(Courtesy photo)
One thing you have to know when you go to a press conference where multiple celebrities will be, anything can happen. This fact couldn’t be truer than what happened at the press conference for “Rango” at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, Calif.
On Feb. 12, a cool Johnny Depp strode into the conference room wearing a black beanie and showing off Capitan Sparrow-like gold teeth. Gore Verbinski, with an excited smile, followed next. Isla Fisher, in a teal dress, accenting her long, red locks daintily walked in along with a confident and mature Abigail Breslin, whose dark brown hair was pulled into a sophisticated pony tail. Depp was a gentleman as he pulled out the chairs and helped Breslin and Fisher sit down. Then the conference began.
“Rango” is an animated film, set to open Friday, where Depp plays a heroic lizard. Fisher plays another lizard with an impeccable southern drawl and Breslin plays a rather unattractive young rat. Together, they try to save their town called Dirt and replenish their water supply.
As America hops on the 3-D craze, director Verbinski said there were no plans to make “Rango” into 3-D.
“I don’t think there’s a dimension missing [from ‘Rango’],” Verbinski said. “We talked about it early on but it didn’t need it.”
Breslin said she agreed.
“[The animation] looks so life-like anyways, it looked like it could have been 3-D,” Breslin said.
Because “Rango” is animated, its audience includes kids. Yet Depp’s past roles in films such as “Edward Scissorhands,” “Sweeney Todd,” and “Secret Window,” had more of an adult audience. But Depp said he prefers kid audiences rather than adult ones.
“I trust kids far more than I do adults,” Depp said. “Kids give the honest opinion. They tell the truth.”
During the making of “Rango,” Verbinski took on a more artistic approach. Instead of having the actors just speak their lines into the microphone; every scene was physically acted out.
The actors all wore similar costumes and the staging, body language and movements were then taken for the animators to work with. This is not a usual approach when making an animated film, but the actors said they thought it was an effective and fun way to film.
“Certain gestures, body movement, you know, something you may have done with your eyes, these animators took it,” Depp said. “It was very strange…but ultimately it was the right thing to do. It was [Verbinski’s] vision and we saw it through.”
Fisher said she thought it added more depth to the characters.
“I think it gave more humanity to the characters, because we were interacting with each other,” Fisher said. “There was more chemistry and it felt organic.”
Breslin said she like getting into character by wearing a costume.
“For me, it was a lot more fun,” Breslin said. “I did wear a black wig…and I was carrying a [fake] gun.”
Despite their father being a world famous actor, Depp said his kids are more interested in other things rather than him playing a lizard.
“The things that I’ve done that my kids have been privy to, like ‘Willy Wonka’, doesn’t register,” Depp said. “They’re far more interested in ‘Family Guy’ or Justin Bieber.”
Depp said he was a “belieber”—a Justin Bieber fanatic—after being told what it was.
Less than ten minutes later, the Biebs himself came in. He said he heard that Depp say he was a ‘belieber.’ Everyone looked surprised, even Depp.
“We’ve just established I’m a belieber,” Depp said.
Bieber shook hands with Depp and smiled to the room of surprised journalists while everyone laughed and giggled in disbelief at the seeing the young superstar.
“I’m a big fan of [Depp],” Bieber said. “So I had to come support you.”
Bieber shook hands with all three actors and fist-bumped Verbinski.
“I had to come say ‘hi,’” Bieber said. “[Depp] said he’s a belieber and I’m a big fan of him, so I had to stop by.”
With that, Bieber left with his entourage of at least 20 people, leaving the conference rooming buzzing with excitement.
“Okay, so who’s not a belieber now?” Depp said.
Although Bieber stole the thunder from the press conference, the main point behind “Rango” still came through. Its approach toward animation sets it apart from just another animated flick.
“People talk about animated movies like it’s a genre,” Verbinski said. “But it’s just a technique to tell a story. The motto at [Industrial Light Magic, the animation studio for “Rango”] is: Fabricate anomaly…otherwise it’s not going to feel honest.”
Contact CU Independent Entertainment Editor Taylor Coughlin at Taylor.coughlin@colorado.edu.
