The Libertine

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! There May Be SPOILERS in the movie reviews !

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Contrary to rumour, Laurence Dunmore's feature debut about the debauched second Earl of Rochester is neither dull nor bad. It is, in fact, the best British costume drama I've seen in years.

An adaptation by Stephen Jeffreys of his own play, it is intelligently written, beautifully played and directed with a menacing sense of the underbelly of the reign of Charles II.

It may use more four-letter words than we're used to, but this is no pretty-pretty view of the 17th century. And perhaps it twists history a trifle, but not half as much as Shakespeare in Love.

Johnny Depp plays John Wilmot, the earl whom Charles appointed as his poet laureate until he wrote a play called Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery, which the King thought parodied him and his court.

"You will not like me," says Wilmot, addressing the audience in a prologue. And we don't, since he proceeds to squander a remarkable talent with drink and any kind of sex you care to think about and, as we know from the history books before we start, he dies of alcoholism and the pox before reaching middle-age.

The story mainly concerns Wilmot's fondness for his wife (Rosamund Pike) and prostitute mistress (Kelly Reilly), and his love for the free-spirited actress
Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton) who refuses to become his chattel.

Depp triumphantly manages to suggest the small bit of good that remains in Wilmot's soiled and cynical soul; we might not be able to like the earl but we do believe in him. The actor has seldom done anything better, avoiding the kind of star performance you might expect and widening his range considerably in the process. Morton shows why she has twice been an Academy Award nominee.

And John Malkovich, in one of his best and least mannered performances, is almost unrecognisable as Charles, hoping against hope that the earl's play will impress the French enough to prevent hostilities.

The one moment in the drama that seems a sop to the audience is the dying earl's address to a fractious Parliament, which saves the King's bacon in the penultimate reel. That, and the sliding over the earl's persistent bisexuality.

Otherwise The Libertine doesn't mince its words. It's a dark, brooding, murderously probable picture of a man who was a bit like a self-destructive rock star long before such creatures were invented.

This is not meant to be all encompassing, nor 100% accurate. It is my best shot at sharing what Johnny shared with us at the two events.

Quotes are my best effort at remembering the exact words.

Here you go!!

Johnny Tidbit’s from Friday Nov 11 and Saturday Nov 12, 2005

Friday Night at the Tribute

“This is weird” “Where is the bucket” "Is this some new form of torture?" “Good luck” “Again good luck”

Schickel’s suggested that Johnny signs on for more projects per year than the average actor. Johnny laughed, “I think I need a break!”  “I see all sorts of things but then there are these diamonds, these gems and I can’t resist.”

Schickel asked "Before you began acting, did you just want to act and act and act? Or did you want to act at all? When did you know you wanted to be an actor? And what got this rolling for you?" Johnny spoke about selling pens and starving and Nicolas Cage suggesting he try acting. Meeting Nic’s agent, getting sent for the reading for A Nightmare on Elm Street and getting the part.

Johnny said that he didn't feel like a real actor for a long time, despite enjoying what he was doing ever since first being turned on to acting by watching Charlie Chaplin shorts on television after school as a child in Florida.

21 Jump Street  "It was a great experience, but it was very confusing for me because I felt like I was doing stuff to fill up space in between commercials." The more promos he saw himself featured in, the more "the beast had gotten away, and I couldn't grasp the reigns". "I was being sold as a product."

He took the role in Cry Baby deliberately to mock his image on Jump Street. That said, 'I understand that game, but don't want to play,'

"When I read Edward Scissorhands, I lost my mind,” "It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever read." Johnny didn't think he'd have a shot at the role, but Tracey insisted he go and he met Tim at the coffee shop at the Bel-Age Hotel, and after"18 cups of coffee... babbling for hours but somehow connecting,” he got the part

They showed the clip of the hat sequence in Benny and Joon and he was asked how hard that was to do and he responded that the roll dance was by far harder to learn than the physical routine. He studied the roll dance done by Charlie Chaplin frame by frame to learn the routine and it took him over 3 weeks. He also mentioned he could have really hurt himself learning the physical routine and he had to do it over and over again. He just kept throwing himself on the ground and it hurt. "there's only one way to find out if you can throw your heels over your head and risk breaking your neck in the process"

Johnny said he felt being a serious actor was an oxymoron. Schickel asked him why he felt that way. Johnny responded that it was dishonest. Schickel asked if being paid made it honest work. Johnny thought for a moment, scratched his head and said, “I’m not sure it makes it more honest.” and laughed

Johnny talked about what an odd adjustment it was to go from being like everyone else to being a recognized actor. He said, “I suddenly felt eyes on me all the time. I knew I was being stared at. It made feel like I had a huge booger in my nose and no one was telling me.”

Deflecting Schickel's inquiry into his "outsider" oeuvre, Johnny curled his moustache and replied, "Ah yes, I know of the oeuvre. I try to avoid the oeuvre."

On being called an outsider “I not sure outsider is quite right, but I know I never felt ‘inside.’ I did go through some typical phases, like having a crush on the cheerleader. I know that I kept absolute distance from one particular group, the jocks, and they were insiders.” Schickel asked “So how did that work out with the cheerleader, then?” and Johnny responded “Not so well, but thanks for asking.”

On Johnny’s remarkable vocal range and ability. Johnny responded that as a kid he enjoyed mimicking other people and even got into trouble in school for imitating the teacher. He talked about locking himself in his room with lots of records to self teach himself guitar.

He mentioned that two of his favorite performers growing up were Frank Gorshin and Rich Little. That led to a discussion of how Johnny likes to create new and unique characters. He felt that if he played the same type of character all the time that he would become bored as an actor. His boredom would then show through in his performances, and the audience would be bored as well.

