Once Upon A TIme in Mexico

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Interviewed by Stephen Applebaum

Having turned Jack Sparrow into a piratical Keith Richards in "Pirates of the Caribbean", Johnny Depp now does odd things with a ruthless, three-armed CIA agent in Robert Rodriguez's ballistic action epic, "Once Upon a Time in Mexico".

What did you bring to your portrayal of Agent Sands that wasn't in the script?

Well, when I said I was in, I told him [director Robert Rodriguez] the kind of direction I would like to go with the character. I said, "Tell me if this feels alright. I don't want to go somewhere you don't want to go." I brought up the idea of the eternal tourist. The unhappy tourist. The bitter tourist. Of someone who has a penchant for bad T-shirts and fanny packs.

I saw him as a guy who's such a badass, he would wear obviously fake disguises just to try to make someone comment on his disguise, so he could kill them. [Points his fingers like a gun] Pop! It's over.

Did you base him on anyone?

Yeah, there was a part that reminded me of someone I had known in Hollywood. He was very, very soft-spoken, and on the outside very, very charming, but at his very core, at the base of his very existence, he was a monster. So that's the kind of direction I went with the guy. I thought every word would be measured, and he would never say a curse word because that would send him to Hell, but he can kill somebody, no problem.

It seems like you're keeping your integrity by doing your own thing even in big budget movies...

Well, you know, when I started "Pirates" there was plenty of whispering on the sidelines and confusion, with people saying, "What is he doing with the character? Why is he saying those words? They're not in the script!" My whole point was: "You hired me to do the part. You hired me to inhabit and invent this character. You've seen the stuff I've done before, what did you think I was going to do?" They must have had some idea.

Rodriguez shot the film using digital cameras. Did that affect the way you worked?

I felt very puritanical at first and thought, "He's shooting in high-def, that's got to be weird; 35mm, that's the way to go. It's celluloid. It's got depth, textures." But he just made it sound so experimental. It's almost like getting together with a bunch of guys with a video camera and saying, "Let's see what happens."

I really like that approach where it's so loose that anything is possible. That's kind of what I got from Robert: that it was going to be loose, that he'd use the script as a structure, as a skeleton, and go in and play around. I was shocked, man, about the high-def. The quality's really up. It's amazing.

Three New photos courtisy of ljennin1

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More Wallpaper

Found by Reemi

This pork might make Depp get his gun
By Linda Cicero

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
 

If you've seen the film "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," you may have wondered how "puerco pibil" tastes. It's the dish Johnny Depp's character orders again and again until he finds the perfect version. Depp explains to Antonio Banderas' character: "It is a slow-roasted pork. Nothing fancy, just happens to be my favorite, and I order it at every dive I go to in this country, and honestly, this is the best it's ever been. ... It is so good that when I'm finished with it, I'll pay my check, walk straight into the kitchen and shoot the cook. Because that's what I do. I restore the balance to this country."

In the DVD, director Robert Rodriguez includes a lesson on cooking puerco pibil, so when my son had to bring a dish to his Spanish class, we decided to try it. "Pibil" refers to the Maya method of steaming meats in a pit, a "pib" in the Maya language. Many Mexican and Latin American cookbooks have recipes for it that call for making a seasoning paste ("recado") from annatto seeds, lots of other ground spices and citrus juice.

Rodriguez's cooking lesson is a little vague on procedure. He says grinding the many spices yourself is essential, but doesn't say anything about marinating the meat - a necessary step in all the other puerco pibil recipes I found. On our first try, following Rodriguez's recipe exactly, the meat simmered rather than steamed in the oven packet and as a result was a bit tough, though incredibly flavorful.

We watched the lesson again, saw that when Rodriguez opens his roasted packet there is no visible liquid, and determined that we needed to marinate. Adding this step meant the meat absorbed a lot of the liquid before going into the oven.

If you want to have a Johnny Depp puerco pibil party (and who doesn't!), here is my adaptation of the director's recipe, with a nod to Diana Kennedy's "The Essential Cuisines of Mexico" (HarperCollins, 1972).

We used an electric coffee grinder for the spices, but be aware it won't be suitable for coffee again. Another note: Leave the fat on the meat while it is roasting. We pulled it all off the first time, and the meat came out dry. Better to leave it on during the cooking and remove before serving.

Puerco Pibil a la Robert Rodriguez
5 Tbsps. annatto (achiote)

seeds
2 tsps. cumin seeds
1 Tbsp. peppercorns
8 allspice berries

½ tsp. whole cloves
2 habanero chiles

½ cup orange juice

½ cup white vinegar
2 Tbsps. salt
8 cloves of garlic
Juice of 5 lemons
Splash of tequila
5 pounds pork butt
Banana leaves or heavy-duty

aluminum foil
White or Spanish rice or

taco shells for serving

Place the annatto, cumin, peppercorns, allspice and cloves in a spice grinder and process to a fine powder.

Carefully remove the seeds and veins from the chiles and chop coarsely. (Habaneros are very hot; even breathing the fumes may make you cough. Removing the veins and seeds ensures the dish is fiery but not painfully hot. You can also substitute a milder chile.)

Process the orange juice, vinegar, chiles, salt and garlic in a blender or food processor until liquefied. Add the lemon juice and tequila.

Cut the pork into 2-inch chunks. Place in a large, self-sealing plastic bag with the marinade. Seal bag and turn to evenly coat the meat. Refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours, turning occasionally.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Remove the meat from the marinade and wrap tightly in banana leaves or foil so no steam can escape. Place packet in roasting pan and roast four hours. Open packet carefully; the meat should shred easily with a fork. Serve with rice or shred, moisten with pan juices and use as taco filling. Makes 15 servings.

Per serving: 240 calories (35 percent from fat), 9.3 g fat (2.9 g saturated, 3.8 g monounsaturated), 92.2 mg cholesterol, 33.1 g protein, 5.2 g carbohydrates, 0.7 g fiber, 1,037 mg sodium.
 
 

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