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Depp by Chocolate
Source: Edward Douglas
July 11, 2005
www.comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php
Edward Scissorhands. Ed Wood. Ichabod Crane. Those are the three characters played by Johnny Depp in the movies of his long-time friend and collaborator, director Tim Burton. Now you can add Roald Dahl's outrageous chocolate factory mogul Willy Wonka to the list, as Depp reunites with Burton for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. For the duo best known for the strange characters they've created for their movies, Wonka may indeed be the strangest, probably even more so, because this is meant as a movie for kids.
Since Depp was down in the Bahamas shooting the sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean, ComingSoon.net joined him there to talk about possibly his most outrageous character yet.
CS!: What was the appeal of playing Willy Wonka and were you a fan of Gene Wilder's version of the character?
Johnny Depp: Well, I was definitely a Gene Wilder fan but that's not what drove me to this. Initially, the material was one of the seductive elements certainly. Even though I love Roald Dahl's works, more than anything it was the fact that it was Tim (Burton) asking me to do it. As luck would have it, this material and that character was a great opportunity, and I knew that as soon as he mentioned it and as soon as I said I'm in, I knew there were great risks involved. I could have very easily blown it. But it's exciting for an actor. It's a challenge.
CS!: What kind of risks did you feel that you were taking by playing this role?
Depp: To the fans of the book and the fans of the 1971 film, it's a very well loved character, both the book and Gene Wilder's brilliant performance in the film. I knew that I would have to take it somewhere, far away from Gene Wilder and the area that he had stomped. Having that amazing material by Roald Dahl and taking that and trying to interpret what he might have liked to seen in terms of cinema. What kind of character would he have liked? There's such dark and light in that story in such a subversive kind of undertone and a twisted perverted kind of side to the character that I ran into the direction that seemed right to me.
Did you enjoy playing a character with no social skills?
Depp: Yes, I did enjoy playing someone with slightly twisted social skills. It's a bit fun playing these characters that for whatever reasons can do things that I would never dream of doing or speak to people in a way I couldn't bring myself ever to do. There's great fun in that, and once you have learned to talk like them or be them, there's great safety in it.
CS!: You've been very open about your influences for Captain Jack Sparrow. Was there anyone who was your model for Wonka?
Depp: On this, there wasn't specifically any one or two guys that were models, but there were memories that I have as a little kid, when I was like 5 or 6 years old, watching children's shows and children show hosts like Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood or local guys like Uncle Al. I remembered thinking, even then, how really odd it was the way they spoke; that kind of bizarre musical rhythm cadence to their speech pattern like "Good morning children, and now today we're going to …" I made that speech pattern one of the main ingredients for Wonka and stretched it out a bit. I was also thinking about game show hosts that I remembered on television growing up and that kind of perpetual sort of grimace on their face. I kept thinking that they can't be like that at home. That led me to believe that they put on a mask with that all important positive smile. Those two things became the basis, and then doing stuff for the look of Wonka was incredibly important. To put that costume on and click those veneers into my mouth for the teeth which actually changed the shape of my face a little bit.
Who came up with the idea for him to have sort of a Prince Valiant haircut?
Depp: That is something that came to me early on when I was making little sketches of what might be right for the character and that was it. I just did this strange, almost like a Brian Jones kind of bob and super short bangs, cause I was thinking about the guy in terms of having lived in this self-induced isolation. He's removed himself from the modern world, so therefore his line of reference would be very, very dated. I thought that maybe he had locked himself in a room with a stack of Herman's Hermits records or something. That also became part of his speech pattern, which would be very, very dated. He talks jive to one of the kids.
CS!: Why are you and Tim drawn to such quirky characters?
Depp: One thing that Tim and I share is a fascination with the human animal, and we also share the idea that most people in life, especially the ones who are considered super normal, if you really take a step back and observe them, you'll realize that they're actually completely out of their minds. Most people are really nuts and that's fascinating to me. I think that Tim feels the same way. I just love and respect Tim so much that I would do anything with him. The thing that I most enjoy about our relationship, our friendship, is that there's a lot of trust. One minute he and I are talking very deeply about Captain Kangaroo and then the next thing I know, we're doing impersonations of Sammy Davis Jr. and Charles Nelson Riley. We can go anywhere.
CS!: Did you talk a lot about the script with Tim or ask for many changes?
Depp: Yeah, Tim is very good about stuff like that, and John August, the screenwriter, was great about it as well. I can't help myself. I need to do it; otherwise I'd feel like I'm held captive or something. There are times when you know that you are doing it too much and you can stop yourself, but there are times when I feel strongly about adding something, and the trick is that you can always try anything; do a take of anything and then go back to the page. Tim was great about it and always has been.
CS!: What did you think of their decision to add some flashbacks to Wonka's childhood to add depth to the character?
