Post by OhioDeppFan on Aug 1, 2005 9:42:36 GMT -5
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Johnny Depp interview
Compiled by: Jack Foley
Q. For the actors, having real sets must make a huge difference, I would have thought?
A: Oh yeah. I mean to have all that stuff around you to react to and especially for the kids I imagine, you know?
Q. You always seem to play eccentric characters in film like Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow and now Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. How much of you is there in these films?
Burton: We’ve got lots of problems. (Laughter). So we like to work them out in films.
Depp: It is kind of therapeutic to go in and make an ass of yourself and be paid for it. There’s something to be said for that. As an actor, with any character you play, you have to bring as much of your own truth to the character as possible and then you make an ass of yourself.
Q: How do you go about finding the character of Willy Wonka? Obviously, you don’t want to go down the route that was done in the 1971 film, so where do you get the character from?
A: We’re all very lucky to have the book. That source material is an amazing help in building the character of Wonka, using Roald Dahl’s work. In early conversations with Tim we talked about various things, like memories when we were growing up of children’s show hosts and that kind of strange cadence with which they spoke to children.
You know that kind of [puts on voice] 'Hello kiddies. Today...' So we talked about that kind of thing. And like game show hosts, the mask that they put on, the sort of perpetual grimace, that kind of thing. And then we just went from there.
Q: I’ve heard that you don’t like taking your characters home with you but weren’t you just a little tempted to take some of that jive talk home with you and if you did, what did you say?
A: I am a big fan of jive talk. No, I think with all the characters, it might be a good thing, it might be a bad thing, you know they’re still in there. All these guys are still not too far from the surface.
It’s just like opening and closing a drawer. Wonka was a fun one to play ‘cos once I found him, I kind of never knew what he was gonna say, stuff would just kind of happen and the jive talk somehow seemed very fitting.
Q: What does your daughter think about your work? Do you show some of your movies to your daughter?
A: Some of them, yeah, some of them. (Laughter). Others I’m not sure my kids are ready for it, and not sure I’m ready for it either.
They saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which made me real nervous. I was really scared that they were gonna come home and just go, 'Nah, Dad, better luck next time'. But they came home quoting it, which was real fun.
Q: I wonder if you could characterise what it is about Freddie Highmore that makes him such a fine young actor and was there anything that he did perhaps on this film that even surprised you?
A: For me, having had the luxury of working with him before on Finding Neverland, I would characterise Freddie as completely pure and honest and just the sweetest most normal guy in the world.
Really, really wise beyond his years. Working with Freddie I think all of us noticed he ups the stakes because when he gets in there he delivers 100%.
Burton: And he hasn’t done any jail time yet! [Laughter] For a child actor, he’s doing very well so far.
Q: In the movie, the dream of the children all around the world was to win a golden ticket to visit the factory. Do you think children in the world share a common dream nowadays? What was your dream when you were a child and lastly what do you dream for your son and for your daughter?
A: As any parent, my wish for my kids is a perfect life, perfect happiness, perfect health, perfect everything. That’s kind of a given. Kids around the world… boy, I don’t know what they dream of.
In this day in age they’re probably dreaming of peace and some kind of clarity and rationale.
When I was a little kid I wanted to be everything from Evil Knievel to the first white Harlem Globetrotter. And I’m still trying. Then I wanted to play guitar and now I’m here. (Laughter)
Q: Are fans in the street in France more reserved about approaching you than say fans in America?
A. I fnd people pretty much everywhere just very, for the most part, respectful and just kind of curious. Maybe they’ve seen you in a couple of things and they generally just want to say ‘Hi’. For the most part, people are very, very nice everywhere. It’s just a different language.
Q: I read somewhere that when you were a kid you changed homes about 20 times before you were 15. This movie is very much about instability and some rejection. How much did this inform your performance? Secondly, how much did it, back then, inform your choice of going into the business?
A. Because we led such a nomadic existence when I was a kid, by the time I was 15, 16, 17, we lived in probably 30, 35 houses. I mean crazy, you know?
So that has had a great effect on who I am today. Me and my kids and my girl, we don’t stay in one place too long, gotta keep on sort of moving. I didn’t really think about it so much for this film, for the character of Wonka.
Q: What do you think of press reports that you affect a Michael Jackson-like character for Willy Wonka and do you think in light of the Jackson trial that this could actually hurt the film?
A: I’ve finally made it [laughter]. Honestly, when we were doing the film it never dawned on me that there would be any kind of comparison, it never entered my mind.
Burton [looking amazed]: Didn’t you enjoy his Sky trial recreations?! I thought he did an excellent job! [Laughter]
Depp: I don’t really know what to say any more about Michael Jackson other than he’s really a fine dancer.
Burton: It’s false as we based it on Latoya! [Laughter]
Q: There are lots of sweets in this film. Do you eat sweets and what are your favourites? Do you limit the amount of sweets that your kids can have? Are you strict like Willy Wonka’s father?
A: My God, nobody could be as strict as Christopher Lee. You have to police the intake of sweets with kiddies otherwise they’ll be doing wind sprints at 3am. I myself have never been a big sweets fan. Tim?
