WHAT'S EATING JOHNNY DEPP?

Director/Producer: Adrian Sibley
Production company: mbc (Mentorn Barraclough Carey) for Channel Four
Transmission: 30 December 1998 at 11.10 pm on C4
Running time: 38 minutes
Transcript typed by Irene - Screen captures by Neil
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Opening montage of movie clips: 'Edward Scissorhands', 'Dead Man', 'Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas', 'Cry Baby', 'The Brave', 'Ed Wood', 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape?', 'Donnie Brasco', more 'Scissorhands'... The initial background music is the instrumental from Oasis' "Fade In/Out" (featuring JD on slide guitar).

Voice-overs on the opening montage:

TERRY GILLIAM: As far as I'm concerned, Johnny Depp is the best actor of his generation. I think he's capable of ANYTHING - there's no limit to his abilities.

JOHN WATERS: He can look like a million different types. He can play 'rich', he can play 'poor', he can play the complete class rainbow.

VINCENT GALLO: Johnny has charisma, and beauty, and persona.

MIKE NEWELL: He dislikes professional crap. He dislikes preciousness in people that he works with.

NOEL GALLAGHER: He'd rather make interesting films than be Tom Cruise. He's been offered all the big action films and that, and he's just not interested in doing that.

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Programme title, over 'the watching eyes' closeup from the opening credits of 'Donnie Brasco':

WHAT'S EATING JOHNNY DEPP?

VINCENT GALLO: Ah, we're talking about Johnny Depp. With a question like that..! He's an actor. He's a movie star. Um, he's a guy, you know, like... This is too serious a question for one man, y'know: Who's Johnny Depp?

INTERVIEW CLIPS with individuals (mainly women!) in the city streets: "He's the coolest. He's cooler than any of the other stars." "Very cool guy." "His attitude; his bad boy attitude." "I heard he got arrested for trashing a hotel or something?" "I think he's great - he chooses his films very wisely." "Remember 'Edward Scissorhands'?" "Yeah, that was a good one." "Doesn't he have a club? I think he has a club." "Didn't River Phoenix die there?" "There's something very mysterious about him. You can't quite tell what he's thinking, but you know that there's something going on behind those eyes." "He's gorgeous. I wish I were 20 years younger!" "(giggling) CUT!"

JOHNNY DEPP: Success is a strange word, y'know. It started making me feel even more freakish, even more weird. More - y'know, more outside.

JOHN WATERS: Johnny Depp has chosen.. taken the most risks in his career of what he has picked. He never plays the same part over and over and over again. He never plays just a matinee idol. He never plays a standard hero. He's always a hero with a flaw. A hero with a weakness, which is incredibly appealing to others. And I think that's the difference: is that he takes roles with 'edge'.

LASSE HALLSTROM: He tells me he has his heart with the outsiders, with the outcast guys. That's the people that he relates the most to. I can't help having the suspicion that he at times hides away behind these odd choices.

FILM CLIP from 'EDWARD SCISSORHANDS': Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest) persuades Edward to emerge from the shadows in the attic. "You don't have to hide from me..."

TERRY GILLIAM: I saw 'Edward Scissorhands' and he first appears with a terrible fright wig on, and he's got pasty makeup, and you think "Oh, this is a joke. This is never going to work." And within ten, fifteen minutes I totally believed the character. Now that's an extraordinary talent: to take such extreme characters who are cartoons or grotesques - things that maybe would almost work better on the stage - and he's able to bring them into a naturalistic world of cinema and make them work.

Short FILM CLIP from 'EDWARD SCISSORHANDS': Peg: "Your father?" Edward: "He didn't wake up."

DENISE DI NOVI: When you work with certain actors you start to have a respect for that magical thing that makes a film star. And people really do either have it or they don't have it. They don't acquire it; they don't learn how to do it. And it's usually recognisable in the very first thing that they do. I mean, you look at '21 Jump Street' - y'know, find an old re-run of that - and see that and you can say he had it on this stupid TV series.

