CANNES -- Johnny Depp says he was compelled to make his directorial debut on The Brave by mysterious internal forces and a passion for paying homage to native peoples.
"I have absolutely no idea why I wanted to direct the film," Depp mused yesterday as the film premiered in competition at the 50th anniversary edition of the Cannes Film Festival, "but I felt somehow driven to do it."
With Depp starring as an Indian living with his wife and two children in a squalid trailer park perched on the edge of a town dump, The Brave tells the contemporary story of a desperate man who sells himself to the makers of a snuff film to raise $50,000 to save his family from poverty.
The snuff film ruse is a metaphor in the film. "In a strange way, I thought it sort of paralleled what happened to the American Indians 100 or more years ago," Depp said
U.S. troops and government officials such as 19th century President Andrew Jackson -- the one featured on the $20 bill -- were "murderers" who conducted acts of genocide, Depp said. Now people turn a blind eye as the 20th century survivors often live in miserable conditions.
"A lot of people live exactly as these people do, or some in conditions that are much worse. So the American Dream -- I don't think it exists at all. I think it's propaganda."
The metaphor that brackets his dramatic film may be extreme, "a little exaggerated," Depp said, but it worked for him and he tried to keep it from dominating the screen.
"I was doing the best to try to kill that serpent because I knew it would come up and bite my ass!"
ONE LAST TANGO: Depp, who has co-starred with Marlon Brando in a couple of movies, talked the legendary actor into a cameo role in The Brave. It was an act of friendship that left him in awe, Depp says.
"Marlon coming in and doing this film for me was an incredible blessing. It was beyond a dream. I was very fortunate to have worked with him and we've maintained a friendship, a relationship, so when we went to work together the process was very enjoyable and we were cackling and laughing together." Brando plays the snuff film maestro.
"As far as directing him, I don't think anyone needs to direct Marlon Brando. You just turn the camera on and capture (him) and take what you can take. What he came in and did for me was above and beyond anything that I ever expected. He really dug inside."
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