Burton: No. They asked you, not me!
Depp: I just wanted to check.
Burton: I like hot dogs.
Depp: I like devilled eggs.
Q: Could you elaborate a bit more how you prepared for this role, you’ve already mentioned the children’s TV host but what else did you specifically do to get in to your role?
A: When I’m reading a script I start getting images, or ideas start coming in to my head, so I write everything down.
Like the hair-do, somehow I saw that early on but it took a long time before I could see or hear Wonka. That’s pretty much it. You just build it layer upon layer and finding him. Even when we started shooting I think it took me probably about ten days to really feel like I clicked with the guy. The teeth, the teeth were big. That was very helpful.
Q: Do you think being a father yourself has helped you add texture or depth to this role as it’s a children’s story?
A: I think being a father helps to add depth and texture and all kinds of wonderful things. Early on, when I was working on Wonka, the character, trying to figure out what he was going to be, what he was going to look like, sound like and after having tons of conversations with Tim, I would test the voice out on my daughter, Lily-Rose.
It seemed to work on her so I kind of ran with it. They affect every aspect of your personal life, your working life, everything.
Q: Getting the Golden Ticket is every boy’s dream in this film. I wonder what event you would buy a thousand chocolate bars to get a dream ticket for?
A: To bear witness to Britney Spear’s child’s birth! [Laugher]
Q: You’ve told us before about your very interesting way of building your characters out of people you see or celebrities. Out of what did you build this character?
A: There wasn’t any specific person or inspiration, more the memories of those talk show hosts. In the States we had this guy called Captain Kangaroo. Even then it was strange, but if you go back now and watch it, it’s really out there.
He had his pal, Mr Green Jeans and Bunny Rabbit. It was memories of watching these guys as a child - game show hosts like Wink Martindale - those game show guys who were always smiling. No-one specific though.
Q: What are you currently working on and what’s planned for the future?
A: At the moment we’re on hiatus on shooting Pirates two and three. It’s going well so far, I haven’t been fired which is good. I did a film last year called The Libertine which is coming out December I think? That’s pretty much it at the moment.
Q: Isn’t it time to change roles? What about you as the director and Tim Burton as the actor?
Depp: Wow.
Burton: You don’t want to see me act. Believe me.
Depp: That would be great.
Burton: That’s a scary thought.
Depp: You know. Thinking if the tables were turned and I could do some of the things that Tim has done to me over the years. [Laughter]
Burton: The revenge story.
Depp: Squirting blood all over my face off camera on Sleepy Hollow, giggling like an infant.
Burton: That was fun.
Depp: That was fun. [Laughter]. Sometimes we get together and do that on the weekends.
Burton: You also like being dragged by a horse.
Depp: Yeah, there were two horses and I was being dragged on this thing. [Motions with his hands]
Burton: They had really bad flatulence.
Depp: They’d had a curry for lunch. [Laughter] I was the recipient. I tried directing once. It was a big learning experience, but I definitely wouldn’t do it again if I had to be in it. I wouldn’t cast me.
Q: You choose to play a lot of characters who are the eternal child. Are you not afraid of getting stuck playing the same role? Do you not want to try to change or move on to different types of characters?
A: With each character, as an actor, I think you owe it more to the audience, not to yourself or the filmmaker, to try something different each time. I think it’s important to try to keep playing different types of guys and to keep exploring, because you are constantly learning. If you keep playing the same characters it’s like you know Thursday, Friday, Saturday, meatloaf. It’s the same old thing over again. So I just try to do different things each time. Frankly, it’s a miracle that I still get jobs.
Q: Can you see yourself playing the conventional romantic comedy lead because all of your characters seem to have something weird or surreal about them?
A: I thought Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was conventional. [Laughter]. I thought Ed Wood was a conventional romantic comedy. [Laughter] Tim and I came here to announce that we’re going to do Friends the movie.
Q: Suppose you were as poor as Charlie and his family, would you still be happy?
A: It could certainly happen again. When I was growing up we weren’t particularly overflowing with money – in my childhood and stuff. I never expected to last this long in this racket to be honest with you. I always expected to go back to playing guitar or pumping gas or whatever.
And it still could happen. As long as you have the ability to breathe, the gift of breath and life, your kids and your girl, sure, just keep moving forward.
Q. You played an Irish gipsy in Chocolat – was it difficult for you to get the accent? I read that you have Irish roots..
A. I did play an Irish guy in Chocolat. I do have a little bit of Irish blood in me, or so I’m told. Years ago Marlon Brando had asked me to come to Ireland with him to do this film that he was doing called Divine Rapture.
He told me I was going to be playing a journalist from New York so I said, 'Maybe I should read the script' and he said 'No, don’t worry about it. Just show up on this date'.
So I showed up on the Friday to shoot Monday morning and on the Saturday I met the director for the first time and he said: “How’s the accent coming?”
I said “What accent?” and he said “Well, your Dublin accent because you’re a journalist from Dublin.”
