A total of 9 sheets
On December 15, 1905, the famous Hollywood actor Johnny Depp served as the keynote speaker of the "Master Carnival" at the first Hainan Island International Film Festival, with the theme of "Film Naughty Boy and His Neverland", Depp shared his actor experience and performance concept on the spot, and also launched a dialogue with young directors Yang Yiheng, Yang Zi, Sugino Xifei and others.
Johnny Depp has been in the film for more than 30 years, and has won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in the Film Musical Comedy Category for "Todd the Barber", and has also been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times, representing "Edward Scissorhands", "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Alice in Wonderland" and so on. He enjoys challenging roles, which are often grotesque and charismatic, making him one of the most recognizable and accomplished actors in the world today.
The Birth of an Actor "My Favorite Thing to Do Is To Observe People"
Depp's original dream was to become a musician, but when the band disbanded, he mistakenly hit an actor at the suggestion of a friend, saying that "he didn't know what he was doing at the time and began to enter another life track".
The first time he was on camera, he described himself as "very stupid, relatively ignorant, but after accumulating over time, he became more and more confident." ”
In Depp's view, the actor must be an observer, "to be very good at observing, observing the people around them, observing their body language and way of speaking, absorbing their words and deeds like a sponge, and then digesting and absorbing and integrating into their own performances when performing a certain role." For example, when he attends a banquet for filmmakers, he observes them up close, "My favorite thing to do is to observe people, who are a creature that attracts me very much and is the strangest animal on earth." ”
Depp admits that in real life he is a particularly shy, introverted person, and the roles of "Captain Jack" and "Edward" have a sense of security for him: "Captain Jack will always get what he wants, and I am unlikely to achieve it in reality, but when I really integrate into it, I become a thousand percent confident." 」 "Edward is so pure and pure that I can turn myself completely open and resonate with him."
How to perform? "Don't read too many script narration or instructional text"
Now for acting, Depp already has a set of methods and ideas that belong to him, "I read the first ten or even the first five pages of the script to know if the story and the characters are suitable for me, and then move on to the next step."
The first time he reads the script in its entirety, he will first take notes, he will instinctively flash in his mind the experiences of his youth or fragments of his life, and the second time he will try to think outside the box and find out the wrong concepts and ideas that he formed about the characters when he read the script before.
In the actual performance stage, Depp bluntly said that he would not read too much narration or instructional text, "for example, at this time he would go to the wall and beat the wall with his fist', such a text I would not read, because I knew what I should do at this time, what to say, the emotion should come from myself, it is a very natural expression. ”
Not only will he revise his lines, but he will also hope that the people who play with him can break the safety net, "because I want to see his own interpretation, see his true self", the script and lines in Depp's view are just screenwriters, can not be followed step by step, rote memorization.
Depp's film style is always exaggerated and has a distinct personality, which is impressive, and also helps him achieve one classic screen image after another. Talking about his new film "Fantastic Beasts", he revealed that he had already chatted with JK Rowling for three and a half hours before he got the script, and put forward a lot of ideas about the shape of the film. "Grindelwald is indeed a dark wizard, but he has two sides of his own, one side is very calm, the other side is very dark, so I use heterochromatic pupils to show his two-sidedness."
Things to do with the big director "The first meeting with Tim Burton, we had eight cans of coffee"
Hollywood director Tim Burton's gothic cinematic style, complemented by Depp's alternative performances, has become a world-famous golden partner. In 1989, after Depp finished making "Cry Baby", he was waiting for a film that was both excellent and had a strong desire to appear, and after receiving the script for Edward Scissorhands, he was deeply moved: "I will never forget the feeling of reading the script, it made me cry, cry like a child." 」 I knew the pain in him, it was a common emotion, an insecurity. ”
Describing their first meeting with director Tim Burton, Depp said they called very closely, "During that three-hour meeting we drank eight cans of coffee in one go, and Tim Burton's hands were shaking and his hair was 'fried.'" ”
Three weeks before filming, Depp's exaggerated performance surprised Tim Burton, who was not at one point sure that the way it was interpreted would be too strange. However, he eventually let Depp continue this style of acting, and the two of them began to become tacit and became intimate in the continuous cooperation that followed, "Tim and I have a really extraordinary relationship, we are already like brothers," Depp said.
Conversely, Depp's collaboration with Michael Mann on "Enemy of the Public" didn't go so well. He revealed that the two had a bias in their understanding of the role at the beginning: "The director hates the role, but I don't think he is a bad person at all, the character creation is private, I often have a protective desire, I can only hope that he quits the process of participating in the role shaping process." Despite this unpleasant quarrel, Depp considered himself a fairly good person to get along with.
Depp rarely works with directors outside the Hollywood system, and he says he rarely watches non-Hollywood films, but he is full of admiration when it comes to working with yugoslav film master Kusturica. "We made 'The Dream of Alexandria together,' and we did it in three months, and we did it for a year," he described as the most important part of his career as an actor.
Kusturica is a willing and fearless director in Depp's mind, and it is also the first time he has allowed Depp to try anything, free to act freely within a reasonable range, and he praises their cooperation in breaking boundaries and digging out any possibilities in the exploration.
Message to the young director" "Let the actor shoot more, there will be surprises"
In the master class, Depp not only shared his years of film creation experience, but also carried out in-depth exchanges with young directors. He reminded young filmmakers to write honest, authentic and self-confident scripts, not to be influenced by the outside world or let the people who bought the scripts change at will, "It is very important for filmmakers to keep authentic and stick to their ideas." ”
As an actor, Depp has cross-border directed the film "Hero Boy Adventure", based on the experience of the director's debut, he also put forward his own views for young directors.
"Sometimes the actor will ask to shoot another one, or play it again from a different angle, and even though you hate him for doing it, you have to let him try it because he might open a new door for you and there will be surprises 90% of the time." Depp also suggested that being a director needs to see the possibilities of collaboration from every angle: "For example, your driver may say something that has nothing to do with the lines, but may inspire you like a spark." Anyone on the set, they are the people you can work with, and this is the essence of cooperation. ”
Depp also said he had two screenplays he wanted to direct, "one of which I stole from my agent's desk thirty years ago and bought the rights." And for the director who wants to cooperate later, he bluntly said that he just recently watched "Black Party" and liked it very much, and he must cooperate with director Spike Lee before retiring.
At the master class scene, Depp also revealed the latest developments of the two starring new films. "Waiting for the Barbarians," directed by "Snake's Embrace" director Siro Gera, has finished filming, and another film, produced by Depp Productions, focuses on war photographers exposing the poisoning in the Japanese town of Minamata, "Minamata Disease" will also officially begin at the end of January next year.