“Keith has been unbelievably generous with his time”–Johnny Depp talks about his Keith Richards documentary

You can always count on Ruben V. Nepales, the Los Angeles correspondent for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, to ask intriguing questions when he gets the chance to interview Johnny Depp. Many thanks to Mr. Nepales for asking Johnny to explain the genesis of his documentary on Keith Richards, Happy. “The Keith Richards documentary came about in a very strange way,” Johnny said. “Keith and I have spent a lot of time together over the years, whenever he’s off the road and I’m off a film. We would usually end up in the living room of his hotel suite or my house or his place in New York. We would talk and I get all these incredible stories that just haven’t made it out there in the world. I suggested to him that maybe we could try something like that on film and he went, ‘Yeah.’ For a number of years, he was like, ‘Yeah, we’ll see.’ Finally, bless him, he deigned to give it a shot so it’s something that we’re doing together.”

Johnny, Keith Richards, Patti Smith and other special guests were spotted filming at the Los Angeles Theater at the end of January. “Keith has been unbelievably generous with his time,” Johnny said. “We shot for about five days which I consider the first installment of the piece.” And how does he feel about directing again? Typically modest, Johnny replied, “The only reason why I’m doing it is because I wanted to capture stuff. There’s no directing really.”

What a fascinating project. We can’t wait to see this one!

Many thanks to Theresa for sharing the Nepales interview. You can read a lively discussion of it on the Zone’s News & Views forum. To read the entire interview, CLICK HERE.

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