So I had little over twenty four hours to learn a Dublin accent. That was one of Marlon’s great practical jokes. He laughed for a long time on that. [Laughter]
Before I had done Chocolat I had learnt the accent for Divine Rapture and we shot for about two weeks and it evaporated.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Tim Burton interview
Compiled by: Jack Foley
Q. I was lucky enough to visit Pinewood where there were some amazing sets, so I just wondered, for all four of you, what that meant having those real sets to work with as opposed to more CGI?
A. Well, it’s like this. It’s really nice to have real fake grass! We were very lucky to be able to build sets. I mean that was one of the things that was important to me just because it’s a movie about texture, that’s what I remember from the original book - the feeling and the descriptions and the textures. So it was important for us to kind of have them be real and not be stuck in a blue room for six months so we could experience the sets and all of that.
Q. At what point did you decide to have just one person playing all the Oompa Loompas as that was a decision that was very noticeable in the film?
A: Well it seemed like there were three ways to go with it. One was hire a cast of Oompa Loompas, or the more modern approach would be to do them all CG. But I just felt the human element was still important to it, you know? Deep (Deep Roy) looks like an Oompa Loompa to me. [Laughter].
It also just seemed to fit with the Roald Dahl kind of universe, there was something kind of weird about it that seemed appropriate to me.
Q. Do you and Johnny have the perfect working relationship?
A: It’s not something we discuss over coffee, we don’t discuss our perfect working relationship [laughter]. We have a good time and try to take it seriously enough because we are spending other people’s money. It’s always a pleasure because he loves dressing up in funny clothing and costumes, it’s great.
Q: Did you think you had enough free rein even within the Hollywood constructs do to exactly what you wanted with this film or was there a darker place where you wanted to go?
A: The studio was really good. Luckily we had the book, we never felt that we wanted to stray and make it darker than the book or lighter than the book. Our goal was to make it tonally as close to the book as we could. We had that source material and that was the common ground I think that made it.
Q: In your last few movies, I could not find that darkness that was present in your work before that. What has changed in your life?
A: Watching the Tellytubbies and The Wiggles! [Laughter] I just have a much cheerier outlook on life. I’m just a happy person.
Q. I thought your re-imagining of the film was much closer in spirit to the book than the 1971 version. I thought the way the children were dispatched one by one was very satisfyingly done. What extra elements did you put into that?
A: We tried to keep close to the book. The only thing we added that wasn’t in the book was the Wonka back story. But everything else was trying to be to the spirit of the book ‘cos the reason we all wanted to do the film was because of the book, rather than the other film. He was such an amazing writer, you know. We wanted to try to capture his humour and light and dark and emotion that he puts into one package, so we tried to go for the book.
Q: I like the humour of Mike Teavee possibly going into 2001: A Space Odyssey...
A: We would have sent him there sooner if we could! No, they’re all really good kids.
Q: Did you use the old film as a reference point at all?
A: No, no. I know for a lot of people it’s a classic film but it never had that impact on me. The writer said “Should I look at that?” and I said “No, just read the book”. So no, we didn’t.
Q: You shot as many scenes as possible on set but did the CGI animation make it possible that you really could really fulfil your vision?
A: We tried to use it minimally. It was important to have sets that we built - the town, the factory, the rooms. Everything. Obviously, you use some CG. But the mandate was always to keep it as minimal as possible.
Q: Tim and Johnny, you both have small children. Do you let them play computers as much as they like? Freddie how were you raised? Is there anything your parents pointed out?
Burton: Mine’s too young, he’s not quite there yet. I don’t know yet. I’m banning The Wiggles! [Laughter]
Depp: I’m disappointed that my kids are now growing out of The Teletubbies and The Wiggles and I want to continue watching them! [Laughter] So I just will.
Burton: I’ll send you all the copies.
Q: I know Tim and Johnny you’ve collaborated on five films together if you count Corpse Bride and Freddie and Johnny, you’ve worked together. What do you find are the advantages or disadvantages, if there are any, of working with the same people over and over?
Burton: Well for me every time I’ve worked with Johnny it just gets better and better because you see him change and do different things. There’s something that when you work with the same people you get that feeling, and I love it because it’s like a weird family when you’re making a movie, so it’s nice to be around people you like.
Depp: There’s kind of a built in language from having had other experiences together before, having explored other stories and characters before. So, it’s great for me. Working with Tim is like arriving home. It’s a very comfortable place for me.
Q: Why did you choose to show more of a story, with the flashbacks, of Willy Wonka? Do you think it took more of the mystery away?
A: Obviously, that’s not in the book, but we, or at least me, sort of thought that when you see an eccentric character if you don’t get a flavour of why he’s eccentric, then he’s just a weird guy.
We wanted to show a little bit of that to get a flavour of that without destroying the mystique of the character. The great thing about the Wonka character is that you’re never quite sure about him. That was an important quality to maintain. You get a little bit of the flavour of his background without destroying the, you know, ‘What’s up with this guy? Is he good? Is he bad?’ You know, the mystery of the character.
