Johnny Depp: Lost in Translation

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Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:

Johnny Depp's king, Jake Gyllenhaal's stories, Endeavor Group goes private; Hunter Schafer is cuckoo, Kevin Smith's autobiography, and a blind detective. ​

Let’s go!

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JOHNNY DEPP LOST IN TRANSLATION

Jeanne du Barry. Vertical.

Johnny Depp wants you to forget who he is.

In his latest role, he plays King Louis XV in the 18th-century drama Jeanne du Barry– a role in which he speaks only in French.

Depp explains:

“I didn’t really feel any hesitation to with regard to the character or the language necessarily. Didn’t find it particularly intimidating, a bit of running through the rain drops.”

Before he was cast, though, Depp told the director Maïwenn, who co-stars, that she might want another actor:

“I thought it was brave of her to choose some hillbilly from Kentucky. You need to figure out a way that the viewer can forget who you are, all the baggage you carry… that was my biggest hope that the viewer would forget who they had in front of them.”

And Depp is almost unrecognizable in the role.

It's less so because of the powder caked on his face and more because the performance feels incredibly restrained.

In the film, he is the object of a working-class woman’s (Maïwenn) desire. For all his performative baggage, e.g., his Jack Sparrow swashbuckler gyrations - his biggest weapon in Jeanne du Barry is an occasional grin.

It remains to be seen if this film will ignite his passion for foreign art-house roles (the film opened at Cannes in 2023) or if it will propel his bankability for English-speaking audiences.

Jeanne du Barry opens in theaters in the UK on April 19th and the US on May 2nd.

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