The January 2nd issue of the Los Angeles Times carries a delightful article by Mark Salisbury reporting his interview with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp; details reveal that the interview took place during the London press junket for SWEENEY TODD in late November, when both of Salisbury’s subjects were suffering from the flu. Nonetheless, the friends are cheerful and quick-witted as they pass the Kleenex box back-and-forth and tell Salisbury about their work. In addition to the usual questions about whether Johnny was nervous about singing in a film, they discuss their “silent movie” approach to conveying the central character’s torment.

Salisbury explains that Burton and Depp wanted to recreate the “minimal but expressive acting style” employed by actors like Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, and Lon Chaney. “It’s almost a lost art,” Johnny tells Salisbury. “[John] Barrymore was a master, but the king for me was Lon Chaney. You go back and watch films like THE PENALTY and see this rage and sadness, this huge range of emotions, without the luxury of dialogue.” Tim Burton reveals that every day during the shooting, he and Johnny “would cut Sweeney’s lines down to the bare minimum.” Explains Burton, “Johnny can, just by looking and not saying anything, project pain and sadness and anger and longing. [. . .] That’s what all those actors could do without a word and that was the exciting thing about this. The story is told through the eyes and the singing.”

The Zone thanks Emma for sharing the Salisbury article; you can read it in its entirety on the News & Views forum. –Part-Time Poet