Q: If you had chosen to ignore the back story, do you thing you would have focused more on other characters, such as the children?
Burton: No. The book doesn’t explain his eccentricity. I think that if you would’ve just let Johnny act that way without any explanation as to why the guy is so sort of cut off at a certain level, then you would never get that. So we tried to keep it in the spirit of Dahl’s work even though it wasn’t in the book.
Depp: As an actor, it’s the kind of thing that you try to put in your homework, you know, that kind of back story, even if it isn’t on the page or in the film. This was a sort of great luxury into the history, the back story of Wonka. It was really helpful, not just for me as the actor, but also for the audience. It was a really brave move.
Q: Do you have some kind of plan to adapt your Oyster Boy comics and bring it to the screen?
A: Oh, it’s just crying out for the big screen. [Laughter] Big action movie… Oyster Boy. Yeah, what do you think? He’s a real pearl. No plans at the moment.
Q: How important was it that the Dahl family cooperated with the production? Widow (Felicity) Dahl was consulted all the way through wasn’t she?
A: I was more nervous showing them the movie than the studio just because it’s their baby, so to speak. I was really nervous, but they were great all the way through. She’s really a great person.
Q: Tim did you train forty squirrels to crack the nuts and throw them down the chute?
A: I did not personally train 40 squirrels, there is a guy in an asylum that we gotta go get out after he’s recovered. Do you remember the look on his face?
David Kelly: He’s in the Home for the Bewildered.
Burton: He’ll be let out of the hospital in about six months.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Freddie Highmore interview
Compiled by: Jack Foley
Q: Getting the Golden Ticket is every boy’s dream in this film. I wonder what event you would buy a thousand chocolate bars to get a dream ticket for?
A: Working on Charlie was just that. It was a fantastic experience. I thought we’d be working on these blue screens all the time but they’d actually built all these sets. You know the chocolate room which was very overwhelming.
Q. Do your parents treat you any differently now that you have become a celebrity?
A: I think my parents are just normal. They don’t treat me differently or anything, I just do what normal kids do cos I’m a normal kid. [Laugher]
Q: And an Arsenal fan, is this true Freddie?
A: Yeah, I do like football or soccer. [Laughter]. We didn’t win last season but one of our best players left yesterday, I think. So that’s not too good. [Laughter]
Q: How aware were you of this material and how did you put your individual stamp on your characters?
A: I didn’t watch the original movie. I just thought it was better to base Charlie on the book and what Tim thought about him. And I think everyone can see themselves in Charlie. You know, because Charlie can’t run faster than anyone else. He doesn’t wave a magic wand. He’s just… he’s just normal and most people are normal. Like me. (Laughter)
Q: How did you become Charlie? Where did you get the inspiration from and what did you have to go through to find that person and become Charlie? How did you prepare?
A: As I said earlier, I read the book. I think Charlie’s just normal. You just try and get inside the character each time you play it. Obviously when you’re working with Johnny and when you look into his eyes you don’t see Johnny. You see Willy Wonka. That helps a lot.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - David Kelly interview
Compiled by: Jack Foley
Q. What was it like to come in to this production and work with Tim and Johnny and Freddie?
A: I mean it was absolute bliss being handed the part of Grandpa Joe and being trusted with it by Tim and Richard. It was a joy because I knew the book very well and the idea that I’d play Grandpa Joe at some stage was this amazing, amazing happening.
Working with Johnny and Freddie, I just can’t begin to tell you, as the song says, because Johnny is extraordinary. I’d say it even if he wasn’t here. [Laughter]
He’s obviously a marvellous international movie star but he’s a great deal more than that, he’s a very gifted artist. There are lots of good movie stars at the moment, especially leading men in the States but Johnny is miles ahead of that. He’s wonderful to watch let alone play with. It was a joy and I feel very privileged. Hand on heart.
Q. I wanted to know how comfortable was it for the four of you in the bed, was it comfortable? And do you feel these guys treated Roald Dahl fairly and nicely?
A: We’ll start with the bed. It brought back all kinds of memories. [Laughter]. Sharing the bed for I think three weeks with two ladies and a gentleman, even by Hollywood standards was kind of bizarre, weird. It was great and very restful and working with these gentlemen, I think they were very true to Roald Dahl.
Burton: It was a constant orgy in that bed!
Kelly: It was, actually. I promised the ladies I wouldn’t discuss this but there it’s come up. I think Tim, Johnny and, indeed, Freddie were very true to the thing. Let’s face it, Roald Dahl told the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory beautifully and to try and tell it as well as Roald Dahl did I think Tim, Johnny, Richard and Freddie really succeeded and gave you little extras as well.
That’s a tricky thing to be one up on Roald Dahl and be true at the same time. Freddie was great and I have to play a compliment here, because in the story with the joy of playing Grandpa Joe bringing him as his minder to the factory, one was aware all the time that Freddie’s hand was out watching the old bugger so that he wouldn’t fall down!
And he said to me out of the hearing of the other actors “If you want to lean on me, David, do.” And do not think I did not pick him up on that. [Laughter] Thanks, Freddie.
