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Finding Neverland
His hotel-trashing days are behind him,
but at 41, Johnny Depp is still a lost boy
fans of Johnny Depp’s swishbuckling
performance as the rascally
pirate Captain Jack Sparrow in
Pirates of the Caribbean will see a
completely different side of the actor in his
new role, playing Peter P Pan author J.M.
Barrie in Finding F Neverland.
The film is filled with the same themes
that make Barrie’s original play such an
enduring classic: The wonder of imagination,
nostalgia for childhood innocence and
the longing to believe in something more
enchanted than everyday life.
Director Marc Forster (Monster’s ( Ball)
said Depp was the perfect choice for the
role r because, as much as any modern lead-
ing actor, he’s kept his own childlike spirit
vibrantly alive. “Johnny is perfect to represent
r a man who never wants to grow up,
because you can see that he has this very
accessible child inside him from the choices
of movie roles he makes,” Forster said.
Depp also tapped his inner child in films
like Edward Scissorhands, Don Juan
DeMarco and the upcoming Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory remake. And he
gleefully admits he did his best to bring
out the mischief hiding just beneath the
professional manners of his co-stars and
crew. “For the dinner party scene, for
example, Marc and I planned in advance
that I could use my fart machine at certain
moments,” Depp said. “We hid the
machine under the table and waited until
the boys’ close-ups and then I just started
nailing them, and it worked
Look into my eye, like a charm.”
boy! ARGH!
“Johnny “ was so able to
be a child on the set that it
was sort of like working
with five children for me,”
said Kate Winslet, who
plays the widow who
befriends Barrie and whose
children inspire him to
create Peter P Pan.
According
to Winslet, Depp helped
her rediscover the joy of acting. “He made
me and the boys constantly laugh with his
cleverness, which is exactly what we
needed to create the spirit of the story.”
“The film never seems to go quite
18 www. w tribute.ca
where you expect
it to go,” Depp
actors
Johnny Depp
Kate Winslet
Dustin Hoffman
director
Marc Forster
locations
Hungary
Great Britain
outtake
Depp got into his
character by
working on an
authentic Scottish
brogue, which he
felt gave Barrie the
quiet air of a man
who on some levels
was always an
enigma to those
around him.
said. “It never turns into a sentimental
love story of two people destined to be
together or that sort of thing. Instead, it’s
a much more complicated and moving
relationship between two people who
need each other on a level that’s really
beyond explanation or words.”
Or course, playing the man behind the
boy who never grows up had another
appeal for Depp. “It’s truly a work of
genius,” he said of Peter P Pan.
“It’s a
masterpiece of imagination, and the result
of the most remarkable inspiration. It’s
one of those rare perfect things in the
world that will always be with us, and this
was a wonderful opportunity to explore
where such a powerful story might have
come from.”
Academy Award winner Dustin
Hoffman, who plays Barrie’s theatrical
agent, said working with Depp was one of
the reasons he agreed to do the supporting
part. “I think he’s one of our greatest
young actors,” Hoffman said. “He has a
quality that I highly admire—he tries
everything in his power not to be a star.
He takes chances on the roles he chooses
and eludes being a pin-up, despite being so
handsome.”
— John Black
Tribute October 2004