Patrick Fabre: Okay, first question. Did you read the story of Sleepy Hollow when you were a kid? Was it the kind of books you read when you were a kid?

Johnny: Oh yeah. Even if it wasn't sort of almost mandatory reading for a kid in the States, because it's sort of required reading when you are a little kid, I would have been drawn to it just because of the nature of this story. I was always obsessed with, yeah, horror stories, horror films, monsters, things like that. Dark sort of things.

Patrick Fabre: So were you happy when Tim Burton offered you the part in the film?

Johnny: Oh yeah, but just the fact that Tim wanted to work with me again was such a great gift that it almost didn't matter what the movie was to me, but it just so happened that it was the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, so it was another gift. The fact that Tim offered me the part was one of the greatest gifts around.

Patrick Fabre: How did you work on that character, Ichabod Crane?

Johnny: Every actor's got their own sort of process and research, preparation, tactics whatever. I sort of explored potentially different styles of acting. The Hammer horror films, that style of acting. A kind of heightened style that's based in some kind of truth, but just on the edge of believability. On the edge of what might be considered too much. It was interesting to walk along the edge of just enough and over the top.

Patrick Fabre: Is it true that you modeled your performance on your late friend, Roddy McDowall?

Johnny: Yeah, Roddy was one of the great ingredients, one of the great inspirations for what I saw as Ichabod Crane. I always thought that Roddy would have been a great Ichabod Crane had they done another film, say, in the 60s or so. He was a great actor. But I also used some of the self-assuredness of Basil Rathbone in the old Sherlock Holmes films, and Angela Lansbury was a great inspiration. You know, in the movie Death On The Nile she sort of rattles on and on and on, and you have no idea what she's talking about, and neither does she. It's sort of beautiful.

Patrick Fabre: What's special about working with Tim Burton?

Johnny [ it's a bit sketchy here because Johnny repeats himself a bit ]: As special as it is for an audience member to be invited into his universe, his world, to go see his films. The same for a technician or an actor. Just the fact that you're invited to explore this universe in an atmosphere which he creates which is conducive to the creative process. Just collaboration, possibilities, trying to take things a little farther, and allowing Tim to sort of bring you back in and shape the motivation. It's a dream for an actor to be invited to explore this universe. He's the ultimate actor's director in terms of collaboration and motivation, ideas. He's incredibly inventive, original, never obvious. A dream.

Patrick Fabre: Working with him for the third time, has it helped measuring how you have evolved as an actor?

Johnny: No, because you know what. What I've conditioned myself to do is to not allow myself satisfaction. It's dangerous for an actor to think that he's done it and he's happy and satisfied with his work. It's dangerous because you cease to try things. You're not hungry. You don't feel fear and tension, and all those things are available stimulus and they really help. I think it's necessary to challenge failure. The risk that you could fall flat on your face and fail horribly and be fired from the project is a great motivation.

Patrick Fabre: In France you're recognized as an artist, and last year you received a special award. Does it have any meaning for you, that kind of recognition?

Johnny: The Cesar was, as I said then, a tremendous honor. I'm not a big awards type guy. I'm not sure I understand the concept of them. But what it felt like for me, not so much being honored as an artist, because I'm not sure you can be an artist in the movie industry - I would say maybe I aspire to do art, I'm just not sure it's possible, I could be wrong - what it meant to me was being saluted by people you respect and admire. Saluted in the sense that that they salute you in understanding of what you're trying to do, where you're trying to steer your creative path. The choices I've been lucky enough to make. This country keeps the possibility of art alive. It's deeply rooted in art, and it's not so much about commerce or industry, but about creating something, inventing something.

Patrick Fabre: You had also a few friends in the audience. Pascal Greggory - a friend of yours.

Johnny: Jean Rochefort

Patrick Fabre: Jean Rochefort as well. What did you find in the actors and actresses in France that maybe you didn't find in Hollywood or in the United States? Is it because it's more about art than commerce?

Johnny: Here? Well, it's the possibility of art vs. the possibility of commerce. These guys are in it for the right reasons, I mean, they are, for all intents and purposes, artists. They are trying to push the boundaries [ there are a few words missing here ] and do the things that haven't been beaten to death over the years. They are people that I love and respect to infinity.

Patrick Fabre: You have a project with Jean Rochefort and Terry Gilliam….

Johnny: We're still sort of waiting to see what's happening with the financing. We don't know exactly if all the financing is there to make the film. It's a thing called "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote", something that Terry Gilliam wrote with his writing partner, Tony Grissoni [ sp.? ]. It's one of the most brilliant scripts I've ever read. Hysterically funny, deeply poetic, profound, great, great story. And it escalated my sort of joy of being attached to the project when Terry cast Jean Rochefort as Don Quixote. I mean, that's a dream, you know.

Patrick Fabre: You mentioned before about art…You're reading/writing [ I can't hear what he says ] poetry and I hear you are painting. Is that right? Can we talk about other things you did relating to art?