CLIPS from '21 JUMP STREET' opening credits: Officer Tom Hanson in several guises

PATRICK HASBURGH: The concept of the series was basically young-looking police officers who go back in the high schools as undercover cops.

CLIP from a '21 JUMP STREET' episode: "I'm not here to bust kids for smoking pot in the john, OK?" ...

JOHNNY DEPP: In terms of doing the show, the material and all that stuff, I felt like I was working at a fast-food restaurant, y'know? I couldn't stand it - I felt like I was in jail, you know? It had nothing to do with anything that I was about, anything I wanted to do.

PATRICK HASBURGH: Before that Johnny Depp had done, I think, 'Nightmare on Elm Street' or whatever that was; and he did a very very small piece in 'Platoon'; and he did a movie called 'Last Resort'. He was terrific in "Platoon' but the other two movies were pretty much just kind of shitty. And he was very, very new with enormous talents. And '21 Jump Street' was Johnny Depp's garage band. That was the band he played with before he started playing with the Beatles, y'know? And he really really had an opportunity to hone his skills and his talent every single day, and it was remarkable to watch this young actor get better by the minute.

JOHNNY DEPP: It drove me nuts. It drove me crazy. But I can't - I mean, I can't say that it was bad because it did a lot for me; it did give me the opportunity to do other things. It gave me the opportunity to do 'Cry Baby' with John Waters.

Short FILM CLIP from 'CRY BABY': Wade Walker singing the title song.

JOHN WATERS: The way I first came across Johnny Depp, I had written 'Cry Baby' and I was trying to think who was going to play this teen idol. So I purposely went and bought all the magazines that I found out later Johnny really hates. Every teen magazine, and he was on the cover of every one of them. And I felt like a paedophile even buying these things! And Johnny told me how much he HATED being a teen idol, and I said "Well, stick with us - we'll kill that, we'll get rid of that in a second, because we're going to make FUN out of you being a teen idol." And I knew - all that Johnny did once was raise his upper lip like this [demonstrates] - and I knew he would do the part perfectly. He understood what I was looking for and he understood the humour of the whole thing.

FILM CLIP from 'CRY BABY': Wade takes Alison away on his motorbike. "Come on....Hop on, honey"....

JOHN WATERS: Tim Burton came in and saw the dailies in private while we were shooting, and cast him in 'Edward Scissorhands'. I think certainly he had a great deal to do with Johnny Depp's career - Tim Burton.

Short FILM CLIP from 'EDWARD SCISSORHANDS' opening credits

CAROLINE THOMPSON: Both Johnny Depp and Tim Burton have marvellous senses of humour. They both see the world as a very absurd place. They're not unique in that, but they share a way of looking at it. It is clear to me that Tim has chosen Johnny as the reflection of himself on screen and, quite honestly, if I were Tim I would choose Johnny too! Why not?

JOHNNY DEPP: The first time that I read 'Scissorhands' I KNEW that there would never be another one like that; there would never be anything else like that. It was one of the best things I'd read in whatever form - script, book, whatever.

FILM CLIP from 'EDWARD SCISSORHANDS': Edward at the dinner table. "Kevin, it's not polite to stare, dear."....

Voice-over of CAROLINE THOMPSON: I loved his comic timing, in the dinner table scene with the hands and the peas, and the trying to eat; and I was so charmed and touched by.. I don't know, I was charmed and touched by his comic timing in general. I was really pleasantly and happily, happily surprised by that.

JOHNNY DEPP: It was my last day in makeup. I looked in the mirror before I went to the set and realised, yeah, I wasn't going to see that guy any more. I was never going to look into his eyes any more. It was like.. It was bizarre 'cos there was a freedom, there was a kind of a safety, in being that open and that unguarded. And that was... For me, that was a lot of ME in that role, Scissorhands. I identified absolutely, totally, completely with Edward Scissorhands.

