CINEMA magazine - January 2000

JOHNNY DEPP : SMOKING IS NOT BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH

By Orestis Andreadakis
Translation by Amy and Rena (Greek)

Johnny Depp arrives on time -in a New York hotel on Park Avenue- holding a tobacco-pouch and brown scented cigarette papers and he asks permission to smoke. "I'm not quite awake yet and I need a smoke and a cup o' coffee". I tell him that the official Greek breakfast is a cup of coffee and three cigarettes and I see a sparkle in his eye: "I've never come to Greece, but I'm sure I'm gonna love it! Smoking is very important for me. Imagine that I've always had the dream to set up an airline called AIR SMOKE!"

Here in America they say that you have left them for the sake of Europe.
Yeah, I've been living in France a couple of years now but I travel a lot. Mostly in Europe though. For instance, I was very glad that the shooting of Sleepy Hollow took place in London, so I could stay there for six months.

Where do you feel "at home?"
In France. I don't speak good French yet, but I'm learning. But I also have the feeling that my American accent is changing. That happens when you stay for a long time in Europe and you're supposed to speeeaaak (spells the words out with a fake foreign accent, laughing) cleeaarly to be un-der-stood. France, and the whole of Europe have a great culture and an amazing history. Most important thing though is that people there know how to live! In America they've forgotten all about it. I'm afraid that the American culture is a disaster.

Defining "culture" depends on the demands and the priorities you have in life.
Well...I am a very simple person. I like simple things. The sunrise, the trees, the countryside. And I love smoking and drinking (laughs), I'm very good at those things!

And when you read on cigarette-packages "Smoking is bad for your health", how do you react?
Well, cars kill too, so do airplanes, and many other things. Now they find that cell phones cause cancer, but I've never seen anywhere "attention, cell phones are bad for your health". I know a lot of people who've died of lung cancer and hadn't smoked a single cigarette in their life. Well, look, no doubt, smoking is not something that's good for your health. Well, I'd say, at the risk of sounding corny, that you have to do everything to a reasonable extent. But how can you take the fact that in L.A., one of the most contaminated cities on the planet, they tell that you can't smoke 'cause your smoke is bothering them'. You know...in L.A., where you breath and it's like you've put your head behind an exhaust-pipe.

Do the roll-ups you smoke help you smoke less?
Or become very good and fast at rolling! So the result is the same. (laughs)

Let's talk about the movie. In Sleepy Hollow your character is quite funny.
I hope so, 'cause Tim and I have worked a lot on that. Apart from fear, we also meant to bring out a great deal of laughter.

How do you work on a character?
When I read a script I get images in my head. I don't know how safe this is for me, but that's the way it happens. When I was reading Edward Scissorhands I got the image of a newborn baby and a dog that I used to have as a kid. Images of innocence and purity. Images of endless love. Now in Sleepy Hollow those images took me back to the old Hammer movies and to three actors I admire. They are Basil Rathbone, whom I remember from the black and white Sherlock Holmes films (where Nigel Bruce was Dr.Watson) and a really good and dear friend of mine, Roddy MacDowall, who died recently and has been the greatest inspiration for me to play Ichabod Crane. In a way, Ichabod was my way of saying goodbye to Roddy, to bow to him, to pay homage to him. The third one is Angela Lansbury. This mixture may sound weird, but if you put the three of them together, I think you'll get close to Ichabod.

Sleepy Hollow is the third movie you make with Tim Burton (The previous ones were Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood.) How is your collaboration?
It may sound a bit silly, but my work with Tim is something else! I started shooting right after the Ninth Gate, which I did with Polanski. I wouldn't call this movie the easiest one I've ever made. I don't mean to be ungrateful to Polanski, because he is a creator I respect and admire, a brilliant and highly educated man, but when I started working with Tim again it was like coming back home. We have a connection I cannot explain.

Could we say you are Burton's alter ego?
I hope so! Of course, Tim would never say such a thing (laughs), but if it is true I'd consider it a great honour.

