Johnny Depp: “Edward Scissorhands is the closest thing to me”

This has been one of the confessions that the North American performer has made in a massive press conference at the Real Alcázar, within the framework of the Seville Festival, to present Modi-Three Days on the Wing of Madness, his second film as a director after the experience, 27 years ago, in brave.

With a extraordinary sense of humorplayed by a borsalino and without taking off his sunglasses, the bohemian style? with whom he has been traveling the world for many years, Johnny Depp has given the press (and the handful of unrepentant fans in the room) a fun, sincere and profound appearance. Several applauses and reverential attention to his speech attest that, far from being an autopilot call where the same old things are released, Depp wanted to talk, at his own pace, slowly, very slowly, of several things. Surely, and when this twenty-first edition of the contest is just getting underway, this call will help relaunch, at least in the media, a festival that needs to regain its momentum.

Minutes before, among the pens there was no consensus about the actor’s state of form. “And how will this one come? I think it’s a sieso“. Oh. You don’t have to have preconceived ideas or expectations in life.. “I hate expectations. Isn’t it better to take a trip without knowing what awaits you around the corner?“.

It was a message that one of the most recognized celebrities in Hollywood insisted on over and over again, the years, he is already 61!, the experience or perhaps closing the case with his ex-wife Amber Heard in his favor – one of the most media trials that are remembered that ended with the jury’s unanimous ruling considering that the actress defamed her ex-husband on all points – has suited her extraordinarily well.

I hate expectations. Isn’t it better to take a trip without knowing what awaits you around the corner?

It may also be that Seville and the warmth with which Spain always receives him – he already presented this film in San Sebastian in September – he likes it. And, in fact, Depp started his words by remembering the DANA victims in Valencia. “It is an honor and a privilege to be received like this. Our hearts go out to the country, it is very moving to see the resilience and strength that people are showing. We would like to do what we can to help,” he declared.

“Here is a passion that cannot be found in Hollywood”

Because the truth is that for a little less than an hour, rather than talking about Modi, a film that narrates 72 hours in the life of the artist Amadeo Modigliani in Paris devastated by the Great Warcame to talk about his career and the experience of filming in Europefilming was in Budapest, compared to the industry in the United States.

“There is no resemblance at all. Hollywood has remained a little rigidthey continue with the three-act movie method: handsome guy, pretty girl, the middle part a little more eventful, we break up and in the end we get back together. It’s great, really, but it’s just that in Europe, the appetite, the greed that exists in Europe…Here is a passion that is not found in Hollywood“He explained. “Here a 14 or 15 year old boy picks up a cell phone and wants to make a movie. Who knows if the future will be Jim Jarmush or Pedro Almodovar?” “It would be irresponsible for me to continue in Hollywood, where you talk to people who know more about accounting than you, but creativity reaches its peak once a year… for Halloween,” he joked.

“It would be irresponsible of me to continue in Hollywood, where you talk to people who know more about accounting than you, but creativity reaches its peak once a year… around Halloween”

“What have you learned after 27 years without filming?” He was asked in the room: “It’s better not to be in the movie“, responded amid laughter from the entire film team, including its protagonist, Antonia Desplantwhich here gives life to the writer, English poet and literary critic Beatrice Hastings. Desplant, French and daughter of Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat (composer of soundtracks for Wes Anderson), thanked the director for entrusting her with the role of a British woman “so interesting, so strong and with so much determination” as this woman friend of Modigliani, played by Riccardo Scamarcio in the film.

Despite the pleasant experience and despite the fact that the film’s producer has said publicly that he does not regret being behind this project, Depp assures that before being a director he is an actor. But one of those actors who doesn’t like to see himself on screen again: “once I give what I have in that movie, my job is done,” so he rules out “the idea of ​​seeing a finished product” because he prefers “not being aware of what was done”, but rather “living the experience of filming”.

Dozens of filmings under his belt have led him to this emphatic statement, Ed Wood to Charlie and the chocolate factoryfrom SLeepy Hollow to The ninth doorof Don Juan de Marco to Donnie Brasco. Works “under the orders of the best and among the best, the most chaotic.” “I have had people who have told me to start without further instructions and others who have whispered all kinds of instructions in my ear, I have done whatever I wanted and at the end of the take they have congratulated me “Extraordinary, extraordinary!”, he joked about his experience with his discoverer and ally Tim Burton, Emir Kusturica or Jim Jarmusch.

An untamed and anarchic spirit with which, he says, he goes far beyond what the scriptwriters write. “I see him very calm: “How do you manage to get into Jack Sparrow’s skin later?” they asked him, laughing. “Could it be schizophrenia?”