Public Enemies Press Conference
Earlier this week I headed on down to The Berkeley Hotel in London for the UK press conference for Public Enemies. Attending the press conference were Academy Award® winner Marion Cotillard, director Michael Mann and John Dillinger himself – Johnny Depp. The three all interviewed separately, presumably ensuring they all get adequate time to answer any questions.
For those who haven’t yet read the reviews, John Dillinger was a legendary Chicago bank robber from Depression-era America. The man remains a folk hero to the people, and at the time was a thorn in the side of the fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Marion opened the press conference by telling us what attracted her to working with Michael Mann:
Q: After La Vie En Rose, you must have been inundated with offers for other films. So why did you choose to go with Public Enemies?
Marion: Because I’m a great fan of Michael Mann, and when he asked to see me I couldn’t believe it and I was very happy. And I met him, and I read this beautiful script – I didn’t know anything about Dillinger, but I really fell in love with the movie, and the role.
Q: How was it doing the American accent?
Marion: It was a technical issue. It was very hard, actually, and when I started, I thought it wouldn’t be possible at all. But I really tried to do my best. Well, fortunately, she’s half French – but she’s not supposed to have a French accent, though, because she lived in North Dakota and Wisconsin. It’s very technical, you really have to work and work, and practise. And it’s about using your whole face, jaws, tongue, body, in a total different way. And it was very interesting – I love the English language, it makes it easier. It was very interesting, but really, really hard. I would spend hours in front of the mirror with my dialect coach to observe my tongue [laughs]. Because, when you speak, you don’t think about all the things that happen in your mouth and your jaw, how everything reacts. And suddenly you start to think and to watch, all those things. And you realise that we have a totally different use of our tongue and jaw.
Q: You said you didn’t know about Dillinger at all. Of course, he’s an American folk hero – is he known in France at all?
Marion: I’m not very sure, but I think that my generation doesn’t know Dillinger. And I didn’t even know his name, actually. So, the first thing I read about him was the script, and then I read the book, Public Enemies. I didn’t do a lot of research about him. My research was more about the period, American history, the Indian history too, because Billie Frechette was half-Indian. Because I really wanted to know about American culture and Indian culture – I knew the era. I mean, I went to school, so I learned about the crisis of the 30s, and the crash of 1929, but I didn’t know that much about American history, and Indian history. I watched a lot of pictures of him, but my research was really on Billie Frechette – the 30s, the American and the Native American culture.
In fact, the charming actress was seemingly the only participant not fully versed on the Dillinger Legend. Director Michael Man, having grown up in Chicago, was more than knowledgeable about the story:
Q: Public Enemies features a theme seen in most of your work, that clash of law versus lawlessness. Why are you exploring this, and why choose the life of John Dillinger?
Mann: I became fascinated with Dillinger, because of certain mysteries in his life. First of all, he was very bright, and great at doing what he did. And he’s regarded as one of the best bank robbers of American history, to whatever extent that’s worth. He was very very current, very contemporary. Very sophisticated. He planned his robberies with great precision and forethought, and employed techniques picked up from the military by a guy called Herbert K. Lam – where the expression ‘on the lam’ came from. He mentored Walter Dietrich, Walter Dietrich – the guy who died at the beginning of the film – mentored John Dillinger. So Dillinger’s time in prison is really a post-graduate course in robbing banks. But what really interested me, is he not so much gets out of prison – he explodes onto the landscape, he is determined to have everything right now. And lives the dynamics of maybe four or five lifetimes in one, and that one life is only thirteen months long and it has the intensity and white hot brilliance to it, and an indefatigable brio, that I found stunning in view of the fact that he had no concept of future. That he could plan bank robbery with great precision, but they couldn’t plan next Thursday.
Q: As a person who grew up in Chicago, what part did the story and films inspired by it have in your upbringing and childhood? And, did they influence your filmmaking at all?
Mann: Chicago, as a city, it’s a very tough-minded, and ironic, and humorous kind of city. It really has a Brechtian kind of wit to it. Which it why Brecht set [The Resistable Rise of] Arturo Ui in Chicago, and movies like The Front Page and His Girl Friday all come from Chicago writers, and are all about the newspaper business in Chicago. You know, hiding a wanted criminal in a roll-top desk – that’s very Chicago. I remember driving down Lincoln Avenue with my dad when I was about seven or eight or something, and he said ‘oh, there’s the Biograph, that’s where they killed John Dillinger’. ‘Well, who’s John Dillinger?’ [grins] It’s all kind of folklore that’s embedded in the brown bricks of the city. So it’s my neighbourhood physically as well as culturally. My wife and I used to go to the Biograph, because it was an arthouse by the time the early ’70s rolled around. So, it’s plays a big part.