FILM CLIP from 'EDWARD SCISSORHANDS': Edward and Kim's last moments together. "Run." ...

Voice-over of MIKE NEWELL: If you want to know about the enigma it's really significant knowing that, because Edward Scissorhands is an outcast, and a freak, and a very sweet and unworldly person who is utterly misunderstood by the world. What Johnny thinks of himself - versus what he appears to be on the outside - is probably very different, but that's how he FEELS.

Montage CLIPS of 'bad boy' JD images/film clips/newspaper headlines

CAROLINE THOMPSON: I'm a big tabloid reader and Johnny has a TERRIBLE bad boy image. And I swear to you, I do feel just like his mother, and I think "That's not my Johnny; that can't be my Johnny; I know Johnny!" But I read about him tearing up hotel rooms -

FILM CLIP of JD's arrest at the Mark Hotel in New York

JOHN WATERS: They made a big deal out of that only because he looked SO good under arrest in that hat - you know the great hat that he has on when they lead him out - great shoes, he looked really handsome under arrest! And it was a great picture! That's why it became such a huge media sensation.

JOHNNY DEPP: They write this whole article based on a photo. That I'm on drugs, or that I'm a junkie, that I'm a hellraiser and, you know, out all night causing trouble. [Shrugs] It's ludicrous, man.

MONTAGE of 'JD and chicks' film/tv drama footage

Voice-over of VINCENT GALLO: Can you imagine how many chicks want to bang Johnny? Can you imagine the fellatio that's thrown at him all day long? After a while... I mean, it's just - it's difficult!

FILM FOOTAGE from film premieres: Winona Ryder, JD, JD with Kate Moss

Voice-over of JOHN WATERS: Johnny's been very - he's a serial monogamist, if anything. He's only been with a few women since I've known him, and for long periods. And he's been very faithful to these women, so he's hardly a womaniser!

LILI TAYLOR: Y'know, he does have a temper: don't get me wrong. But the temper and the bad boy are very different things. And it's like: if you attempt to take something away from him, or attempt to cross his dream in a way, he'll fight! He will.

MIKE NEWELL: He trod on my toes a couple of times. He doesn't like people who are ill-prepared. He HATES cliche. He just didn't.. he found the shot really boring... [Shrugs] Nobody likes having that stuff pointed out to them.

VINCENT GALLO: There is that whole part of him, that public figure who's invented this persona. And one can't help it: everyone wants to be cool and hip in their own legend. But the truth about him is that the real person - the real poor white kid from Florida that I got to know - is one of the more interesting people that I've met in my life.

PATRICK HASBURGH: I think he was born in Kentucky and moved to Florida when his parents split up, and ended up quitting high school at 16 and started a rock & roll band, and he and Sal lived in the back of a station wagon. And then they headed off to Hollywood to be rock & roll stars.

SAL JENCO: He never verbalised that he wished to become an actor, although I can remember that he did love film. But his main love at the time was music - and women.

NOEL GALLAGHER: From what I can remember him telling me, he was in a band before he was an actor, Johnny, so - well, his band didn't take off. The story that he told me was that he met Nicholas Cage, and Nicholas Cage said to him: "Well, fuck that, you want to go and try acting." And he said "Oh, I can't do that!" And he said: "If I can do it, anyone can do it." So he went and tried his hand at acting. The rest is history, isn't it?

FILM of the exterior of Vicki McKay's house. Vicki is shown reading 'Rolling Stone' (the Hall of Fame issue with JD on the cover).

Voice-over of VICKI MCKAY: My name is Vicki McKay and I collect everything and anything I can get my hands on, on Johnny Depp. I started watching '21 Jump Street' and just became interested in him - because of his good looks, I imagine. I believe I have the largest collection of memorabilia on Johnny Depp.

VICKI MCKAY: This is the majority of my collection: on the floor here are the magazines: about 250 magazines. I keep them in archival plastic so I can save them forever. The Internet's very important to my collection. I've made contacts with people all over the world, and they just love to send me things, and that's [laughing] one of the joys of my life! I started - I bought my computer in 1995 and for the first year I just made contacts, and in 1996 I was given a Web page by the Webmaster of The Temple of Kate Moss.

