Johnny Depp names “the weirdest thing I ever had to shoot”
Given the actor’s general affinity for all things bizarre, one would be spoilt for choice when picking out the weirdest scene to feature Johnny Depp. The actor has portrayed the Mad Hatter, a man with scissors for hands, a drunken pirate and the LSD-addled writer Hunter S. Thompson, but none of these movies quite measured up to a scene in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
As far as Depp is concerned, the “weirdest” scene he had to shoot was a flashback scene in the 2007 adaptation of the Hugh Wheeler and Stephen Sondheim musical, the actor’s sixth collaboration with Tim Burton. The movie was Depp’s first musical since Cry-Baby, and heard his unique singing voice set to the rhythm of Todd’s blood-spattered cutthroat razor.
Although singing presented a daunting prospect for Depp, the most disturbing moment for him and Burton came when they filmed a flashback scene depicting a young, happy Todd before he was sent to prison by Alan Rickman’s Judge Turpin.
“I think that was the weirdest thing I ever had to shoot,” Depp once told The Associated Press. “[Burton] literally was sobbing. He left the set of his own movie.”
Also present at the interview, Burton explained that the scene’s intense melodrama made it a hard watch. “That’s when I knew [Depp] was a great actor because that was terrible,” he said. “That was so bad.”
Continuing, Depp pointed out another cringeworthy moment in the movie. “That and having to soap up Alan Rickman’s face were two of the scariest moments, maybe of my life,” he laughed.
Speaking to IGN during a 2008 press conference, Depp discussed his initial apprehension about the singing role. “Tim’s the only person brave enough to actually let me try to sing,” he said. “It was the first time I’d ever sung – I’d never even sung in the shower; I’m too mortified. But once I got over the initial fear, it was kind of enjoyable. Sondheim’s melodies and lyrics are a real pleasure to tromp around in, it’s really beautiful stuff. Would I ever do it again? No, I doubt it.”
Depp then revealed that he initially thought the set would be eerily quiet since the vocals are pre-recorded and lip-synced. “It’s funny because early on, when Tim and I talked about Sweeney and the idea of doing it, 50 per cent of the job would be done before we ever stepped on the set with the recording of the songs,” Depp remembered. “Then we’d go in and lip sync to it. Or that’s what we thought”.
“But these guys know as well as I do that you go into the recording studio and sing your guts out recording the stuff, and do it as best you can, and then you go onto the set,” he added. “We thought we were going to lip-sync, but in fact, the only way to do it is to belt it out once again on the set, which is extremely mortifying. Everyone’s very, very close, and you just feel like an idiot at first.”
“But then it was oddly liberating, having music on the set all the way through. It made it interesting. It felt like we were doing a silent film,” Depp added.
Watch the trailer for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street below.