Depp: The first thing I thought was that it was very brave of [screenwriter] John August and Tim to make that decision, but still be able to keep it in the spirit of Roald Dahl's intent. That was no small undertaking and in terms of cinema, that's a great tool. It's a beautiful luxury that you have as an actor because it explains a lot of where Wonka comes from. But for an audience it gives you a bit more insight to what this guy is and how he's become what he's become.
CS!: How was it working with the different kids in the movie?
Depp: Freddie [Highmore] is pretty impressive. The first thing that struck me about Freddie when I met him on "Finding Neverland" were his eyes. It wasn't just because they're these beautiful piercing blue eyes, but there's a purity in Freddie that is astonishing. It's mesmerizing, and it is like he's incapable of lying or telling a lie. Then you get to work with him and you see what his abilities are as an actor, which are endless. Beyond all of the great things that Freddie is, he wants to play football. He goes on vacations with his family, and he's just a really normal, very well grounded kid.
CS!: And how did the other kids in the film react to you being on the set?
Depp: They were great. For about the first ten days, you get these kinds of looks, and they sort of check each other out. They weren't quite sure how to deal with it, but then they caught on and started to enjoy it. They were great. I remember one scene with Jordan, who played Mike Teevee. I had this idea that [Wonka] should speak jive, so we were doing a rehearsal, and I walked up, put my hand on him and said "Slide me some skin Daddy-O." He tilted in a backwards angle, looking at me saying "That's not in the script." (Laughs) It killed me, and I just burst with hysteric laughter
CS!: Which of the children do you think you were most like as a child?
Depp: I'd like to think that I was like Charlie, but I don't think I was, because my mom uses the term "hellion." I wasn't obnoxious or precocious, but I was curious. There were a lot of practical jokes and things like that. I got on her nerves basically. I pissed her off quite frequently.
CS!: Do you think that kids might find your character to be a bit dark?
Depp: When I'm by myself going through the script, I would be mortified if I found myself reading and be the character. I could never forgive myself for that so what I did with Wonka is that I tested it on my daughter Lily Rose to see if I was going in the right direction. A lot of times what happens is that you come up with these ideas and you never get to try them until maybe a read-through, but if you aren't ready to expose the guy, like with the read-through for Wonka, I read just like me. I was just talking to [Lily Rose] one day, and I started to do the Wonka voice and she kind of lit up a little bit and gave me this "Where's that coming from?" I thought I was on the right track.
CS!: Do you allow yourself to stay in the character between scenes?
Depp: No. I've never bought into that. What kills me is the image sticks in my head of a guy playing Henry the VIII, for example, walking over to the craft services table, and grabbing a hand full of Fritos instead of some big chicken leg. It's that kind of thing. I think that once you have got the character and once you have known the guy, at least for me, it's pretty simple to slide in and out.
CS!: Of course, we have to ask about the everpresent Michael Jackson comparisons. Did that ever come up while you were making the movie?
Depp: It actually never crossed my mind, oddly enough. Michael Jackson was not an ingredient or inspiration for the character at all. A few people have mentioned it, and it kind of took me by surprised because I really didn't expect that. I guess on some level I can understand. There's a little bit of a look, but you can easily think of some other recluse like Howard Hughes as well. Roald Dahl wrote this book and wrote this character, and it was published in 1964. Michael Jackson was a wee lad then, so I don't think he was inspired by him either.
CS!: Did you get to spend a lot of time with the Oompa-Loompa man himself, Deep Roy?
Depp: He's a ball, and a real force to be reckoned with. I started calling him the hardest working man in show business. I'd see him on a Tuesday, and he'd be in his red outfit and then on the Wednesday he'd be in his blue outfit and then on Thursday the white one and then on Friday he's dressed up as like this 80's metal star. He was all over the place and just incredible.
CS!: As an actor, are you able to appreciate the fact Tim Burton decided to use real sets rather than a lot of CGI backgrounds?
Depp: It makes all the difference in the world between standing in the room of blue screen, because everything was there. For me, it's amazing and a great gift, especially for kids. A couple of them had never been on a movie set before, and to have all that stuff available to you. To see, to touch, in the case of the chocolate river, to actually smell--it smelled bad after a couple of weeks, it really got funky. I appreciate that, because that's how movies were done a long time ago and that's how movies should still be done. I also appreciate that there are times when you must use CGI.
CS!: You've now received Oscar nominations two years in a row. Would you like to get another one for this film?
