Johnny Depp Talks Public Enemies, Pirates 4, Alice In Wonderland And More

At the press conference for Public Enemies, Johnny talked about digital vs. film, playing John Dillinger, Terry Gilliam, his future projects like The Lone Ranger, another Pirates movie and more.

So, how do you feel about shooting on digital?

Depp: It's got it's advantages, the idea that you can keep rolling for fifty two minutes. And it's relatively cheap, roughly a grand per fifty two minute tape. There are advantages and disadvantages. For me, I like the texture of cinema. I like the texture of the sort of crude, grimy cinema. I sort of prefer that.

What was it about Dillinger that gave him that chivalrous side?

Depp: That gave him a chivalrous side, I don't know. I just think that he was like a southern gentleman in a way. The fact that he made a relatively great error in his youth in a fit of drunken ignorance – I remember a few of those – that sent him to prison for ten years. They whacked a ball and chain on him for that. So coming out of prison from about 1923 or something, coming out in '33, certainly the world was in color. It was in Technicolor. Women were wearing tight clothes and skirts. It was a whole new world. So I think that there was that southern gentleman in there and here's a guy who's almost a supreme existentialist who decided, 'This day, and everyday, is mine.'

Do you consider Dillinger one of your 'normal' characters or do you think it's a quirky role?

Depp: I think they're all normal. I mean, to me I think they're all normal. Though saying that, I think that most people aren't the same. I mean we're all pretty weird when you get right down to it. I would say that he's one of the more normal guys. Normal just in the sense that he was nothing much more than an Indiana farm boy who stepped into a pile of something unpleasant and went to prison, criminal school for ten years. That was his college education and he became very good at what he learned. The fact that this guy became a sort of mythic Robinhood figure

There have been other actors that have portrayed Dillinger. Did you look at any of those or did you avoid that completely so as to put your own stamp on the character?

Depp: There was no way not to remember Warren [Oates]. I remember seeing that as a kid and just loving it, but I did stay away from it in regards to starting this film because I didn't want to accidentally steal anything from the guy because he was so good. The one thing that stayed in my mind about the Warren Oates version, and forgive me because I forget who directed it…it's John Milius. I felt like at the time that they did it there was a certain amount of colors available on that palette that they put on the canvas. I feel like now with the stuff that's come out, the new information and the ability to have slightly more information with regard to Dillinger's personal life there were a few more colors available and so that was kind of one of the challenges for me.

How do you think this character would resonate now, now that we're in an economic crisis? I find that you still kind of want to cheer him these days. Do you think he would resonate as much now?

Depp: I certainly hope so.

Do you hope people start robbing banks, too?

Depp: Well, I don't know if I would go that far, but people are different. Unfortunately, people are different than they were back then. Back in1933 there was some degree of innocence left, and today, in my opinion, on some level we've really, really hit the digital wall and a kind of wall where everything, almost everything is available if you can make your way to it. So I think that people are radically different than John Dillinger. I don't know if you could have a similar kind of folk hero as him today. Not that it's all that different now, but here we are teetering on a similar kind of recession/depression and the banks are still the enemy. Yeah, you're right [laughs]. I don't know. As long as nobody gets hurt. I may start robbing Seven Elevens [laughs].

Is the scene where Dillinger walks into the station completely unnoticed made up?

Depp: No. He actually did walk through the Dillinger squad. He pulled his car out front and he walked into the Dillinger squad all by himself and wandered through all these cops. His photograph was everywhere. That's all true. He had an enormous amount of, for lack of a better word, chutzpa. He had a confidence. One of the things that I admire about him is that sort of thing. To have gotten so far and to have become that really kind of an existentialist hero, that everyday was his last. He had made peace with that. He was fine with that. Yesterday doesn't exist. He just keeps moving forward. There is something admirable about that.

Do you think that he felt untouchable, that nobody could get to him?

Depp: I think he felt the clock was ticking. I think that maybe when you're on an adrenaline high, that nobody can get you but I don't think he was dumb. I think to really feel like you're completely untouchable, there's a certain amount of ignorance in that. I think he just felt like, 'I got that one. Lets go to the next one. What happens now?' That's what I think.

There are some traits he has in common with an actor. He thrives on improvisation. He wants to be immortal in people's memories. Did you identify with that?

Depp: Well, certainly like an actor, as I was saying before, if someone hands you the ball depending on where you've been in your life, if you worked in sewers or pumped gas, if you worked in construction or whatever you did, if someone hands you the ball you run with it as far as they'll let you which is all I've been doing for twenty five years. John Dillinger getting out of prison after ten years and in a way sort of getting handed the ball, he started to realize…I hate the idea of him manipulating the media because I don't think he did. I think he just understood the game. I think he understood that there was a game to be played because of his savvy and the stuff that he'd learned while inside. He learned how to play the game well, as you would. There are parallels. I also think that Dillinger, he had a sort of somewhat semi-fascination with Hollywood and the idea of movies and his legend, leaving his mark. I think most people feel like that in a way.

