original movie?
I’ve seen the French movie yes and I like it very much and then I saw it again and really loved the idea. And then, of course, you ask yourself how you can contribute to the project, if you can add something new and I thought I could. And with Florian directing and Angelina Jolie onboard it sounded like the right thing to do.
This is the second big Florian movie…
He had done a few short movies before “The life of others” but this one is his first big movie and I considered it close to perfection. I love it.
And did he have clear ideas on how to shoot this movie?
Definitely, yes. He had a very clear idea on how he wanted the movie to be. He’s sure of himself and has a great head on his shoulders. He got together these two individuals, Frank and Elise, totally opposite to each other and played with the emotion and suspense of the story. He knew exactly what he wanted. He did it perfectly. He’s amazingly focused and passionate and the challenges of the day-to-day shootings didn’t bother us at all.
Did you meet Angelina before this movie?
As curious as it sounds we never crossed paths before. The weird thing is that we have friends in common. I know Brad Pitt for years. I also know Angie’s father, Jon Voight for such a long time but Angie and I only get to meet while we were getting ready for “The tourist” and she’s a sweetheart man, a sweetheart.
So you liked her…
She’s a wonderful woman and you know what? She’s a very funny woman. She’s a fine definition of what is like to be a woman – I mean a traditional woman. She has a great sense of humor. She says what’s on her mind and don’t fool anybody. She has the energy of 300 people! It’s insane. She’s raising this beautiful magnificent family while she does all this, working and committing with her heart. And besides that she also commits to global causes. She’s a very impressive human being to say the least.
Did she correspond your expectations on how she would be like?
I didn’t know what to expect the first time I met her because I don’t pre-judge people and I like to find out how they really are by myself. We got together to discuss the movie and went like: “Hi, how are you? Nice to meet you…” and we get along right away. I adore her. She’s really a special woman.
As an actress? Did you enjoy working with her?
I definitely did. She was great. A real professional. She knows what she’s doing.
What is like to play Jack Sparrow again in “Pirates of the Caribbean“?
It’s dangerously pleasant (laughs). I already know the guy well enough so is really cool to play him again. I’m already used to so it is great.
You without a doubt left those kids at the London school impressed during your surprise visit as Jack Sparrow. How did that go?
That was really cool and it happened in a very innocent beautiful way. The letter was delivered to someone from the production then sent to one of the guys who work with me. I read it and thought: “We have to do this…” and the school was near. Me and a bunch of guys dressed up as pirates went there and improvised for 15-20 minutes. It was terrific and the kids so adorable. The girl who wrote me is a sweetheart.
Are you yet expecting shooting “Dark Shadows” with Tim Burton?
More than ever and it is going to happen. We had meetings recently. We’re now waiting the new script to get done and it’s looking great so far. You know, script is what set things in motion and must be made it right.