FILM of the Johnnydeppfan.com Home page, monthly newsletter and other web pages on the site

VICKI MCKAY: My Webpage contains practically my whole collection, and every month I do a newsletter to people - fans - up to date on what Johnny's doing; and the new films that he's working on; and whatever else - whatever else is new in his life.

DENISE DI NOVI: Early in his career he was a teen hearthrob and a pin-up guy and all that, and he was IN AGONY over it.

FILM of a 1988 '21 Jump Street Day in Chicago', with shots of JD & the swarming fans. "He is so gorgeous, he is GORGEOUS." "His eyes, and his cheekbones, his hair: he's beautiful! Everything! I love Johnny Depp!"

JOHNNY DEPP: I was this kind of - I was this product: Teen Boy, Poster Boy. [Resigned look] I was all that stuff that I WASN'T. [Bitter laugh] But they made me that and [shudders] oh, it was so horribly uncomfortable.

DENISE DI NOVI: I think it's tapered off. I mean, he's a great-looking guy, but I think his acting ability has superseded his looks.

TERRY GILLIAM: One of the great things about Johnny is that I don't think he has any ego or vanity when it comes to becoming a character. A lot of actors refuse going all the way in giving up their good looks.. Whatever.. Not so with Johnny. It took a while to get him to shave his head, but he knew that this was inevitable and he was going to do it. And it wasn't just that he shaves his head, but then he has a little toupe with 17 sad little hairs on it. [Laughing] So it's even SADDER baldness! And he did other things: he had plastic foams behind his ears [demonstrates] that stuck them out. He loses himself totally, and I think he's escaping from Johnny Depp a lot.

FILM CLIP from 'FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS': Raoul Duke at the typewriter, with voice-over "San Francisco in the middle 60's was a very special time and place to be a part of..."

JOHN WATERS: He's picking film projects by the script and by directors, and it seems to me that is the best way for him. He's an auteur actor.

VINCENT GALLO: If you want to see Johnny Depp's greatest moments in film, look at the scenes where he has no dialogue. He's the most brilliant listener in a movie.

FILM CLIP from 'ARIZONA DREAM': Paul Leger (Vincent Gallo) & girlfriend at the movies, with Axel peering over their shoulders.

Voice-over of VINCENT GALLO: There's a scene in 'Arizona Dream' where we're at a movie theatre and they're showing 'Raging Bull'. All he's doing is watching me hustle these three girls. I'm telling her "We can make love, but do not touch my face or my hair." And I start rambling on.. And I say "Do you think f'ing Johnny Depp - like, does anybody touch his face?" I just said it, do y'know what I mean? I just said it, I just was goofing, 'cos I thought we were just shooting a rehearsal. Johnny is FLAWLESS in the scene. He's just brilliant in the scene. He doesn't flinch. I say his name in the scene and he doesn't flinch. He blows me off the screen, doing nothing in the scene. And it's my most animated scene in the film.

LASSE HALLSTROM: The first time I saw Johnny Depp was in the Kusturica movie 'Arizona Dream'. I found his performance subtle and honest, the way he can convey sad emotions through his eyes. And working with him confirmed what I saw in that movie. There's no way that you could force Johnny Depp to make a 'theatrical' choice or a false choice. His choices always come from an inner place, from an emotional place that he can relate to.

FILM CLIP from 'WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE?': Becky (Juliette Lewis) and Gilbert lying by the pond. "I want Mama to take aerobics classes, I want Ellen to grow up...."

JOHNNY DEPP: I believe that everything is in the eyes and in the body language. If it's.. If it's honest in the eyes and in the body and in the movement - then it's there.