Compiled by: Jack Foley
Q. For the actors, having real sets must make a huge difference, I would have thought?
A: Oh yeah. I mean to have all that stuff around you to react to and especially for the kids I imagine, you know?
Q. You always seem to play eccentric characters in film like Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow and now Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. How much of you is there in these films?
Burton: We’ve got lots of problems. (Laughter). So we like to work them out in films.
Depp: It is kind of therapeutic to go in and make an ass of yourself and be paid for it. There’s something to be said for that. As an actor, with any character you play, you have to bring as much of your own truth to the character as possible and then you make an ass of yourself.
Q: How do you go about finding the character of Willy Wonka? Obviously, you don’t want to go down the route that was done in the 1971 film, so where do you get the character from?
A: We’re all very lucky to have the book. That source material is an amazing help in building the character of Wonka, using Roald Dahl’s work. In early conversations with Tim we talked about various things, like memories when we were growing up of children’s show hosts and that kind of strange cadence with which they spoke to children.
You know that kind of [puts on voice] 'Hello kiddies. Today...' So we talked about that kind of thing. And like game show hosts, the mask that they put on, the sort of perpetual grimace, that kind of thing. And then we just went from there.
Q: I’ve heard that you don’t like taking your characters home with you but weren’t you just a little tempted to take some of that jive talk home with you and if you did, what did you say?
A: I am a big fan of jive talk. No, I think with all the characters, it might be a good thing, it might be a bad thing, you know they’re still in there. All these guys are still not too far from the surface.
It’s just like opening and closing a drawer. Wonka was a fun one to play ‘cos once I found him, I kind of never knew what he was gonna say, stuff would just kind of happen and the jive talk somehow seemed very fitting.
Q: What does your daughter think about your work? Do you show some of your movies to your daughter?
A: Some of them, yeah, some of them. (Laughter). Others I’m not sure my kids are ready for it, and not sure I’m ready for it either.
They saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which made me real nervous. I was really scared that they were gonna come home and just go, 'Nah, Dad, better luck next time'. But they came home quoting it, which was real fun.
Q: I wonder if you could characterise what it is about Freddie Highmore that makes him such a fine young actor and was there anything that he did perhaps on this film that even surprised you?
A: For me, having had the luxury of working with him before on Finding Neverland, I would characterise Freddie as completely pure and honest and just the sweetest most normal guy in the world.
Really, really wise beyond his years. Working with Freddie I think all of us noticed he ups the stakes because when he gets in there he delivers 100%.
Burton: And he hasn’t done any jail time yet! [Laughter] For a child actor, he’s doing very well so far.
Q: In the movie, the dream of the children all around the world was to win a golden ticket to visit the factory. Do you think children in the world share a common dream nowadays? What was your dream when you were a child and lastly what do you dream for your son and for your daughter?
A: As any parent, my wish for my kids is a perfect life, perfect happiness, perfect health, perfect everything. That’s kind of a given. Kids around the world… boy, I don’t know what they dream of.
In this day in age they’re probably dreaming of peace and some kind of clarity and rationale.
When I was a little kid I wanted to be everything from Evil Knievel to the first white Harlem Globetrotter. And I’m still trying. Then I wanted to play guitar and now I’m here. (Laughter)
Q: Are fans in the street in France more reserved about approaching you than say fans in America?
A. I fnd people pretty much everywhere just very, for the most part, respectful and just kind of curious. Maybe they’ve seen you in a couple of things and they generally just want to say ‘Hi’. For the most part, people are very, very nice everywhere. It’s just a different language.
Q: I read somewhere that when you were a kid you changed homes about 20 times before you were 15. This movie is very much about instability and some rejection. How much did this inform your performance? Secondly, how much did it, back then, inform your choice of going into the business?
A. Because we led such a nomadic existence when I was a kid, by the time I was 15, 16, 17, we lived in probably 30, 35 houses. I mean crazy, you know?
So that has had a great effect on who I am today. Me and my kids and my girl, we don’t stay in one place too long, gotta keep on sort of moving. I didn’t really think about it so much for this film, for the character of Wonka.
Q: What do you think of press reports that you affect a Michael Jackson-like character for Willy Wonka and do you think in light of the Jackson trial that this could actually hurt the film?
A: I’ve finally made it [laughter]. Honestly, when we were doing the film it never dawned on me that there would be any kind of comparison, it never entered my mind.
Burton [looking amazed]: Didn’t you enjoy his Sky trial recreations?! I thought he did an excellent job! [Laughter]
Depp: I don’t really know what to say any more about Michael Jackson other than he’s really a fine dancer.
Burton: It’s false as we based it on Latoya! [Laughter]
Q: There are lots of sweets in this film. Do you eat sweets and what are your favourites? Do you limit the amount of sweets that your kids can have? Are you strict like Willy Wonka’s father?
A: My God, nobody could be as strict as Christopher Lee. You have to police the intake of sweets with kiddies otherwise they’ll be doing wind sprints at 3am. I myself have never been a big sweets fan. Tim?
