Interviews from yesterday’s round table press conference for SWEENEY TODD, held at Claridge’s in London, are beginning to surface on the Internet. Director Tim Burton and actors Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd), Helena Bonham Carter (Mrs. Lovett), and Alan Rickman (Judge Turpin) took questions from reporters in a playful hour punctuated with self-deprecating jokes and plenty of laughter. Here are Johnny and Tim discussing the pivotal moment when Sweeney the demon barber actually has to prepare to shave Judge Turpin on-screen:

Q: Can you talk about your relationship with the razors, Johnny, and how you worked with them?

Johnny Depp: Well, having worked with sharp objects before, everything was fine . . . until I actually had to shave someone.

Tim Burton: Let me just remind you of one thing. He didn’t have trouble with the razors. He was freaked out by the shaving cream.

Johnny Depp: It made me real nervous.

Tim Burton: Am I right? Was that the hardest thing that you had to do, lather up Alan Rickman?

Johnny Depp: It was one of the most uncomfortable moments of my life, as it would be.

Tim Burton: He was like, “I can’t do it.”

Johnny Depp: Poor Alan [Johnny laughs].

Q: Was he screaming?

Johnny Depp: He wasn’t screaming. He was close.

Tim Burton: Inside he might have been screaming.

Johnny Depp: I think that he really didn’t enjoy it. So, in that sense, I’m sure he hated working with me.

Q: It wasn’t a “Method” preparation, where you went into a barbershop and tried to learn that for two weeks?

Johnny Depp: No, no, . . . because, I mean, at the same time I didn’t go out and slash anyone’s throat–that you know of.

The Zone thanks Emma and CassNJ for the round table interviews–you can read full transcripts of interviews with Johnny and Tim, with composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, with Helena Bonham Carter and with Alan Rickman on the Zone’s News & Views forum. Enjoy! –Part-Time Poet