Johnny Depp on his issues with greenscreen acting: “You’re kind of befuddled at the end of the day”
For any actor to forge a career in Hollywood that endures for as long as possible, they will have to take on a variety of jobs. Most stars are savvy enough to realise that they can’t live on arthouse pictures alone, but equally, a career comprised entirely of enormous blockbusters won’t serve them well, either. Naturally, when tackling these different kinds of films, different types of acting will be required. Sometimes, they’ll need to be contained and naturalistic, but at other times, scenery-chewing may be the name of the game. Johnny Depp has excelled on both ends of the spectrum throughout his time in the limelight, although he once revealed which style of acting is his least favourite. In fact, he admitted it can often leave him befuddled and bemused.
When Depp signed up to play the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s 2010 Alice in Wonderland adaptation, he was excited to work yet again with the director he had become so synonymous with. In fact, Alice was Depp’s seventh collaboration with Burton, stretching back to 1990’s Edward Scissorhands, and he would add two more when he starred in 2012’s Dark Shadows and returned as the Hatter in 2016’s Burton-produced Alice Through the Looking Glass.
One of the unique selling points of Alice in Wonderland for Burton was the opportunity to work with greenscreen for the first time. In fact, aside from two weeks of real-world scenes filmed in Cornwall, England, the vast majority of the movie was to be shot in a Los Angeles studio. In this sterile environment, there would be no sets and no props, with “Wonderland” being added after the fact by an extensive visual effects team headed up by Academy Award-winning artist Ken Ralston.
Unfortunately for Burton, Depp, Ralston, and the rest of the cast and crew, it quickly became apparent that this unique method of filmmaking wasn’t going to be for everyone. Ralston felt the shoot was exhausting, as it was both the biggest production he’d ever been involved in and also the one that required the most creative input from him.
Burton found it surreal to work with no tangible sets, telling Reuters, “You try to keep it as lively as possible so that actors can interact as much with each other as possible. Speed and energy are important.” However, he admitted that the un-reality of it all could “freak you out after a while, not only for the actors but for myself and crew. You start to think, ‘Who are we again? Where are we?'”
In addition, constant exposure to the sickly greenscreens in the studio’s bright, fluorescent environment actually made many members of the cast and crew sick. Reports emerged that people couldn’t help feeling lethargic, and Burton even had lavender lenses fitted in his glasses in an effort to mitigate the effects.
Depp wasn’t immune to the pitfalls of working in an empty room with only a greenscreen for company, either. He grumbled to The Telegraph, “The novelty of the green wears off very quickly. It’s exhausting, actually.”
For an actor like Depp, who had come of age in a Hollywood that favoured practical filmmaking and location-shooting over computerised digital extravaganzas, tangling with so much greenscreen rubbed him the wrong way. He argued that working on films like Pirates of the Caribbean had exposed him to certain special effects techniques that affect acting performances, but at least he found them interesting to work around. He explained, “I like an obstacle. I don’t mind having to spew dialogue while having to step over dolly track while some guy is holding a card, and I’m talking to a piece of tape.”
However, being exposed to nothing but greenscreen, with very few tangible elements to react to, was a challenge he found difficult to rise to. In the end, he admitted, “The green beats you up. You’re kind of befuddled at the end of the day.”