Sleepy Hollow is a fairy tale and fairy tales always have a moral. What's the moral here?
The moral...hmm...You're probably asking the wrong person to talk about morals (laughs). The moral...well...let's see...that's a funny question....well.. "keep away from headless horsemen" (laughs)... they are dangerous. But let me ask you a favor: why don't you ask Tim Burton the same question to see what he'll tell you (laughs)...

Have you ever watched the Disney motion-picture version of Sleepy Hollow?
Yeah, sure, and I've really liked it a lot. Let me tell you though the way I see the movie and my character. Well, actually it is not my own opinion, but I totally agree with it. One day, on the set, I was going back to the trailer and the producer, Scott Roudin calls me "Ichabod Crane 'girl detective'". That's right, I said! (laughs aloud).

Do you believe in ghosts?
If I believe in ghosts? Yeah, why not? Ichabod though doesn't really. He is a person who needs sound scientific evidence. I don't think I need something like that. Everything can be proved and un-proved.

They say, you are not the easiest man to work with. Is that true?
Well, yeah....let's face it. (laughs mischievously) I am not the easiest person to work with. Nine out of ten Hollywood executives when they hear my name, they go: "Oh! Christ! The weird guy!"

What are those weird things you do?
Well, you know, the usual stuff! Of course, it is also the fact that I've played quite some weird characters and those movies have not done so well in the box office. Not to mention my own movie The Brave, cause by now everybody acts as if they've never heard of it.

You said "weird" characters and you're probably right. From Gilbert Grape to Edward Scissorhands, who is not even a real human being, to Ed Wood and Axel in Kusturica's Arizona Dream and from that to the really weird Don Juan DeMarco and Jarmush's Deadman, all the characters you've played are always weird and problematic.
You forgot Raoul Duke from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas who was a really weird guy (laughs)

Why do you only play such characters? What attracts you to them?
You mean why I haven't done anything more "light"?

Not really, 'cause Don Juan DeMarco is a "light" character and at the same time someone who seems different from what he is. In a certain way he is similar to Ichabod Crane and the other characters you've played...
Yeah...I know what you wanna say. The truth is I am attracted by those characters and those are the ones I wanna play. Look...things in life are not the way they seem. Ever since I was a kid I had this idea that people are judged by the way they look and not by what they really are -the colour of their skin, the way they dress and speak and many other things. When you listen, for instance, to someone talking, there is another voice beneath his words. Even if you hear clearly what he is saying, the real truth is much deeper, between the lines of his words. Imagine how easily a guy with scissors instead of hands can be misunderstood. (laughs) Well, that's what I've always been interested in and all the characters I've played are such people. They are the ones who seek more attention to be understood, the ones you have to be dedicated in order to understand.

And what is Ichabod's real truth?
He is a guy who needs concrete evidence to interpret what he sees, till he founds out that his whole life and past are dipped into the wrong interpretation of appearances.

What would Ed Wood's reaction be to this version of Sleepy Hollow?
Well...Ed Wood...I don't have the slightest doubt that he'd be thrilled!

It is something funny, what can I say? And it gets even funnier when the director has a special relationship with your partner, with whom you have to perform a love scene. For instance, I'd really love to do another movie with Lasse Hallstrom, but hopefully he won't ask me to play the lover of his wife (Lena Olin), 'cause I wouldn't make it. Same thing happened a while ago with Roman Polanski and Emmanuelle Seigner. There was a close-up where I had to kiss her and Polanski was standing behind the camera, at exactly ten centimetres' distance. I was looking at him and I was saying to myself "is this thing gonna end up in a love triangle?" (laughs) I was about to kiss Emmanuelle and I thought this was gonna be a group kiss! And there's Polanski telling you (changes his voice perfectly imitating the director's heavy polish-french accent) "take it easy, Johnny, there's nothing wrong. You are actors, it doesn't matter".

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