Unit 7: Acting For Camera
Johnny Depp
I
am going to be focusing on how Johnny Depp portrays and develops his
characters.
Captain Jack Sparrow
One
of his acclaimed characters is Captain Jack Sparrow, a free spirited pirate
who’s mannerisms are rather odd, hilarious, lucky and at times quirky but
always seems to get himself into trouble but with his charm manages to get out
of a sticky situation. His inspiration for Sparrow was the guitarist Keith
Richards who appears as Jacks father in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans
Chest, “I sort of thought that pirates would
be the rock and roll stars of the 18th century, you know? Then, when you think
of rock and roll stars, the greatest rock and roll star of all time, the
coolest rock and roll star of all time, in my opinion, is Keith Richards. Hands
down."
(Depp, J. 2003)
Not
only just Richards but the animated skunk named Pepe Le Pew, "…this guy who was absolutely convinced that he's a
great ladies man”, goes on to say “…just blinders no matter what the actual reality
is happening around him. This guy sees only what he wants to see. Pepe Le Pew
was the kind of character who always was able to run between the rain drops.
He'd just always make it through." (Depp, J. 2003) Mentally understanding
your character’s personality is good but physicalizing it is much harder, Depp
came up with the idea that Sparrow should have “perpetual sea legs, you know
from being on the water to much, so land becomes really hard and uncomfortable”
(Depp, J. 2012). This gives the effect that Sparrow looks constantly moving,
not being able to keep his balance, which in way describes what’s going on in
his head “a complete drunken fool, not that he was drunk but every time I
looked at him on set I always thought he had about eight vodkas or something
because he could barely get his words out which would throw things off – it was
such a cool performance and very masterfully done” (Rush, G. 2012) described by
his co-worker Geoffrey Rush who plays Captain Barbossa throughout the sequel’s.
As a result of all his time and
effort when it came to wrap up the movie “you go through a sort of a
decompression, and a depression where you feel like, 'God, I've just been this
other guy for six months or seven months. I'll never see him again.' It's very
strange. I'm not real spooky about that whole, 'You become the character,'
that's not it at all. Just, knowing someone so well and having played them,
having them be second nature, it just happens naturally. It's very foreign to
the body to stop doing it" (Depp, J. 2003). Overall Depp had executed his
character extremely well physically, mentally and though his speech he
articulates his words so that they are clear and easy to understand and hear,
despite speaking like a drunken man he can speak very quickly at times but you
can still hear that his diction is clear and precise with an undertone of
epigrammatic to it to portray his character. Although sometimes his speeches as
Sparrow become flowery and incoherent to express what he is feeling or to emphasize
his physicality, or to enhance his facial expressions to show his emotions “It's a truly piratical performance: with his flamboyantly fluttering
fingers he steals every scene in the movie.” (Ansen, D 2003) it all brings his
character together, Sparrow to life.
Willy Wonka
In 2005 Depp joined up with Tim Burton to
re-create the adaptation of the Roald Dahl book ‘Willy Wonka & the
Chocolate Factory’ and took the chance to become Willy Wonka. Although Depp is
known for taking on an atypical roles this was a hard one to do due to Gene
Wilder who played Wonka in the first move (1971) variation so there was a lot
of pressure on him as an actor to bring the magic, “To have a chance to inhabit
Willy Wonka for a while and take him in another direction and kinda try and
imagine what type of Wonka Roald Dahl would like to see today.” (Depp, J.
unknown) “The idea behind Willy Wonka certain ingredient’s you add to these
characters like Willy Wonka for example was I imagined what George Bush would
be like incredibly stoned” (Depp, J. 2012). As an audience member and as an
actor myself I never thought anyone would base there chosen character on a
person that everyone knows but I guess in a way maybe that’s how he works out
exactly what his character says and does – just like he did with Captain Jack
Sparrow. Unfortunately even though the movie was a massive success and involved
many amazing actors such as Freddie Highmore (Charlie Bucket), Christopher Lee
(Dr. Wonka), Helena Bonham Carter (Mrs. Bucket) and David Kelly (Grandpa Joe)
Gene Wilder believed that “Johnny Deep was an insult”(Dodge, S. 2013).
Rango
Rango, a lizard played by Depp in 2011, not only
did he just voice the character but also got to grips with how “using the
actors as a reference as an animated character” (Depp, J. 2010). Instead of
just speaking like the nervous, rambling lizard he physicalized while saying
his lines, which helped out massively for the animators as they could use his
body language as well as his facial expressions to animate Rango. This gave
Depp the edge of creativity because he was using his whole body to inhabit all
the senses.
My thoughts
What I find fascinating about Depp is that no
matter what he does or which character he takes on he always finds he pin point
of the personality through other peoples manners or looks weather he picks and
mixes from distinguished famous people, characters or animations. Looking at
how he explores his journey to get towards his character is enlightening because
even though I thought of trying it out myself I have never really delved into
it and now listening, reading and watching Johnny Depp’s adventure of character
making is going to have an effect on how I work as an actor. His devotion though
out the whole progress of characterization, physically, his speech and diction to
movie making is inspirational to me. “Scissorhands was a combination like the
idea of a new born who see things for the first time and a dog that I’d had
where it’s conditional love, this purity in my dog and those were the basic
ingredients”, “There was something being very safe in being in that open to
things and seeing things as in very new” (Depp, J. 2012). As an actor and as a
performer I would love to expand my knowledge and understanding of acting and
how acting works and I believe looking solely at one person has done a lot for
me and I am going to put his practice in to play.
Bibliography
Michelle Zoromski, 2003. A
CONVERSATION WITH JOHNNY DEPP.
[Accessed on 19/10/14]
majoliroja, 2012. JOHNNY
DEPP IN BECOMING CAPTAIN JACK.
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsInvQ2gFLM
[Accessed on 19/10/14]
David Anses, 2003. And A
Bottle Of EyeLiner.
Available at: http://www.newsweek.com/and-bottle-eyeliner-139775
[Accessed on: 20/10/14]
Sarah Debenham, 2010. Blue
peter, Johnny Depp & Charlie and the chocolate factory.
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioNRnkokRmg
[Accessed on 17/10/14]
ItalianFansOfDepp2, 2013.
Ellen 2012 – Johnny Depp SUB ITA (1/4).
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whKXrh8funA
[Accessed on: 18/10/14]
Carla
Escalona, 2011. JOHNNY DEPP ACTING OUT FOR RANGO.
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m48ZEa3MkdA
[Accessed on 17/10/14]
Film Work: Short Movies
Joe had
suggested that we looked at “BaneCat” as a good starting point, which I did and
found that it brought me to find other short movies like “Identity”, “Post It”,
“The Hunt” or the beloved short animated movies from Pixar “Presto”, “Day &
Night” or the hilarious “For The Birds”.
The most
outstanding one I found out of all the ones I watched was a short movie called “Mr.
Forgetful” which is a children’s adaptation of Mr. Forgetful from the beloved Mr.
Men T.V shows and books. While watching this it gave me an idea that we could
do something like this for the Fringe, either re-creating a book or a myth
(like Beowulf) into a piece of theatre while using well known characters that
both the children and the adults would recognize. For example Sponge Bob could
only battle in while it was raining or at nighttime or else he would dry up in
the sun and Bugs Bunny shocked his friends and enemies when jumping out of the
ground from collecting a carrot.
Headshots
These were done just over a year ago, I will need to get them done again due to the fact that I now have longer hair and would like them done not just on a black and white background but outside to so they look much more natural, with natural lighting.
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