“Crowded Mind”

Smith: Do you have any actors that you studied from the past, actors from any era, who were helpful either in a specific role or just in general?

Depp: The guys I always adored were mostly the silent-film actors, Buster Keaton first, Lon Chaney Sr., and Chaplin, of course—those three for me. And John Barrymore. The gods: those are the gods. And then you’ve got the people that came out of that, Paul Muni, certainly …

But Marlon, it wasn’t until Marlon Brando came along that … it was revolutionary, it just changed everything. The work he was doing, Streetcar—completely different fucking animal. And everybody changed their approach from that moment on.

(…)smith: It’s interesting when one individual—whether it’s Michelangelo, Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Jackson Pollock—they’re so inspiring, and they help beget almost a whole school, but no one can touch them. They have this place of kingship, but also solitude.

Depp: And Marlon hated it. He hated it, which is probably why he rejected the whole idea of it, you know, and made fun of it. But I know it’s bullshit. I know he was capable of the work and worked hard when he did the work. I saw him do it, you know. He did care.

smith: Earlier, you mentioned those three greats, the silent-film greats. You’re a master of language, voice, script, words. And yet you chose three silent-film actors.

Depp: The amazing thing about those guys is that they didn’t have the luxury of language. So what they were doing, what they were feeling, what they were trying to express, had to come out through being, had to be alive, had to be in there behind the eyes. Their body had to express it, their very being had to express it.

This Winter offers no rest to Europe. Airports are packed and flights are still being delayed. It is a bore. What to do when you are stuck at the terminal for an indeterminate number of hours? Magazines are the salvation for killing time before the anticipated boarding call.