And then, as if he can't quite restrain himself, he adds: "I need a brush in my hand sometimes."
"I will tell you there were scenes and moments it was complete and total rapport, and other times I'm seeing it one way and we're butting heads a little bit," says Mann in a separate interview, but "Johnny said to me the other night, 'When things are wonderful and blissful on set, it's usually not a good movie.' I want actors to have an interpretation."
At some point toward the end of the interview, Depp's publicist arrives to whisk him away.
Depp pauses when asked if there's anything he wants to add, thinks for a moment and offers, "I hope it's good." He's referring to "Public Enemies." He begins to laugh again. "I hear it's good."
The actor hasn't actually seen "Public Enemies." In fact, he hasn't seen most of his recent films -- the last two "Pirate" films, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Sweeney Todd."
"I try not to," he says. "Once you see it, maybe you have to admit it is product or something." He doesn't like the idea of a monetary tag being placed either on himself or the artistic process.
"Having done it, lived it . . . I like the idea of just walking away with the experience."
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rachel.abramowitz@latimes.com
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Los Angeles Times Sunday, July 05, 2009
Home Edition Sunday Calendar Part D Page 2 Calendar Desk
Type of Material: Letters to the editor
I believe as talented an actor as he is, Johnny Depp was using some of his improvisational skills when he told Rachel Abramowitz that he fired a relative's Thompson machine gun when he was 5 or 6 years old ("The Outlaw," June 28).
Depp was born in 1963, and ever since the National Firearms Act of 1934, it has been illegal for civilians to own fully automatic weapons in this country without being specifically licensed by the U.S. Treasury Department, a complicated process in which permission is rarely given.
Movie studios may possess such weapons, but they have been specially altered with gas and spring devices that permit them to shoot only blanks.
RICK HACKER
Beverly Hills
In addition, another reader pointed out that the proper terminology is a Thompson submachine gun.
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