FILM CLIPS of an existing Silent Movie theatre

Voice-over of TERRY GILLIAM: You begin to think that Johnny's a silent movie star, is what he really is, and he just happens to be born a little bit late. He has the same kind of skills as a Buster Keaton or a Charlie Chaplin has: they use their entire being.

FILM CLIP of Buster Keaton in 'STEAMBOAT BILL'

Voice-over of JOHNNY DEPP: I admire those guys - almost more than anyone.

FILM CLIP from 'BENNY AND JOON': Sam performing to the audience in the park.

Voice-over of JEREMIAH CHECHIK: There are a lot of scenes in the movie that are in a way the set-pieces of the movie, where he does all of the kind of overt things. But for me the beauty was: Walking down a street. Just the most simple ways to move, which you find throughout the movie. The way he would turn; a reaction. Just a very, very subtle openness; a sense of heartbreak.

FILM CLIP from 'BENNY AND JOON': Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson) and Sam in the 'attempted kiss & blue balloon' scene

Voice-over of JOHNNY DEPP: What the silent guys were able to say with their eyes, or with a tilt of the head - the way they'd turn their head or something - they could say everything. They didn't NEED words.

CAROLINE THOMPSON: Johnny was always the passive centre of the activity swirling around him. 'Ed Wood' was a departure for him, it seems to me, to the extent that he was the initiator and the enthusiast and the force behind all the activity going on in the movie. And it was a completely different kind of role for him.

PHOTOS of Edward D Wood Jnr with Voice-over of JOHNNY DEPP: He'd gotten the Golden Turkey award for Worst Director in history.. Knowing what I knew about the guy - his passion, his drive to make something good that was from him and of him -

JOHNNY DEPP: - I fell in love with the guy, y'know? And I thought it would be nice to make the film a real love-letter to him, and to try to clean up what filth had been thrown on his name.

FILM CLIP from 'ED WOOD': Ed at the start of his career "Why, if I had half the chance, I could make an entire movie using this stock footage..."

MARTIN LANDAU: It's an odd movie, and it needed someone who could lift it. In other words, bring a reality that's not quite real to it, and yet a great reality.

FILM CLIP from 'ED WOOD': Ed has been summoned to Bela's home. "Bela, what's in the needle?"...

MARTIN LANDAU: There's no self-consciousness; no holding back. And that's what I like about him, you know: he jumps in deep water - and he swims!

MIKE NEWELL: Any older actor who works with him is almost automatically going to give a better performance than he would give without being paired with Johnny.

FILM CLIP from 'DON JUAN DE MARCO': Dr Jack Mickler (Brando) is hoisted up by crane to meet Don Juan de Marco

Voice-over of JOHNNY DEPP: Within the first 10 seconds I was completely at ease with Brando, and we had a great time. The first scene that we had together, and I'm on the billboard in the full Don Juan costume. And I come up to him with the sword and I put it to his throat...

FILM CLIP from 'DON JUAN DE MARCO': "Where is Don Francisco de Silva? I will fight none other. Where is he!"...

JOHNNY DEPP: ...And after the scene, he came to me and he grabbed my hand and he came up real close to my ear [miming the action], and he went: [whispers] "You nailed it." [Smiling] You know? And that was like - y'know, you just FLOAT after that... I just floated away. [drifting his hand towards the ceiling]

FILM and PHOTO MONTAGE of Brando, Depp & Dunaway goofing around, in costume, at the final beach location from 'Don Juan de Marco'

Voice-over of JOHN WATERS: I don't know if Johnny aspires to be Marlon Brando. I know he very much looks up to him, likes him.. I think [laughing] if ever Johnny was going to have a male lover, it would be Marlon Brando.

FILM CLIPS from 'DONNIE BRASCO': location shots of a bar/disco, with Al Pacino & Johnny Depp messing around (dancing cheek-to-cheek across the room!), plus footage of the same set from the released film.

MIKE NEWELL: Al was very, very relaxed and didn't feel that he had to compete in any way whatsoever.