Johnny: Sure. I've always been a kind of student, I mean, my whole life. I look at it as one big education. And when I started, for instance, playing guitar at the age of, like, 12, it was with the purest of approaches, I mean, it was just pure love of music and some sort of creative process. And the same goes for drawing and painting or even writing. The goal or what you want is to be able to express something in whatever medium, whether it's film or painting or writing or music, express honesty. Just something as pure as it can possibly be. Why I love to paint now, and draw and write, there's no money involved at all. In the movie business, there's always money involved. That's the sort of anchor for me that keeps it away from being art, because there's commerce involved, but painting for me, just sitting around in my house drawing a picture, I have no one to please. I have no one wanting to pay money for it. So I can make something that's as expressive as I make it. So, yeah, it's honest. So that's why I like to do that. It's a great escape from your brain.

Patrick Fabre: Is that why you didn't make another film? Because I remember when we talked about The Brave, you said that you had to "show some leg" in Cannes one year before to have the financing for the film, so "showing leg" isn't very much what you like to do, I suppose?

Johnny: Yeah, it's difficult, because my job is to deliver a character, to build the character, to play the character and deliver that performance or whatever to the director of the film, and that's where my job normally starts and stops. And in the case of The Brave, yeah, "showing leg" that's a mild way of putting it. I mean it's like peddling your ass to try to get money to make this film that you wanna make. It's an uncomfortable situation because I'm not a salesman. I mean, I've never been a good talker in that way. I'm not a good salesman, and I don't wanna be. So you end up in these meetings with people that are so absurd because you're sitting there talking about this thing that you feel passionate about, for whatever reason, and at the same time, you're trying to lift their wallets, you know. Yeah, so it's pretty contradictory. It's very strange.

Patrick Fabre: You see it as a contradiction, to me you're an artist, but you had that star on the Walk of Fame. How did you see that?

Johnny: I thought it was funny, you know, there's something perverse that I like about it. Something absurd about it. I mean, a town that's never acknowledged my presence really, I mean, Hollywood being a place that I've sort of been at constant battle with for the last 15, 16 years, and suddenly they want to give me a star on Hollywood Boulevard. Well, a lot of people said to me, why would you take it, and my only answer was, the only answer to that question was, why wouldn't you? It's sort of like being invited to the White House. Even if you're drastically opposed to whomever was president, you'd go just to see what was going on there. Also, I have to admit that I was kind of honored in the sense that that is one of the old Hollywood traditions, you know, the star on the Walk of Fame, and I kind of, you know, it was sort of touching, in a way. The strongest image that stuck in my head was the fact that my daughter, who is now 7 months old, Lily-Rose, mine and Vanessa's daughter, she's 7 months old, and I mean, in 40 years or 60 years or 70 years, she can walk down that street and say, oh yeah, there's my pop's star. There's something kind of nice about it as well. But, yeah, initially I was a little astounded by the offer.

Patrick Fabre: You mentioned Vanessa. What did you feel about the circus surrounding the star and that fact that you presented yourselves for the first time? Was it more of a circus than it normally is?

Johnny: At the star ceremony?

Patrick Fabre: Yeah the press and everything….

Johnny: Well, it was a circus. It was a big circus. Well the beautiful thing about it was that we had….well, I felt great that Vanessa was there with me. I knew that the paparazzi and the press were gonna go ape shit trying to get our photograph and quotes, and whatever, blood and locks of hair, whatever they could have, you know. But we were, you know, I had my mom and my father and my sisters and friends there, and we also had Vanessa's parents and friends went out there. It was great to have her there. She's a great source of strength for me. She's a really calming person.

Patrick Fabre: Can we just finish off talking about music? You play some guitar on albums of a few friends of yours, and there's a rumor that you're playing guitar on Vanessa's next album, is that right? What about you and music?

Johnny: Me and music. Music was always my first love. It was my first love for sure. And still is a huge part of my life. I enjoy playing. I still enjoy playing as much as I did when I was 12 years old, and as I said, it's a great escape from my life. I played on a couple of friends' albums, and recently, I was really flattered that Iggy put a song out that we did together as a B-side, and Vanessa's writing an album right now, getting ready to record it, that I think is going to be very strong, very personal, very, very strong and very deep. She's writing songs herself for the first time, so it's really quite amazing to watch the process, sure, if she asked me to play guitar on the record, wanted me to come in and play some stuff, I would love to do it.

Patrick Fabre: You did that show with Iggy and with…..[ they talk at the same time, so it's difficult to hear ].

Johnny: Yeah, it was fun, you know, unfortunately, I was at the height of a flu, so I was, like, overwhelmed with fever and I was almost hallucinating. I was really hot and hallucinating when I went out and played, but I think it kind of added to the fun. It was a good time. It was the first time that Iggy and I've ever been on stage together at the same time, so that was quite an experience.

Patrick Fabre: Well, thank you!

Johnny: Thank YOU, for, like, one of the best interviews I've ever done in my life!