As usual, Johnny is full of praise for everyone else. Asked how he achieved his perfect Scottish accent to play J. M. Barrie in FINDING NEVERLAND, Johnny replied: “For me it was a great challenge. There is something so musical and rhythmical about the Scottish accent. Initially I couldn’t quite get a handle on it, but luckily I found a dialect coach who was from Scotland and she helped me a lot.”

He also praised his young co-star Freddie Highmore, who plays Peter in the film. The two actors–who share the same birthday, June 9th–enjoyed their work together so much that Johnny recalled saying goodbye to Freddie at the end of the shoot as the most emotional part of filming. “We weren’t able to look each other in the eye because we just started welling up,” Johnny told reporters in Venice. “The last day of filming is always hard but especially something like this with little kids, your emotions are ricocheting all over the place.” Now they are reunited on the set of Tim Burton’s CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, where Freddie is playing Charlie Bucket to Johnny’s Willy Wonka.

Asked about J. M. Barrie’s efforts to distract grieving children by creating the fantasy world of PETER PAN for them, Johnny spoke approvingly of the power of the imagination to soothe pain: “If any one of us turned on the television to see the horrors that are happening to people in the world now, there’s no better time to strive to have some kind of hope [. . .] through imagination, through the ability to close your eyes.” Thanks to DeepinDepp for posting several updates from Venice on our news board, and to Savvy, Susanne, Emma, Sleepy, Bonnie, and Mortnme for many, many great new pictures of Johnny in Venice!