Depp: It's not something that I think about everyday because I try not to think about that kind of stuff. I'm really flattered and honored that I've been able to get the nominations and various awards that I ended up getting. That was like totally unexpected and shocking to me. In fact that's sort of enough for me. The nominations are fine. I don't need more. I don't really want to go up in front of all those people and say thanks. That just scares the sh*t out of me. It would be nice, but I don't need it.
www.comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php
Source: Edward Douglas
July 11, 2005
www.comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php
Edward Scissorhands. Ed Wood. Ichabod Crane. Those are the three characters played by Johnny Depp in the movies of his long-time friend and collaborator, director Tim Burton. Now you can add Roald Dahl's outrageous chocolate factory mogul Willy Wonka to the list, as Depp reunites with Burton for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. For the duo best known for the strange characters they've created for their movies, Wonka may indeed be the strangest, probably even more so, because this is meant as a movie for kids.
Since Depp was down in the Bahamas shooting the sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean, ComingSoon.net joined him there to talk about possibly his most outrageous character yet.
CS!: What was the appeal of playing Willy Wonka and were you a fan of Gene Wilder's version of the character?
Johnny Depp: Well, I was definitely a Gene Wilder fan but that's not what drove me to this. Initially, the material was one of the seductive elements certainly. Even though I love Roald Dahl's works, more than anything it was the fact that it was Tim (Burton) asking me to do it. As luck would have it, this material and that character was a great opportunity, and I knew that as soon as he mentioned it and as soon as I said I'm in, I knew there were great risks involved. I could have very easily blown it. But it's exciting for an actor. It's a challenge.
CS!: What kind of risks did you feel that you were taking by playing this role?
Depp: To the fans of the book and the fans of the 1971 film, it's a very well loved character, both the book and Gene Wilder's brilliant performance in the film. I knew that I would have to take it somewhere, far away from Gene Wilder and the area that he had stomped. Having that amazing material by Roald Dahl and taking that and trying to interpret what he might have liked to seen in terms of cinema. What kind of character would he have liked? There's such dark and light in that story in such a subversive kind of undertone and a twisted perverted kind of side to the character that I ran into the direction that seemed right to me.
Did you enjoy playing a character with no social skills?
Depp: Yes, I did enjoy playing someone with slightly twisted social skills. It's a bit fun playing these characters that for whatever reasons can do things that I would never dream of doing or speak to people in a way I couldn't bring myself ever to do. There's great fun in that, and once you have learned to talk like them or be them, there's great safety in it.
CS!: You've been very open about your influences for Captain Jack Sparrow. Was there anyone who was your model for Wonka?
Depp: On this, there wasn't specifically any one or two guys that were models, but there were memories that I have as a little kid, when I was like 5 or 6 years old, watching children's shows and children show hosts like Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood or local guys like Uncle Al. I remembered thinking, even then, how really odd it was the way they spoke; that kind of bizarre musical rhythm cadence to their speech pattern like "Good morning children, and now today we're going to …" I made that speech pattern one of the main ingredients for Wonka and stretched it out a bit. I was also thinking about game show hosts that I remembered on television growing up and that kind of perpetual sort of grimace on their face. I kept thinking that they can't be like that at home. That led me to believe that they put on a mask with that all important positive smile. Those two things became the basis, and then doing stuff for the look of Wonka was incredibly important. To put that costume on and click those veneers into my mouth for the teeth which actually changed the shape of my face a little bit.
Who came up with the idea for him to have sort of a Prince Valiant haircut?
Depp: That is something that came to me early on when I was making little sketches of what might be right for the character and that was it. I just did this strange, almost like a Brian Jones kind of bob and super short bangs, cause I was thinking about the guy in terms of having lived in this self-induced isolation. He's removed himself from the modern world, so therefore his line of reference would be very, very dated. I thought that maybe he had locked himself in a room with a stack of Herman's Hermits records or something. That also became part of his speech pattern, which would be very, very dated. He talks jive to one of the kids.
CS!: Why are you and Tim drawn to such quirky characters?
Depp: One thing that Tim and I share is a fascination with the human animal, and we also share the idea that most people in life, especially the ones who are considered super normal, if you really take a step back and observe them, you'll realize that they're actually completely out of their minds. Most people are really nuts and that's fascinating to me. I think that Tim feels the same way. I just love and respect Tim so much that I would do anything with him. The thing that I most enjoy about our relationship, our friendship, is that there's a lot of trust. One minute he and I are talking very deeply about Captain Kangaroo and then the next thing I know, we're doing impersonations of Sammy Davis Jr. and Charles Nelson Riley. We can go anywhere.
CS!: Did you talk a lot about the script with Tim or ask for many changes?
Depp: Yeah, Tim is very good about stuff like that, and John August, the screenwriter, was great about it as well. I can't help myself. I need to do it; otherwise I'd feel like I'm held captive or something. There are times when you know that you are doing it too much and you can stop yourself, but there are times when I feel strongly about adding something, and the trick is that you can always try anything; do a take of anything and then go back to the page. Tim was great about it and always has been.
CS!: What did you think of their decision to add some flashbacks to Wonka's childhood to add depth to the character?