Schickel brought up Dead Man. Johnny seemed like he wanted to discuss it, but Schickel said that movie was not on the schedule. Johnny said okay and made a motion as if to zip his mouth shut.

On Donnie Brasco

 “I had second thoughts about playing the character because after reading the book, I really didn’t like the character.” I thought he was this tough, law and order, get the bad guys kind of guy, and that wasn’t interesting to me.” but  meeting Joe Pistone and finding out what a sweet and sensitive guy he was and realizing how hard it must have been to go through what he did and play that tough guy role. “It took about 15 minutes with him for my attitude to change”.

On the Pirates Beach scene - Elizabeth & Jack on the beach where he's curls the ends of his moustache up. "When you grow this stuff on your face, you end up playing with it & twisting it around.”  He added it to romanticize the moment. “It felt like the thing to do”.

On the Libertine

Schickel said he found the movie hard to watch because John Wilmot was unlikable and didn’t seem to have some of the redeeming nature that Johnny usually brings to his roles.

On how he got involved

"Yeah I got a phone call from John about 10 years ago and he asked me if I would come to see in the play him on stage in Chicago. So I went, I had no idea why he asked me to go, I went watched the play and loved it. Then we went to dinner afterwards and he said I would like you to play the part. Which was shocking because he was so brilliant on stage and my reaction was something like, 'Why don't you do it?' Then he said, 'because I want you to' and that was it, I was in, and it took us 10 years to get it off the ground,"

"It has the energy of punk rock.  It's unforgiving and it's ugly at times and it's flowery and funny, all kinds of things, but it doesn't let up..."

“History remembers John Wilmot as a rogue, debaucher and pornographer, and he was all those things, but he was also a brilliant poet who was uncompromising in his pursuit of the truth—he was incapable of lying -  Wilmot was “a human being, multi-layered, complicated, a loving father and a confused and tormented husband.” “He could not tolerate a lie. And I salute that!”

He said that he was very proud of this movie

Friday night Libertine Intro

“We came to see a play. We’re just going to stand here and watch you!”

Would you like us to dance – does a soft shoe

“You must be getting tired of me”, the audience yells no, never. “OK, hunker down, actually I have a lot on my mind, so let’s just get straight to it!”

“If you don’t like the movie, well it’s too late.”

Saturday at the SAG Screening

In doing his research Johnny was given access to some very rare documents, including the originals of Wilmot’s letters to his wife and his children at the British Museum. He said that’s where he got in touch with the other side of Wilmot - the loving father and caring husband. “He was a very tortured man”

 He was asked what the most difficult accent he had to learn was and his answer was the Scottish accent in "Finding Neverland." The woman in the audience asked if he would do a German accent and he said a couple of sentences in German "My father is a bullfighter" and "I am a watermelon."  He said these sentences actually work in Berlin. He has always had an ear for accents and imitating and related this to being a self taught musician.

 He was asked about the drawbacks of being an actor and he talked about the lack of privacy, being famous.

He lives part time in the US and part time in France. He likes France because he can be more normal. He can drive. He can put the kiddies in the car and go for coffee.

Of all his characters he is most like Wilmot – obsessed with the truth and with being honest. Wilmot could not allow King Charles II to get away with a false image of himself. Johnny said “I am also obsessed with honesty, with telling the truth, and it has gotten me into lots of trouble….yeah.”

Before he had the kids he was doing the job.

 He loves the process of acting and still finds it really exciting.

Sometimes weird to be called his real name – Johnny – in the Libertine, sometimes it pulled him out of character (but he got right back in) especially in the beginning of the movie in the theatre when everyone is yelling Johnny. He gets back into character with counting or cues or whatever he is using.

He was asked if he used “Michael Chekhov” “To the Actor” as part of his study for the role (the man asking the question had observed this is parts of the movie). Johnny said he had a copy of the book given to him by Martin Landau and Martin told him that the book had been very valuable to him and Jimmy (meaning James Dean). He said “It’s a great book; it’s one of the top 5, maybe even the top 3”.

It took a long time for the Libertine to get done. Similar answer to Friday night except Sat night he impersonated Malkovich on the phone call and his pauses (and paused and then said ‘45 minutes later’) and then when Malkovich said “because I want you to do it” it was again in Malkovichs voice.

He said it was a very good thing that it had taken so long to do the Libertine because “I don’t think I was ready, no I don’t think I was ready to do it then” seriously. Then joking “I might have been tempted to live the part”

On Keith Richards – “it is looking very good, yeah very good.” For him to be in Pirates.

On pirate’s role of Jack – “I was getting calls from the Disney upper echelon – Johnny, what are you doing to our movie?” What’s he doing with his hands, what’s he dressing as and why is he walking like that, is he drunk? Johnny said he responded “don’t you know I play all my roles gay!”

When asked what role he would like to play he said “a cross between Carol Channing and Liberace….maybe even playing both roles.”

After one long and very complicated emailed question he turned to the audience and said “I don’t know”.

After another complicated question he said, “can I just get your email and email you”

On decompressing – “Funny, you find yourself at the craft table eating cheetos and it is really weird. Sometimes it takes a long time for them to leave and they never really leave you. All of my characters are still in here (pointing to stomach) in drawers. Rochester was different. The filming was very intense, 45 days, very intense. We got to the wrap party and I got really sick. So sick I ended up in bed for two weeks”

Next projects –“Shantaram is just beautiful and we were very lucky to get a hold of the book and meet the author” He will have to go to India and has never been there before.

The Official Libertine Site



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