Johnny Depp said at the premiere of his latest film that he tried to dissuade the director from opting for him.
Depp made the comments Monday night at the British premiere of period drama Jeanne du Barry. Depp plays King Louis XV in the film, which is directed by and stars French film luminary Maïwenn.
The three-time Oscar-nominated actor reminded audiences at London’s Curzon Mayfair cinema how he was approached through Maïwenn to play the historical royal character, and promptly wondered if he even qualified to play the role.
“Instantly, what’s going on in your brain goes back to eastern Kentucky. . . you realize that it comes from the umbel, from the navel, from the navel out of nowhere and you play the role of the King of France,” Depp told the audience. via Deadline). ” It didn’t make any sense to me, I tried to talk him out of it. She couldn’t hear it and had a lot of courage to take me to her casting.
The film’s red carpet premiere comes nearly a year after its debut in the official variety of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in May 2023.
Jeanne du Barry, which marks Depp’s first film role since the 2020 indie drama Minamata, hits theaters on April 19 before opening in the U. S. U. S. Highway Patrol on May 1.
Among the familiar faces who greeted Johnny Depp at Jean Du Barry’s red carpet premiere in the U. K. was former Monty Python cast member Terry Gilliam, who directed the actor in the 1998 film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
According to Deadline, Depp and Gilliam joked at the premiere, with the director telling the star upon arriving at the Curzon Mayfair theater, “I’m sorry, it’s too late, the movie is 10 minutes ago. “
The industry publication also noted that when Depp and Gilliam posed for a photo, Depp brought his filmmaker friend and told them, “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Tim Burton. “Burton, of course, has collaborated with Depp on several films over the past three decades.
In addition to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Gilliam directed Depp in 2009’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
The film is a bittersweet example when Depp, along with Jude Law and Colin Farrell, stepped in to fill the role created by Heath Ledger before his untimely death in 2008. All of the actors played remodeled versions of Ledger’s character, Tony, to end the film. .
Depp also appears in Gilliam’s 2002 documentary, Lost in La Mancha, which chronicles his bad luck making the film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
Jeanne DuBarry opens in U. S. theaters on May 1.