Some interviews taken during the promotion of "The Libertine", November 2005
"THE EMPIRE" INTERVIEW, 16 November 2005
http://www.empireonline.co.uk/interviews_and_events/interview.asp?IID=375.
Rochester is a very interesting character – how aware were you of him before you were sent the script?
It actually, it all came about basically from a phone call about 10 years ago. I got a phone call from [the film's producer and co-star] John Malkovich who asked if I had any interest in coming to Chicago to see a play he was doing called The Libertine. And obviously I jumped at the opportunity, went to Chicago, saw the play, had dinner with John afterwards and he informed me then that he wanted me to play the part in the film version. And my first reaction was, "Why don't you do it?" because he was so good. And he basically said, "Well I want you to do it". So it was at that point that I started learning about Rochester and reading his poems, his books, his plays…
He's not that massively well-known even the UK. Was part of doing this for you to raise awareness of him?
I definitely wanted to raise awareness of him and at the same time kind of polish up the tarnished image or memory of the guy, cos for the most part for the last few centuries he was often written off as a pornographer or a satirist when in fact I think he was a great poet and a very important poet. He was a very complicated man who never got his fair shake in terms of history. He got a bit of a raw deal, I think. So yeah, it was an opportunity to salute him, you know? Write him a love letter in a way.
At the opening of the film, Rochester tells us, "you will not like me". Do you think if, via a quirk of time and space, you could meet him today, that you'd like him?
I think so, yeah. I think I'd like him very much. In a lot of ways you can look at people over the years, writers, primarily guys like Jack Kerouac... He was a terrific writer and really changed the way people write. Like Rochester, Kerouac had his own sort of period where he self-medicated quite heavily. Hunter Thompson – you know, Hunter was a great friend a great hero, and another guy who, basically self-medicated. I'm not saying that that's what everyone should do, but they were kind of… You know, in pain. They were looking for a way to deal with it. Someone else, one of the most important poets I think – for me at least – of the 20th Century is Shane MacGowan. Shane has certainly had a pretty bumpy road, and he has, uh, imbibed. You know? His intake has been pretty impressive over the years, but he's produced some of the most beautiful lyrics that are a great gift to the world…
Rochester seems the kind of character that seems to interest you – someone who exists or thrives outside of society's normal parameters. Is that a fair assessment?
Oh, yeah, you know, all my, the majority of my heroes have been almost exactly what you're just described.
Why do you think you're attracted to this kind of character?
Well I've always rooted for the underdog. I guess the consistent theme in the movies or the characters that I've been involved with is the… I guess they've been labelled, you know, odd or weird or outside or strange or freakish or whatever one wants to call it. I've always been fascinated by what kind of, what society deems as normal and abnormal. Because some of the things that are accepted on a daily basis are pretty strange to me.
Like what?
Well, I mean, even going back to like my childhood, for example, I remember as a kid growing up in the '70s and even then thinking the idea of resin grapes was odd. You know, on the table, these fake grapes – basically made of glass or plastic. Or macrame owls… And no one ever noticed, but to me it was strange...
Rochester is a very interesting character – how aware were you of him before you were sent the script?
It actually, it all came about basically from a phone call about 10 years ago. I got a phone call from [the film's producer and co-star] John Malkovich who asked if I had any interest in coming to Chicago to see a play he was doing called The Libertine. And obviously I jumped at the opportunity, went to Chicago, saw the play, had dinner with John afterwards and he informed me then that he wanted me to play the part in the film version. And my first reaction was, "Why don't you do it?" because he was so good. And he basically said, "Well I want you to do it". So it was at that point that I started learning about Rochester and reading his poems, his books, his plays…
He's not that massively well-known even the UK. Was part of doing this for you to raise awareness of him?
I definitely wanted to raise awareness of him and at the same time kind of polish up the tarnished image or memory of the guy, cos for the most part for the last few centuries he was often written off as a pornographer or a satirist when in fact I think he was a great poet and a very important poet. He was a very complicated man who never got his fair shake in terms of history. He got a bit of a raw deal, I think. So yeah, it was an opportunity to salute him, you know? Write him a love letter in a way.
At the opening of the film, Rochester tells us, "you will not like me". Do you think if, via a quirk of time and space, you could meet him today, that you'd like him?
I think so, yeah. I think I'd like him very much. In a lot of ways you can look at people over the years, writers, primarily guys like Jack Kerouac… He was a terrific writer and really changed the way people write. Like Rochester, Kerouac had his own sort of period where he self-medicated quite heavily. Hunter Thompson – you know, Hunter was a great friend a great hero, and another guy who, basically self-medicated. I'm not saying that that's what everyone should do, but they were kind of… You know, in pain. They were looking for a way to deal with it. Someone else, one of the most important poets I think – for me at least – of the 20th Century is Shane MacGowan. Shane has certainly had a pretty bumpy road, and he has, uh, imbibed. You know? His intake has been pretty impressive over the years, but he's produced some of the most beautiful lyrics that are a great gift to the world…
Rochester seems the kind of character that seems to interest you – someone who exists or thrives outside of society's normal parameters. Is that a fair assessment?