Burton: No. They asked you, not me!
Depp: I just wanted to check.
Burton: I like hot dogs.
Depp: I like devilled eggs.
Q: Could you elaborate a bit more how you prepared for this role, you’ve already mentioned the children’s TV host but what else did you specifically do to get in to your role?
A: When I’m reading a script I start getting images, or ideas start coming in to my head, so I write everything down.
Like the hair-do, somehow I saw that early on but it took a long time before I could see or hear Wonka. That’s pretty much it. You just build it layer upon layer and finding him. Even when we started shooting I think it took me probably about ten days to really feel like I clicked with the guy. The teeth, the teeth were big. That was very helpful.
Q: Do you think being a father yourself has helped you add texture or depth to this role as it’s a children’s story?
A: I think being a father helps to add depth and texture and all kinds of wonderful things. Early on, when I was working on Wonka, the character, trying to figure out what he was going to be, what he was going to look like, sound like and after having tons of conversations with Tim, I would test the voice out on my daughter, Lily-Rose.
It seemed to work on her so I kind of ran with it. They affect every aspect of your personal life, your working life, everything.
Q: Getting the Golden Ticket is every boy’s dream in this film. I wonder what event you would buy a thousand chocolate bars to get a dream ticket for?
A: To bear witness to Britney Spear’s child’s birth! [Laugher]
Q: You’ve told us before about your very interesting way of building your characters out of people you see or celebrities. Out of what did you build this character?
A: There wasn’t any specific person or inspiration, more the memories of those talk show hosts. In the States we had this guy called Captain Kangaroo. Even then it was strange, but if you go back now and watch it, it’s really out there.
He had his pal, Mr Green Jeans and Bunny Rabbit. It was memories of watching these guys as a child - game show hosts like Wink Martindale - those game show guys who were always smiling. No-one specific though.
Q: What are you currently working on and what’s planned for the future?
A: At the moment we’re on hiatus on shooting Pirates two and three. It’s going well so far, I haven’t been fired which is good. I did a film last year called The Libertine which is coming out December I think? That’s pretty much it at the moment.
Q: Isn’t it time to change roles? What about you as the director and Tim Burton as the actor?
Depp: Wow.
Burton: You don’t want to see me act. Believe me.
Depp: That would be great.
Burton: That’s a scary thought.
Depp: You know. Thinking if the tables were turned and I could do some of the things that Tim has done to me over the years. [Laughter]
Burton: The revenge story.
Depp: Squirting blood all over my face off camera on Sleepy Hollow, giggling like an infant.
Burton: That was fun.
Depp: That was fun. [Laughter]. Sometimes we get together and do that on the weekends.
Burton: You also like being dragged by a horse.
Depp: Yeah, there were two horses and I was being dragged on this thing. [Motions with his hands]
Burton: They had really bad flatulence.
Depp: They’d had a curry for lunch. [Laughter] I was the recipient. I tried directing once. It was a big learning experience, but I definitely wouldn’t do it again if I had to be in it. I wouldn’t cast me.
Q: You choose to play a lot of characters who are the eternal child. Are you not afraid of getting stuck playing the same role? Do you not want to try to change or move on to different types of characters?
A: With each character, as an actor, I think you owe it more to the audience, not to yourself or the filmmaker, to try something different each time. I think it’s important to try to keep playing different types of guys and to keep exploring, because you are constantly learning. If you keep playing the same characters it’s like you know Thursday, Friday, Saturday, meatloaf. It’s the same old thing over again. So I just try to do different things each time. Frankly, it’s a miracle that I still get jobs.
Q: Can you see yourself playing the conventional romantic comedy lead because all of your characters seem to have something weird or surreal about them?
A: I thought Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was conventional. [Laughter]. I thought Ed Wood was a conventional romantic comedy. [Laughter] Tim and I came here to announce that we’re going to do Friends the movie.
Q: Suppose you were as poor as Charlie and his family, would you still be happy?
A: It could certainly happen again. When I was growing up we weren’t particularly overflowing with money – in my childhood and stuff. I never expected to last this long in this racket to be honest with you. I always expected to go back to playing guitar or pumping gas or whatever.
And it still could happen. As long as you have the ability to breathe, the gift of breath and life, your kids and your girl, sure, just keep moving forward.
Q. You played an Irish gipsy in Chocolat – was it difficult for you to get the accent? I read that you have Irish roots..
A. I did play an Irish guy in Chocolat. I do have a little bit of Irish blood in me, or so I’m told. Years ago Marlon Brando had asked me to come to Ireland with him to do this film that he was doing called Divine Rapture.
He told me I was going to be playing a journalist from New York so I said, 'Maybe I should read the script' and he said 'No, don’t worry about it. Just show up on this date'.
So I showed up on the Friday to shoot Monday morning and on the Saturday I met the director for the first time and he said: “How’s the accent coming?”
I said “What accent?” and he said “Well, your Dublin accent because you’re a journalist from Dublin.”