FILM CLIP from 'DONNIE BRASCO': Lefty & Donnie driving round the streets in a red car & arguing about Lefty smoking

Voice-over of MIKE NEWELL: Johnny was working with Al very close to the beginning of our shooting, and they were in a car. Suddenly - absolutely unmistakeably - this huge, ripping fart! And Johnny said "I'm terribly sorry.. I'm terribly sorry." And Al said "Oh..." [shrugging it off] And a little silence fell. And there was another HUGE fart. And Johnny said "I - I'm - what can I say? I'm terribly sorry." And Al opened a window. And then there was a THIRD one. At which Al kind of looked at him. And then - it was a whoopee cushion. And Al thought that that was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

FILM CLIP from 'DONNIE BRASCO': Lefty & Donnie in a car late at night. "What if I can hand you a bagful of money right now? You know what I'm saying?"...

Voice-over of DENISE DI NOVI: I was so thrilled to see 'Donnie Brasco', because I think it was another level for Johnny. You know, a different character. I think he had really created a niche for playing the 'strange guy'. And though Donnie Brasco's not your average person, I think it was a little broader context, the movie and the character.

JOHN WATERS: Johnny makes those movies, at the same time not worrying about how it's going to affect his commercial thing.. But I don't think it does ever. I think if he's in a movie that maybe is a critical success and does not make a huge amount of money, still it only ADDS to the lustre of his career. And he made those movies more successful maybe than they ever would have been without him.

Short colour CLIP of 'DEAD MAN' title (The name spelt out in human bones over a guitar)

NOEL GALLAGHER: He just does what he wants to do, really. My favourite film is 'Dead Man' - which a lot of people haven't seen - because... 'cos it's just WEIRD, y'know.

FILM CLIP from 'DEAD MAN': William Blake on the train to Machine

NOEL GALLAGHER: I think it's hilarious, man. I think his character looks as puzzled as he looks [laughing] when he's playing the part! But it's a great film.

FILM CLIP from 'DEAD MAN': William Blake walking through the town of Machine

TERRY GILLIAM: Once he's there, there's no hesitation. He doesn't have second thoughts. He commits himself. And he could go 'the main road'. He knows it. And I think it's not the easiest thing to constantly say "Alright, I'm going to turn down this huge project, and I'm going to do this odd thing." But, they're not 'odd' things - they're brave things; they're interesting things. They're characters that you don't normally get to do in mainstream movies.

JOHNNY DEPP: I think that the movie-going audience would like to see something different, and I think that the Hollywood studio system has under-estimated them, and fed them prefabricated, pre-packaged.. [searching for a word].. meat, y'know? Not even meat: there's by-products.. [smiling] toe-nails.. soya beans.. in it. And I think that's unfortunate. So I would like - for as long as I'm able to get a job - I would like to be able to say that I did what I wanted.

PATRICK HASBURGH: In an odd way, Hollywood has no control over him. I mean, he just wants to make good movies. He wants to make cool movies. I really think Johnny wants to make the movies that he wants to go see. And I think that a lot of this town that runs on money doesn't give that element. I mean, Johnny Depp would much rather play slide guitar on Oasis' new album than be in 'Mission Impossible', because Mission Impossible's BAD WORK.

NOEL GALLAGHER: As it works out, he's actually one of the best guitarists I've ever seen. He's really really good. He doesn't actually think he's any good, but he's a fine guitarist. That's why we got him to play the slide guitar solo on 'Fade In/Out' on the last album, 'cos I couldn't play it. Afterwards, everybody.. we were rehearsing for the tour: it took me about 6 months to work it out, what he was actually playing.

TERRY GILLIAM: He likes using his talent to push the envelope, you know? Expand it; see what's out there; explore the bits round the edge, not the stuff down the middle. I think the one film he did - 'Nick of Time' - which was the 'commercial' film, I just thought he was miscast in it and I told him that. I think it's the weakest thing he's ever done.