The final part of the press conference belonged to Johnny Depp, with this being the first time I’d seen Depp up close, I was amazed at how open and down to earth the actor was. Casting my mind back to a recent premiere event, the stars all seemed disinterested and dare I say – bored. But with Depp this couldn’t have been further from the truth, the man had time for everybody. He was careful to answer every question put to him, and took the time to build a rapport with the crowd, cracking jokes throughout. In fact come to think of it all three of them had the same calm and friendly manner about them, the only airs and graces in the room that afternoon came from some of the other journalists!
Q: John Dillinger is an absolutely bona fide folk hero, but what was the draw of playing this outlaw whose name is virtually synonymous with the gun-slinging American past?
Depp: Well, first and foremost, when I was like 9 or 10 years old, I had a fascination with John Dillinger, I don’t know why – and probably not a healthy one. I think it was something about the twinkle in his eye; there was something mischievous that intrigued me. But, in terms of taking on the role, the idea that the guy was called Public Enemy Number 1, but, if you really think about it, was never an enemy of the public. That I found intriguing and challenging.
Q: What is it about this character of John Dillinger that you think fascinated the public? And, famously, he died after watching Manhattan Melodrama, what would be the film you’d like to watch before you died?
Depp: [Laughs] If I had to see a last ever film, it would be Withnail & I, without question! I think, especially with a guy like John Dillinger, if you think about where we were in 1933 – well, it’s not unlike where we are now. The banks were sort of the enemies, and it was taking the knees out from under everyone. Displacement was a kind way of putting it, their lives were being ripped from them! And there’s JD, who arrives as one of those people who’ve been ten years in prison for some youthful, ignorant, drunken crime. Ten years, and he arrives on the scene in the ultimate existential arena, and says ‘I’m gonna stand up against these people’. So I think, for me, what’s fascinating is the guy who says ‘I’m not gonna take it’.
Q: [A journalist references a scene where JD sings the country standard The Last Roundup, after a jail break] First Sweeney Todd, and now this, it was almost as if you were looking to crowbar in some singing…
Depp: I almost broke into dance… I just might now!
Q: Why not? Just wondering if you’ve been bitten by the singing bug?
Depp: I’ve only been bitten once, and it was an indirect bite. No, no, no. I sang the one time on Sweeney because, well basically I had no choice. [grins]
Q: But you sang well in this. I know it was only a few lines….
Depp: Oh, yeah! I do sing in the film – is it in? I haven’t seen it!
Q: Any recording contracts come your way yet?
Depp: You know, some people better stay in their own little arena. [laughs]
Q: How did you research for the role? Did you watch previous films about him?
Depp: I certainly had a strong memory of Warren Oates’ John Dillinger in the John Milius film [Dillinger, 1973]. But, I hadn’t seen it in years. I do remember there was a certain palate that was limited. And I thought there were more colours to be offered, without being too esoteric about it. If you think about the information that has come out since, some of Dillinger’s own words have surfaced. So there’s a bit more to the story, a little more dimension. And that was what I was hoping for, to add some of that.
Q: Stephen Graham [Baby Face Nelson in Public Enemies] over here is our rising star – how did you two get on?
Depp: We hated each other, and we fought constantly. [audience laugh] I think he’s magnificent, one of my favourite actors of all time. What he did in This is… [audience - 'England!'] England… absolutely destroyed me. What he did, and what Tomo did in that film of Shane Meadows’ took me to my knees. He’s someone I’m going to fight to get… I’m going to force him to be in every film I do – even at gunpoint!
Q: You’ve mentioned you’ve not seen the film, and you did a double-take at the poster as you came in – do you not like looking at yourself? And what’s it like now that you’re a big star?
Depp: If I can avoid the mirror when I brush my teeth in the morning, I will. I find security and safety in the most profound degree of ignorance. If you can just stay ignorant almost everything will be ok. Just keep walking forward and it’s ok to notice things, and look at things, but to judge things will just bog you down. So I don’t like watching myself in the movie, because I don’t like to be aware of the product, I like the process. I enjoy that. That [pointing at the oversized poster] is… not my fault. I didn’t do it!
The event itself was very interesting, and apart from one tabloid journalist trying to crowbar Michael Jackson’s recent tragedy into proceedings (she was quickly shot down by the way) things went very smoothly. Mann, Marion and Depp were all on time but the event itself overran by about half an hour which just goest to show how willing they all were to share their experiences from this wonderful film.
Public Enemies is in UK Theatres everywhere, check out my review of the film here.
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