If there is a mantra that surrounds those who work with Johnny Depp (Kentucky, 61 years old) it is that he is “a sweet and delicate guy”. From the San Sebastian festival, where he found an island in which to take artistic refuge after the media storm that surrounded his legal confrontation with his ex-wife Amber Heard and received the Donostia award, they assure that the negotiation for his second film as director, Modi, Three Days of the Wing of Madness, The decision to be screened at the 72nd edition was very simple: their own team called them to send them the film so that the committee could evaluate the drama, centered on three key days in the life of the artist Amedeo Modigliani in Paris in 1916. Its two leading actors, the Italian Riccardo Scamarcio (with whom he participated the day before in the program) The Anthill) and the French Antonia Desplat (daughter of the composer Alexandre Desplat), speak of someone “very professional on the set, who was never late, who encouraged all the improvisations”, who gave them freedom.
So what’s up with Depp? In his last steps through Spain – two stays in San Sebastian, in 2020 as a producer of Crock of Gold and in 2021 as the winner of the Donostia award in 2021, and again at the Barcelona Sant Jordi festival in April 2021—he is always late for his appointments. In Barcelona he was two hours late. This Tuesday, on his third stay in San Sebastian in the last five years, the bets among journalists were focused on whether he would be even an hour late. Yes, he arrived at his meetings with the press at least 65 minutes late, busting agendas, reducing promotional times and leaving his actors with frozen smiles. Among the numerous entourage that accompanies him, the servant who followed the Roman emperors and generals when they paraded triumphantly and who whispered to them “Memento mori” (remember that you are mortal). The international press, when the conditions of the promotion changed, which went from two groups with the director to a 20-minute mini-press conference with Depp and the actors, decided to abandon the meeting with the team of Modi.
Perhaps he is so aware of his mortality that Depp is now a little indifferent to everything. In front of eight Spanish journalists (there was only time in nine minutes for five questions because of his halting and reflective speech), he confesses to being happy with the way the San Sebastian festival is looking after him. “In my case, they were very brave in their support in such a confusing time… especially for me.” Depp laughs, looks at Desplat and Scarmacio, and continues: “The festival has opted for a cinematic line, refusing to become a parade of stars and encouraging children to go to the cinema and young people to direct. Their love of cinema is inspiring.” Of that past he says: “We all have our story, and I ended up doing well. We can learn from that. They are your stripes and we must never forget them.”
At one point, Modigliani decided to destroy all his work, something that is captured in the film. From that epiphany, a new artist emerged. Has Depp ever felt something similar? “There was a time when I was more attentive to the results of my work on screen. I don’t make films for that anymore. I just go through the moment,” he stammers, laughing. “That’s it, it was what it was.” And did he connect with this script because he was a painter? “Wow, that’s a lot. I paint. From there, to being a painter… Modigliani grew as an artist, and in a way that became a man proud of his roots. You have to remember that when he introduced himself to someone he would say: ‘Amadeo Modigliani, Jewish.’ That is a man in his humanity. And that simplicity, that return to his roots and his vital solitude, to the search for his art, inspires me.”
The script of Modi, A disaster of a movie that starts with a mix of comedy slapstick and chases like Captain Jack Sparrow. Pirates of the Caribbean and it develops with the worst possible creative decisions by Depp until the public doesn’t even care about Modigliani’s future, he has been floating around Hollywood for decades. The project was led by Al Pacino, who, understanding that his age made it impossible to continue in it, called Depp to pass the baton to him. “When Pacino calls you, it’s impossible to refuse the offer,” he explains. “He saw something in me to do it, and to accept the challenge of bringing those three days to the screen.” In the climax sequence of Modi (which will be released in Spain during the first half of 2025), the Italian does refuse to accept a ridiculous amount of money from one of the biggest dealers of the time, played by… Pacino.
Why has it taken so long for Depp to direct his second film? Since The Brave (1997), which he also co-wrote and starred in alongside his idol Marlon Brando, he had not returned behind the cameras. “The Brave It was a complicated process in which I felt more like a manager, I took on too many professions in one film and I had to balance too many forces. Too much mathematics. That’s why I never thought much about returning to directing… until Pacino called.” In this confrontation between Modigliani and the established power of the art world, can it be felt as a parallel between Depp and Hollywood? “Of course (laughter). In painting, as in cinema, art and commerce come together. Modigliani lived in that rejection a fairy tale in reverse. Whoever has lived an experience of that nature will understand where the truth lies. The Hollywood machinery is so… Right now I am confused because they do not confuse me. At least, I know that I have learned and matured. You have to take what happens to you and learn from it.” And that was it.