Oh, yeah, you know, all my, the majority of my heroes have been almost exactly what you're just described.
Why do you think you're attracted to this kind of character?
Well I've always rooted for the underdog. I guess the consistent theme in the movies or the characters that I've been involved with is the… I guess they've been labelled, you know, odd or weird or outside or strange or freakish or whatever one wants to call it. I've always been fascinated by what kind of, what society deems as normal and abnormal. Because some of the things that are accepted on a daily basis are pretty strange to me.
Like what?
Well, I mean, even going back to like my childhood, for example, I remember as a kid growing up in the '70s and even then thinking the idea of resin grapes was odd. You know, on the table, these fake grapes – basically made of glass or plastic. Or macrame owls… And no one ever noticed, but to me it was strange...
"METRO" NEWSPAPER INTERVIEW, 17 November 2005
http://www.metro.co.uk/metro/interviews/interview.html?in_page_id=8&in_interview_id=1214.
Do you want people to despise Lord Rochester?
A surface look at Rochester shows a hedonistic sexual predator. That does exist with him. But I found many other fascinating layers. He was a heavy drinker and anyone who medicates themselves to that degree is not doing it for recreation - he was clearly masking some pain. I wanted to find what the cause of that was.
What was the cause?
He had been a war hero and seen guys blown to smithereens all around him. He had always challenged God by asking: 'Why them and not me?' That plagued him all his life. But there's more to him than that. I went to the British Library and read some of the letters he wrote to his wife, his mother and his children and they show a deeply caring man.
Did your late friend Hunter S Thompson have any of Rochester in him?
Hunter and Rochester were both great writers and both indulged to the absolute maximum. But Hunter, more than anything, was the king of fun. He was not a morose guy and was unbelievably alive and super vivid.
He did have a dark side, though.
I think we all do. I wouldn't have wanted Hunter mad at me on any level. I would see people meet him and think he was loaded and not coherent enough to understand what we were talking about. When he picked up on something like that, he would verbally decimate those people. He could turn them to absolute mist in a matter of seconds with three or four incredibly accurate observations. I saw him do it.
What did you make of the furore surrounding your ex Kate Moss and her cocaine scandal?
Kate should live her life how she wants to. She's not running for office and she isn't looking to be the next Messiah. She's human. Nobody is without some degree of flaw. We're all horribly flawed in some way.
Have you spoken to her since?
No, we haven't been in touch since it all broke but I have tried to show my support. Like everyone, I want her and her child to be okay.
You went through some rough times. Did having children change you?
There was a time when I used hard liquor and drugs to self-medicate. Luckily, I never got so into a drug that I couldn't get out. Having my first kid made me realise I had been a dumb-ass for a lot of years. Being a dad helps you in every way. It has eliminated so many fears that I had. When my daughter was born, it was like one person's life had ceased to be and suddenly a new man emerged, someone who saw things clearly. It's still exactly like that to this second.
At what age will you expose your kids to the grimmer subjects you've dealt with on-screen?
I want my kiddies to be given the opportunity to be children and innocent and free for as long as possible before the inevitable bad things in the world rear their ugly heads. I would say it's safe for them to see Pirates Of The Caribbean and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory but I'd want to wait 20 or 25 years before letting them see The Libertine.
Are you still smoking?
I still have the habit but I've been able to cut it down quite significantly.
They are trying to ban it in public here. Will that keep you away?
No, I'll come over and have a smoke-a-thon. They've taken that whole issue and stretched it into as absurd a pretzel as I've ever seen. Obviously it ain't good for you, and I don't condone it or recommend it, but everyone has to find their own way out of it. The idea of bludgeoning people and telling them that if they smoke they are awful is ludicrous. What are we going to do, go into prohibition again? Was there coffee allowed in the White House during that whole Just Say No campaign? Caffeine is a drug and so is alcohol.
INTERVIEW FOR THE BRITISH INTERNET MAGAZINE MyMovies.Net, 17 November 2005
http://www.mymovies.net/interviews/text_feature.asp?featureid=FTRE/4837/1711200514434145&filmid=4837&sec=incinemas
Johnny, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.
Hey man, how are you?
Can we start by asking you to tell us a bit about the 2nd Earl of Rochester?
Oh yeah, John Wilmot. He was a contemporary of King Charles II, part of his court, at that heavy time of the Restoration. A beautiful poet – oft times written off as a satirist or a pornographer or a debauched madman – but a beautiful poet and someone who I think never really got a particularly fair shake through history.
You certainly seem to like playing real–life characters – this is the eighth time you've done so. Is that something you specifically look for when considering scripts?
Boy, I don't know. I have done it a few times. It depends you know on the person, on the character, on the historical figure. The weird thing is it kind of ups the stakes in the terms of your responsibility, because you want to do your best to serve their memory well.