So I had little over twenty four hours to learn a Dublin accent. That was one of Marlon’s great practical jokes. He laughed for a long time on that. [Laughter]
Before I had done Chocolat I had learnt the accent for Divine Rapture and we shot for about two weeks and it evaporated.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Tim Burton interview
Compiled by: Jack Foley
Q. I was lucky enough to visit Pinewood where there were some amazing sets, so I just wondered, for all four of you, what that meant having those real sets to work with as opposed to more CGI?
A. Well, it’s like this. It’s really nice to have real fake grass! We were very lucky to be able to build sets. I mean that was one of the things that was important to me just because it’s a movie about texture, that’s what I remember from the original book - the feeling and the descriptions and the textures. So it was important for us to kind of have them be real and not be stuck in a blue room for six months so we could experience the sets and all of that.
Q. At what point did you decide to have just one person playing all the Oompa Loompas as that was a decision that was very noticeable in the film?
A: Well it seemed like there were three ways to go with it. One was hire a cast of Oompa Loompas, or the more modern approach would be to do them all CG. But I just felt the human element was still important to it, you know? Deep (Deep Roy) looks like an Oompa Loompa to me. [Laughter].
It also just seemed to fit with the Roald Dahl kind of universe, there was something kind of weird about it that seemed appropriate to me.
Q. Do you and Johnny have the perfect working relationship?
A: It’s not something we discuss over coffee, we don’t discuss our perfect working relationship [laughter]. We have a good time and try to take it seriously enough because we are spending other people’s money. It’s always a pleasure because he loves dressing up in funny clothing and costumes, it’s great.
Q: Did you think you had enough free rein even within the Hollywood constructs do to exactly what you wanted with this film or was there a darker place where you wanted to go?
A: The studio was really good. Luckily we had the book, we never felt that we wanted to stray and make it darker than the book or lighter than the book. Our goal was to make it tonally as close to the book as we could. We had that source material and that was the common ground I think that made it.
Q: In your last few movies, I could not find that darkness that was present in your work before that. What has changed in your life?
A: Watching the Tellytubbies and The Wiggles! [Laughter] I just have a much cheerier outlook on life. I’m just a happy person.
Q. I thought your re-imagining of the film was much closer in spirit to the book than the 1971 version. I thought the way the children were dispatched one by one was very satisfyingly done. What extra elements did you put into that?
A: We tried to keep close to the book. The only thing we added that wasn’t in the book was the Wonka back story. But everything else was trying to be to the spirit of the book ‘cos the reason we all wanted to do the film was because of the book, rather than the other film. He was such an amazing writer, you know. We wanted to try to capture his humour and light and dark and emotion that he puts into one package, so we tried to go for the book.
Q: I like the humour of Mike Teavee possibly going into 2001: A Space Odyssey...
A: We would have sent him there sooner if we could! No, they’re all really good kids.
Q: Did you use the old film as a reference point at all?
A: No, no. I know for a lot of people it’s a classic film but it never had that impact on me. The writer said “Should I look at that?” and I said “No, just read the book”. So no, we didn’t.
Q: You shot as many scenes as possible on set but did the CGI animation make it possible that you really could really fulfil your vision?
A: We tried to use it minimally. It was important to have sets that we built - the town, the factory, the rooms. Everything. Obviously, you use some CG. But the mandate was always to keep it as minimal as possible.
Q: Tim and Johnny, you both have small children. Do you let them play computers as much as they like? Freddie how were you raised? Is there anything your parents pointed out?
Burton: Mine’s too young, he’s not quite there yet. I don’t know yet. I’m banning The Wiggles! [Laughter]
Depp: I’m disappointed that my kids are now growing out of The Teletubbies and The Wiggles and I want to continue watching them! [Laughter] So I just will.
Burton: I’ll send you all the copies.
Q: I know Tim and Johnny you’ve collaborated on five films together if you count Corpse Bride and Freddie and Johnny, you’ve worked together. What do you find are the advantages or disadvantages, if there are any, of working with the same people over and over?
Burton: Well for me every time I’ve worked with Johnny it just gets better and better because you see him change and do different things. There’s something that when you work with the same people you get that feeling, and I love it because it’s like a weird family when you’re making a movie, so it’s nice to be around people you like.
Depp: There’s kind of a built in language from having had other experiences together before, having explored other stories and characters before. So, it’s great for me. Working with Tim is like arriving home. It’s a very comfortable place for me.
Q: Why did you choose to show more of a story, with the flashbacks, of Willy Wonka? Do you think it took more of the mystery away?
A: Obviously, that’s not in the book, but we, or at least me, sort of thought that when you see an eccentric character if you don’t get a flavour of why he’s eccentric, then he’s just a weird guy.
We wanted to show a little bit of that to get a flavour of that without destroying the mystique of the character. The great thing about the Wonka character is that you’re never quite sure about him. That was an important quality to maintain. You get a little bit of the flavour of his background without destroying the, you know, ‘What’s up with this guy? Is he good? Is he bad?’ You know, the mystery of the character.
Q: If you had chosen to ignore the back story, do you thing you would have focused more on other characters, such as the children?