PATRICK HASBURGH: And I think he learned a great lesson. Maybe he didn't learn a lesson - but the lesson he learned is that "I'm really not going to do mainstream movies. They don't appeal to me, and maybe people don't want to see me in a mainstream movie."

Short FILM CLIP of 'THE BRAVE': opening titles

Voice-over of PATRICK HASBURGH: 'Cos he just doesn't care about the money. I mean, he put an awful lot of his own money into his movie 'The Brave' - his own movie that he wrote and directed. That's a pretty honourable thing. I don't have that kind of courage.

FILM CLIP of interior location shoots on 'THE BRAVE'

Voice-over of TERRY GILLIAM: 'The Brave' is a painful experience I think for Johnny because he had a project that he wanted to do.. And he directed it and then they wanted it in Cannes - and he never had a chance to finish the film properly.

Short FILM CLIP from 'THE BRAVE': McCarthy (Brando): "Let's have a drink....Tell me, are you afraid to die?" Raphael: "Are you?" McCarthy: "No, not now. No, I'm not afraid to die."

CLOSE UP of scathing Cannes film review of 'The Brave'

Voice-over of TERRY GILLIAM: And then he was just beaten to death. They hated it.

JOHNNY DEPP: The film hurt A LOT to make. I was very naive initially; I thought "Well, yeah, I can do this. I can direct and I can do this; I can do both." But at the same time - it's really.. it's almost impossible. They're.. they're just opposing things.

TERRY GILLIAM: If there's a weakness in the film, it is these two sides of Johnny that haven't quite found the middle ground; how you put it together. Because there are scenes in it that are like Kusturica's films: they're fabulous, outrageous. And then the other film, the other part of the film is incredibly real and dark.

FILM CLIP from 'THE BRAVE': Raphael fighting savagely with another man, with two women looking on. Raphael bites off part of his opponent's ear and spits it out, while one of the women laughs.

FILM CLIP of an interior location set on 'THE BRAVE', with JD directing

Voice-over of JOHNNY DEPP: Will I direct again? Yes, definitely. I don't think that I would direct again AND be in it, or be the lead role in it. But I will definitely, yeah, I'll definitely do it again.

FILM CLIP from location shooting on 'FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS': Terry Gilliam explaining the set-up for a shot, with JD looking on & laughing.

Voice-over of JOHNNY DEPP: I LOVE that idea of total collaboration. Not to the point of compromise or anything like that, but just taking advice and learning from other people.

Short FILM CLIP from 'FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS': Raoul staggering around a casino. "A drugged person can learn to cope with things like seeing their dead grandmother crawling up their leg with a knife in her teeth. But nobody should be asked to handle this trip."

TERRY GILLIAM: It's mysterious - this ability that he has to invent, and just spontaneously do things, at the same time being within this structure that we've set up of actions.

FILM CLIP from 'FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS': Raoul with a towel over his head, inhaling vapours....

Voice-over of TERRY GILLIAM: There's a moment when the character takes this drug called Adrenochrome. He blacks out, and he wakes up and the world is a very different place. This hotel suite they're in has completely been trashed.

FILM CLIP from 'FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS': The 'morning after' scene. "What kind of rat-bastard psychotic would play that song right now at this moment?"...

TERRY GILLIAM: ..It's underwater, half-way. So: we've got the opening shot and I .. The night before, I was lying in bed; it was one of those things: "Hmm, something isn't working; we need MORE here.." So I thought, wouldn't it be nice if Johnny woke up and he had one of these lizard tails strapped to him. And as I came in in the morning, I said "What do you think about this?" And he said "Ah! Jesus, I've been thinking of something as well."..

JOHNNY DEPP: ...So I said "I'd like to tape the microphone to my face [mimes the taping] with electrical tape, and then tape the tape-recorder to my chest, for efficiency"...

TERRY GILLIAM: ..Immediately, we've got a character waking up from a nightmare drug and he's completely transformed.

FILM CLIP from 'FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS': Raoul wandering around his trashed hotel room viewing the damage.

