"Bad Boys:" the TIMES (UK)'s Martyn Palmer interviews Johnny Depp about THE LIBERTINE

The Saturday Times (UK) Film magazine features a lively article called “Bad Boys” on the filming of THE LIBERTINE, written by the Times’s regular Depp correspondent Martyn Palmer, with photos by Brigitte Lacombe. The interview took place while Johnny Depp, John Malkovich and company were shooting interiors on the Isle of Man in April 2004. “Rochester’s life was something akin to a 17th century rock star,” writes Palmer of Johnny Depp’s character, the second Earl of Rochester, “only with more sex and drink. […] There was nothing ordinary about Rochester.” Playwright and screenwriter Stephen Jeffreys offers this assessment: “THE LIBERTINE is about someone who has a fantastic talent for everything and he wastes it.”

Johnny’s view of Rochester, however, is laced with his characteristic compassion and empathy for the outcast. He digs beneath the sensationalism to find tenderness and love in the notorious Earl: “For all his adventures and all of his sexual exploits and deviant encounters, he was quite sensitive and loving,” Johnny tells Palmer. “When you read the stuff, he was a very caring man. And a great, great writer.”

The Zone thanks trinni for posting the Times article on our News & Views forum, and for the photographs on our Recent Pics forum. A great read!