What are you looking forward to doing with 'The Lone Ranger' and a fourth 'Pirates' and we just saw amazing pictures of you as the Mad Hatter.

Depp: Well, the Hatter was really fun. Doing something like John Dillinger, a performance where it's somewhat restrained because of the responsibility that I have to the guy and his memory, the Mad Hatter was like being fired out of a cannon. The Hatter was great fun, and again, it's just one of those things where you're amazed that you're not fired. I truly am. Then 'The Lone Ranger', I mean we're still in the sort of super beginning stages of that and so there are all kinds of possibilities but I feel that I have some good ideas for the character that I don't think have been done all that much before, I guess. Then there's another character you're talking about, isn't there? Oh, 'Pirates'.

It's so rare that an A-list actor does a character four times.

Depp: Call me a glutton. Honestly, if we can get the screenplay right to 'Pirates 4', and virtually no cinema is perfect so 'Pirates 1' had it's own thing, two and three I suppose had their own thing and it got a little confusing here and there during the story, not that I've seen the movies, but I hear tales and so I think that for me, because I love the character so much and I enjoy playing the character so much and people seem to like it that if there's an opportunity to try again it's like going up to bat. You want to get back out there and try and try and see what you can do. I enjoy playing Captain Jack very much.

So you love the character so much that it doesn't matter what the story is?

Depp: Well, at this point what I'm trying to do is turn it into a Beckett play. Lets see how far we can take it. I don't know. It could be anything now at this point. Jack Sparrow could be in a sort of Geisha clothing. I don't know. We could really explore a lot of possibilities.

Terry Gilliam is talking about remounting 'Don Quixote'. Has he talked to you about that?

Depp: We've talked about it. We have. The thing, honestly, [?]…I mean, I love Terry and personally I'd do anything the guy wants to do. But the thing is with 'Quixote' is that my dance card is pretty nutty for the next couple of years. So I'd hate to ask him to be in a position to wait for me. That would be wrong. But also, in a way I feel like we went there and we tried something and whatever it was, the elements and all the things that got up underneath us were there and were documented well in that film 'Lost in La Mancha'. So I don't know if it's right for me to go back there. I don't know if it's right for Terry to, but if he wants to, then great.

Can you compare and contrast Terry Gilliam and Michael Mann?

Depp: Boy. There's almost no way to compare the two. The only thing that you can say in terms of Terry and Michael and their similarities is their drive, their passion, an intense scratching out of the truth in the moment. Really, it's seeing as much as they can get out of the moment, but they're very, very different. Terry giggles a lot.

Do you think it's fair to say that Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde and the like were the first rock stars of that time?

Depp: Oh, yeah. At that time, what was going on with the world, especially in the states, Dillinger and those people, not all of them but a good majority of those people were essentially, it was the common man standing up against the establishment and saying, 'No. I've had it up to here. So now I'm going to get some at whatever cost.' There are comparisons to Dillinger as the Robinhood of that time. There is some truth to it. He did literally, farmers in the bank with their life savings, hand it back to them and say, 'I don't want your money. I came for the banks money. The banks money is my money and I'm taking it.' He did. That's not to say that he was a saint. He was a kind of a man's man of that time. He stood up against certainly the government and J. Edgar Hoover. At best they were slimy. So who were the criminals really.

Can you talk about working with Marion Cotillard?

Depp: Well, she's great. She's just simply great. She came there, she was there months before she even started shooting. She was working and went off to the Menominee reservation and spent time with Billie Frechette's family. She was deeply dedicated. She worked so hard on her accent and I thought she was amazing. I mean, she's perfect for Billie Frechette. When you read some of the stuff about Dillinger and how he felt about that woman, they were oddly, these uninvited, perfectly matched outside people…her being half French half Menominee Indian. At that time she was working as a hat check girl in Chicago. He was this ex-con, never able to keep a woman in his life, his mom died when he was little; there's that whole heartbreaking thing. When they met it was absolute fireworks. I honestly believe that John Dillinger, having not been sold out by Anna Sage, he would've made one last hit and he would've gone to South America and he would've waited for Billie.

Did the 'Hatter' looked like you imagined it would when you were shooting?

Depp: I mean all I've seen are the little bits and pieces, but what I imagined it would look like is what I thought it would look like, what I thought he should look like. That's the first reason I'm surprised I didn't get fired.

Public Enemies opens today in theaters.