Voice-over of TERRY GILLIAM: That's pretty extraordinary, and it's a huge leap. A lot of people.. neither.. most people would not DO that, because it's so absurd. And yet: phew!!

JOHNNY DEPP: That's the only way to work, y'know, that's really the only way to do it - properly - is collaboration. And that's trust: it's a director who trusts an actor, and an actor who trusts a director. That's - that's the way to do it.

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CLOSING MONTAGE of movie clips intercut with interview soundbites

intercut with shots from 'EDWARD SCISSORHANDS':
VINCENT GALLO: I can't think of anybody else who has that kind of cool, or that kind of status, who's able to be peripheral around the mainstream without really having to pander to it.

intercut with shots from 'DEAD MAN':
NOEL GALLAGHER: I like what he does because he seems to be.. he seems like he means it, if you know what I mean, whereas other people seem to me like they're just doing it for the money. He's sort of in the business because of his art more than because of his bank balance.

intercut with shots of JD with Roman Polanski, and of 'ED WOOD' location shots:
JOHN WATERS: Johnny Depp's future, I think, is a long, long career; ageing gracefully; working with great directors. I mean, he's working with Polanski now. I mean, I almost could have PREDICTED that - what a great match! He's going to do Tim Burton's movie with Christina Ricci. The next two projects he's got coming up, right there, are with really strong directors with huge bodies of work. And that's what attracts Johnny Depp to a project, and that's the same way why the directors want to work with Johnny Depp: because of HIS body of work.

FILM CLIP from 'THE BRAVE': Raphael, standing breast-high in the river, deliberately sinks beneath the water. Bubbles rise to the surface...

Voice-over of JOHN WATERS: And I think he brings to any project PRESTIGE, and really, really, TALENT, that very few actors have in Hollywood today.

CLOSING CREDITS
CLOSING MUSIC: instrumental from Oasis' "Fade In/Out"

Alongside the rolling credits:

AL PACINO (in different styles of delivery):
Johnny, how do you manage to be so cool?
Johnny, how do you manage to be so cool?
Johnny, how do you manage to be so cool?
Johnny, how do you manage to be so cool?
[Laughing]
Johnny - Johnny be good!

END

What's Eating Johnny Depp? : some notes on the transcript
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Note 1: This UK review of Johnny Depp's work was scheduled as a conclusion to the DEPP film season on Channel 4. The films screened during the season were:

DON JUAN DE MARCO (21/12/98)
ARIZONA DREAM (21/12/98)
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (27/12/98)
DEAD MAN (29/12/98)
BENNY AND JOON (30/12/98)

Note 2: The people interviewed in the documentary are:

JEREMIAH CHECHIK: Director 'Benny and Joon'
DENISE DI NOVI: Producer 'Edward Scissorhands' and 'Ed Wood'
NOEL GALLAGHER: friend
VINCENT GALLO: Co-star 'Arizona Dream'
TERRY GILLIAM: Director 'Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas'
LASSE HALLSTROM: Director 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape?'
PATRICK HASBURGH: Co-creator '21 Jump Street'
SAL JENCO: friend
MARTIN LANDAU: Co-star 'Ed Wood'
VICKI MCKAY: Owner johnnydeppfan.com website
MIKE NEWELL: Director 'Donnie Brasco'
LILI TAYLOR: Co-star 'Arizona Dream'
CAROLINE THOMPSON: Writer 'Edward Scissorhands'
JOHN WATERS: Director 'Cry Baby'

Note 3: The transcription can't convey the wonderful visual imagery of this documentary. The cutting, mixing & presentation of images was really imaginative: film clips were overlaid with each other, or skewed at oblique angles across the screen, or shown on small monitors; interviews were heavily interspersed with film & tv montages. The visuals & music gave a strong 'indie' feel to the programme, which was brilliantly realised. (Not the usual slip-shod 'filler' that normally passes for film critique!) Let's hope it gets transmitted soon in the U.S.

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