Did you feel a certain connection with the Earl?
Oh yeah, I've felt a connection with all the characters I've played, but doing the research and reading up and learning about John Wilmot gave me a beautiful opportunity to sort of educate myself. Yes he was to some degree a pornographer, yes he was to some degree debauched, yes he was to some degree a drunk – and yeah, he essentially killed him at the age of 33 by sex and liquor. But he was a very complicated man. He was a hyper–sensitive man who unfortunately self–medicated to a degree that ended up taking him out. And he was a great writer with a lot to offer; he wrote beautiful poems.
The role also gives you the chance to use some pretty industrial language too.
(laughs) Yeah, industrial. That's a pretty good term for it.
The movie was filmed all over the UK. You seem to have spent quite a bit of time over here recently and you got to film in some rather historic locations. Was that enjoyable?
Oh, it was incredible. Every day was like an incredible history lesson. You're in the kitchen at Blenheim Palace and it's like 'What?' It's unbelievable.
Towards the end of the film you're pretty much buried beneath a layer of make–up. Do you find this a helpful tool as an actor?
Very helpful, just as every sort of angle – in terms of the work – is helpful. The sets, being surrounded by period sets, and being wrapped up, bound up in period costume all adds to achieving the goal of finding that guy, as does the make–up. And luckily I've got to work this amazing make–up girl Patty York who I've done a great deal of movies with over the years. It was a real challenge in terms of taking Rochester through those various stages of disease and I think she did a beautiful job.
The film certainly illustrates that 17th Century England was a very violent and dirty place. How do you think you would have coped living back then?
Oh man, you go back and you read Pepys Diaries and things like that and it's unbelievable how people lived. No one drank water; you couldn't drink water 'cos it was contaminated, so you drank beer at breakfast! Maybe for a little while I'd have done alright, but it might have gone underneath me a little too much. But I think I would have done better in the Restoration than I would have done under Cromwell.
INTERVIEW FOR BBC UK INTERNET MAGAZINE, 16 NOVEMBER 2005
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/11/15/johnny_depp_the_libertine_2005_interview.shtml
How did you approach the character of John Wilmot?
Very carefully! It was almost like an excavation in terms of the approach, because there's a lot of available material out there as well as his actual written works. There are a lot of biographies about him, each with a different angle on his life, so using those sources helped a lot. I guess from a distance, when you first think about the guy, the whole surface element really becomes more of an obstacle than anything else - which is yes, basically he drank himself to death and shagged himself to death. But what fascinated me was how did he arrive at that place? Was his drinking recreational? Certainly not. Was his sex recreational? Certainly not. He was a very complicated man. During my research I got to know everything about the guy, but the best thing was I got the opportunity to go to the British Library and peruse his letters, and that opened up a whole new side to him for me. He was a deeply caring father; deeply caring husband; wrote deeply moving letters to the women in his life. But he was just deeply plagued with, and tormented by, pains in his life. He medicated himself to such a degree that it took him down a nasty road.
Did you have anyone in mind when you came to play the character?
No, not really. Just him. I did my best to bring to life a guy that I had read about and tried to do him some justice. He's had a tarnished image and has been written off as a has-been for centuries - a debauched, drunken satirist, hedonistic. Those things might have been ingredients but there was far more too him than that.
What was the shoot itself like for you? A baptism of fire into low-budget British filmmaking?
Oh man, it was great. The experience of shooting the film was amazing. It was exhausting on every level, but it was great. We were given a limited amount of time to shoot the film, and the screenplay itself is an epic biography of the guy in a very short period of time. It was very intense, and somedays you'd end up shooting eight to ten pages of very emotional spiel.
It's funny to see you share a screen with Johnny Vegas, something I thought I would never see - even given your love of British comedy. What was he like?
Sometimes you expect someone to be something and they turn out to be completely different. Certainly he is the Johnny Vegas we know from the stage, but what left all of us - and the crew - with our jaws on the ground was his unbelievable focus, and how seriously he took the work itself. He was totally professional and, obviously, sober! He's a very funny guy but also very gentle.
Tell us about Laurence Dunmore. It's a long time since you've worked with a first-time director...
First I've got to tip my hat to John Malkovich for locating Laurence and just knowing that this was the guy to do the film, because how could he have known? Laurence is definitely one of those names who's going to be around for a long time. Here was a guy doing his first film who was totally uncompromising in his vision. He just got as dirty as anyone, getting down in the mud, operating, shooting, bringing it all together. He's a real force. We still talk at least once a week and are actively looking for more stuff to do together. I think he's a brilliant filmmaker.
And did the experience inspire you to want to get behind the camera again and direct another movie?
I've got a sneaking suspicion that at some point I'll end up directing something again. For the moment I'm just going to sit back and learn from these guys. I've been lucky enough to work with these incredible filmmakers - Tim Burton, Lasse Hallström, Mike Newell... it's a pretty great list - so I'll just keep sponging as much as I can off them.