Depp: The first thing I thought was that it was very brave of [screenwriter] John August and Tim to make that decision, but still be able to keep it in the spirit of Roald Dahl's intent. That was no small undertaking and in terms of cinema, that's a great tool. It's a beautiful luxury that you have as an actor because it explains a lot of where Wonka comes from. But for an audience it gives you a bit more insight to what this guy is and how he's become what he's become.
CS!: How was it working with the different kids in the movie?
Depp: Freddie [Highmore] is pretty impressive. The first thing that struck me about Freddie when I met him on "Finding Neverland" were his eyes. It wasn't just because they're these beautiful piercing blue eyes, but there's a purity in Freddie that is astonishing. It's mesmerizing, and it is like he's incapable of lying or telling a lie. Then you get to work with him and you see what his abilities are as an actor, which are endless. Beyond all of the great things that Freddie is, he wants to play football. He goes on vacations with his family, and he's just a really normal, very well grounded kid.
CS!: And how did the other kids in the film react to you being on the set?
Depp: They were great. For about the first ten days, you get these kinds of looks, and they sort of check each other out. They weren't quite sure how to deal with it, but then they caught on and started to enjoy it. They were great. I remember one scene with Jordan, who played Mike Teevee. I had this idea that [Wonka] should speak jive, so we were doing a rehearsal, and I walked up, put my hand on him and said "Slide me some skin Daddy-O." He tilted in a backwards angle, looking at me saying "That's not in the script." (Laughs) It killed me, and I just burst with hysteric laughter
CS!: Which of the children do you think you were most like as a child?
Depp: I'd like to think that I was like Charlie, but I don't think I was, because my mom uses the term "hellion." I wasn't obnoxious or precocious, but I was curious. There were a lot of practical jokes and things like that. I got on her nerves basically. I pissed her off quite frequently.
CS!: Do you think that kids might find your character to be a bit dark?
Depp: When I'm by myself going through the script, I would be mortified if I found myself reading and be the character. I could never forgive myself for that so what I did with Wonka is that I tested it on my daughter Lily Rose to see if I was going in the right direction. A lot of times what happens is that you come up with these ideas and you never get to try them until maybe a read-through, but if you aren't ready to expose the guy, like with the read-through for Wonka, I read just like me. I was just talking to [Lily Rose] one day, and I started to do the Wonka voice and she kind of lit up a little bit and gave me this "Where's that coming from?" I thought I was on the right track.
CS!: Do you allow yourself to stay in the character between scenes?
Depp: No. I've never bought into that. What kills me is the image sticks in my head of a guy playing Henry the VIII, for example, walking over to the craft services table, and grabbing a hand full of Fritos instead of some big chicken leg. It's that kind of thing. I think that once you have got the character and once you have known the guy, at least for me, it's pretty simple to slide in and out.
CS!: Of course, we have to ask about the everpresent Michael Jackson comparisons. Did that ever come up while you were making the movie?
Depp: It actually never crossed my mind, oddly enough. Michael Jackson was not an ingredient or inspiration for the character at all. A few people have mentioned it, and it kind of took me by surprised because I really didn't expect that. I guess on some level I can understand. There's a little bit of a look, but you can easily think of some other recluse like Howard Hughes as well. Roald Dahl wrote this book and wrote this character, and it was published in 1964. Michael Jackson was a wee lad then, so I don't think he was inspired by him either.
CS!: Did you get to spend a lot of time with the Oompa-Loompa man himself, Deep Roy?
Depp: He's a ball, and a real force to be reckoned with. I started calling him the hardest working man in show business. I'd see him on a Tuesday, and he'd be in his red outfit and then on the Wednesday he'd be in his blue outfit and then on Thursday the white one and then on Friday he's dressed up as like this 80's metal star. He was all over the place and just incredible.
CS!: As an actor, are you able to appreciate the fact Tim Burton decided to use real sets rather than a lot of CGI backgrounds?
Depp: It makes all the difference in the world between standing in the room of blue screen, because everything was there. For me, it's amazing and a great gift, especially for kids. A couple of them had never been on a movie set before, and to have all that stuff available to you. To see, to touch, in the case of the chocolate river, to actually smell--it smelled bad after a couple of weeks, it really got funky. I appreciate that, because that's how movies were done a long time ago and that's how movies should still be done. I also appreciate that there are times when you must use CGI.
CS!: You've now received Oscar nominations two years in a row. Would you like to get another one for this film?
Depp: It's not something that I think about everyday because I try not to think about that kind of stuff. I'm really flattered and honored that I've been able to get the nominations and various awards that I ended up getting. That was like totally unexpected and shocking to me. In fact that's sort of enough for me. The nominations are fine. I don't need more. I don't really want to go up in front of all those people and say thanks. That just scares the sh*t out of me. It would be nice, but I don't need it.
www.comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php
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