"The less dialogue you give him, the happier he feels:" Marc Forster describes Johnny Depp's acting style

Journalist N. P. Thompson conducted a recent interview with FINDING NEVERLAND’s director, Marc Forster. Forster discusses how he came to direct the film, and what it was like to work with screen legends Julie Christie and Dustin Hoffman and (of course) Johnny Depp. This is the interview that contains Johnny’s often-quoted remark about Julie Christie, as reported by Marc Forster: “There’s a scene late in the film where Johnny Depp and Julie walk down these arches to discuss the future of the children, and she briefs him on how she sees it. As we’re shooting this, Johnny comes to me and says, ‘Marc, I can’t believe what I have to tell you. This woman is 60 years old, and I still feel like kissing her!'”

Forster also calls attention to Johnny’s remarkable ability to listen on screen. “Most people can’t listen in real life, let alone in front of a camera,” observes the journalist Thompson, to which Marc Forster replies: “Johnny is the opposite. The less dialogue you give him, the happier he feels. We went through the script and cut dialogue, until I said, ‘No, you need to say this line!’ He loves to listen; he doesn’t have a problem with that, and he loved those boys, and the kids were so breathtaking. I loved watching his rapport with them. They had such synergy and chemistry together that it just made everybody bloom.”

The Zone thanks Emma for sharing the Thompson interview. You can read the full article HERE. Emma also posted an interview with Forster conducted by Paul Salfen of the Dallas Music Guide. Forster discusses why he wanted Johnny to play J. M. Barrie and how he feels about the Oscar buzz surrounding FINDING NEVERLAND: “I feel that if [people] come in the movie not knowing too much or having less expectations sometimes they walk away saying, ‘Oh my God, I loved the film!’ But if they come in with high expectations, it’s much harder to please them. In the sense the [Entertainment Weekly] cover helps the movie because it makes it more accessible to people and brings the word out there, but at the same time I hope people will not be disappointed.” Forster also discusses the differences between Johnny’s acting rhythm and Dustin Hoffman’s. According to Forster, “Johnny’s best work is between take three and take five, that’s when he peaks and Dustin peaks between eight and twenty five, somewhere in between there. So it was hard for Johnny.” To read the whole interview, see Emma’s post on the News & Views forum.