Burton: No. The book doesn’t explain his eccentricity. I think that if you would’ve just let Johnny act that way without any explanation as to why the guy is so sort of cut off at a certain level, then you would never get that. So we tried to keep it in the spirit of Dahl’s work even though it wasn’t in the book.
Depp: As an actor, it’s the kind of thing that you try to put in your homework, you know, that kind of back story, even if it isn’t on the page or in the film. This was a sort of great luxury into the history, the back story of Wonka. It was really helpful, not just for me as the actor, but also for the audience. It was a really brave move.
Q: Do you have some kind of plan to adapt your Oyster Boy comics and bring it to the screen?
A: Oh, it’s just crying out for the big screen. [Laughter] Big action movie… Oyster Boy. Yeah, what do you think? He’s a real pearl. No plans at the moment.
Q: How important was it that the Dahl family cooperated with the production? Widow (Felicity) Dahl was consulted all the way through wasn’t she?
A: I was more nervous showing them the movie than the studio just because it’s their baby, so to speak. I was really nervous, but they were great all the way through. She’s really a great person.
Q: Tim did you train forty squirrels to crack the nuts and throw them down the chute?
A: I did not personally train 40 squirrels, there is a guy in an asylum that we gotta go get out after he’s recovered. Do you remember the look on his face?
David Kelly: He’s in the Home for the Bewildered.
Burton: He’ll be let out of the hospital in about six months.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Freddie Highmore interview
Compiled by: Jack Foley
Q: Getting the Golden Ticket is every boy’s dream in this film. I wonder what event you would buy a thousand chocolate bars to get a dream ticket for?
A: Working on Charlie was just that. It was a fantastic experience. I thought we’d be working on these blue screens all the time but they’d actually built all these sets. You know the chocolate room which was very overwhelming.
Q. Do your parents treat you any differently now that you have become a celebrity?
A: I think my parents are just normal. They don’t treat me differently or anything, I just do what normal kids do cos I’m a normal kid. [Laugher]
Q: And an Arsenal fan, is this true Freddie?
A: Yeah, I do like football or soccer. [Laughter]. We didn’t win last season but one of our best players left yesterday, I think. So that’s not too good. [Laughter]
Q: How aware were you of this material and how did you put your individual stamp on your characters?
A: I didn’t watch the original movie. I just thought it was better to base Charlie on the book and what Tim thought about him. And I think everyone can see themselves in Charlie. You know, because Charlie can’t run faster than anyone else. He doesn’t wave a magic wand. He’s just… he’s just normal and most people are normal. Like me. (Laughter)
Q: How did you become Charlie? Where did you get the inspiration from and what did you have to go through to find that person and become Charlie? How did you prepare?
A: As I said earlier, I read the book. I think Charlie’s just normal. You just try and get inside the character each time you play it. Obviously when you’re working with Johnny and when you look into his eyes you don’t see Johnny. You see Willy Wonka. That helps a lot.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - David Kelly interview
Compiled by: Jack Foley
Q. What was it like to come in to this production and work with Tim and Johnny and Freddie?
A: I mean it was absolute bliss being handed the part of Grandpa Joe and being trusted with it by Tim and Richard. It was a joy because I knew the book very well and the idea that I’d play Grandpa Joe at some stage was this amazing, amazing happening.
Working with Johnny and Freddie, I just can’t begin to tell you, as the song says, because Johnny is extraordinary. I’d say it even if he wasn’t here. [Laughter]
He’s obviously a marvellous international movie star but he’s a great deal more than that, he’s a very gifted artist. There are lots of good movie stars at the moment, especially leading men in the States but Johnny is miles ahead of that. He’s wonderful to watch let alone play with. It was a joy and I feel very privileged. Hand on heart.
Q. I wanted to know how comfortable was it for the four of you in the bed, was it comfortable? And do you feel these guys treated Roald Dahl fairly and nicely?
A: We’ll start with the bed. It brought back all kinds of memories. [Laughter]. Sharing the bed for I think three weeks with two ladies and a gentleman, even by Hollywood standards was kind of bizarre, weird. It was great and very restful and working with these gentlemen, I think they were very true to Roald Dahl.
Burton: It was a constant orgy in that bed!
Kelly: It was, actually. I promised the ladies I wouldn’t discuss this but there it’s come up. I think Tim, Johnny and, indeed, Freddie were very true to the thing. Let’s face it, Roald Dahl told the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory beautifully and to try and tell it as well as Roald Dahl did I think Tim, Johnny, Richard and Freddie really succeeded and gave you little extras as well.
That’s a tricky thing to be one up on Roald Dahl and be true at the same time. Freddie was great and I have to play a compliment here, because in the story with the joy of playing Grandpa Joe bringing him as his minder to the factory, one was aware all the time that Freddie’s hand was out watching the old bugger so that he wouldn’t fall down!
And he said to me out of the hearing of the other actors “If you want to lean on me, David, do.” And do not think I did not pick him up on that. [Laughter] Thanks, Freddie.