THE RUM DIARY Production Notes - Visual Hollywood

THE RUM DIARY (2011)
PRODUCTION NOTES
jugular. I write quite a lot of political stuff myself and it‘s an area that fascinates me. Hunter was
a past master of the performance of the political and that‘s what I always loved about him.‖
―The thing that I initially connected with in regard to Hunter‘s work was his honesty,‖ Depp
says. ―You read about these amazing experiencesand you think, ‗That‘s bullshit, it‘s his
imagination,‘ but when you‘ve lived with him, really spent time with him as I have, you realize
that it‘s all really true and more.‖
For both Depp and Robinson, the core of The Rum Diary was the film serving as an origin story
for Thompson. ―It‘s before Hunter became Hunter, or rather, it‘s before Hunter Thompson
became Dr. Hunter S. Thompson,‖ says Depp. ―You start to see and feel and understand the
elements that lead him to become Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.‖
―There is a line in the movie where [Paul Kemp] says, ‗I‘ve got no voice, I don‘t know how to
write like myself,‘‖ says Robinson. ―Although he is a writer, we never see him hitting the keys of
a typewriter until the last fifteen minutes of the movie. That‘s when he has found his voice.
Found his inimitable rage.‖
Graham King found the humor and adventurousness to be among the most enticing aspects of the
story. ― People talk to me about it and they say, ‗This is going to be a dark story.‘ It‘s very
Hunter and they go back to Fear and Loathing, but that‘s not what this story is. It‘s a lot of fun,
it‘s a fantastic ride! ‖
The Characters and the Crew
It goes without saying that Depp was the perfect fit for the part of Paul Kemp. ―There‘s no actor
who was closer to Hunter Thompson than Johnny Depp,‖ Graham King says. But a lthough Paul
Kemp is loosely based on Hunter S. Thompson as a young man, Bruce Robinson wanted for the
character to come out of Depp‘s interpretation of Thompson, not an imitation of the writer in
later years. ―I wanted Paul Kemp to be Johnny Depp playing Hunter, but not with the shorts and
the bald head,‖ says Robinson. ―The film is set in the late fifties and very early sixties, so, in a
sense, this is a very straight romantic lead. For all the comedic exuberance of Fear and Loathing,
this is a straight drama. Hunter was very handsome when he was young, and Johnny is an
incredibly handsome leading man.‖
― Johnny transformed himself into Kemp very easily,‖ adds King. ―He adds layers and layers to a
character. He makes a raised eyebrow hysterical. He‘s very subtle at what he does. Bruce had the
easiest job directing Johnny, because you don‘t really need to tell him as an actor what to do.
You don‘t really need to tell him how to deliver a line, especially a comedic line. ‖
© 2011 FilmDistrict 8