2 h 15 min, 6 sept. 2021 ans - MEDIA COVERAGE 5 - 7 September 2021 Johnny Depp presents City of Lies in Deauville

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FROM RADIO FRANCE

[Translated from the original French using Google Translate.]

Johnny Depp: "Some film festivals are circuses, but in Deauville the filmmakers are at home

By Alexis Demeyer

This Sunday, Johnny Depp presented the film "City of Lies" at the Deauville festival, out of competition. The American actor, back at the top of the poster after several months of absence from the big screen, plays a police officer who investigated the murder of rapper Notorious B.I.G. He answers questions from France Inter.

It had been several months since we had seen Johnny Depp headliner. Sidelined from Hollywood before the pandemic for his legal entanglements with his ex-wife Amber Heard and then with the English tabloid The Sun, the American actor was back this Sunday in Deauville. He met the public (some fans camp in front of his hotel!) and journalists on the occasion of the presentation of Brad Furman's "City of Lies", out of competition at this 47th edition of the American Film Festival.

The actor plays Russell Poole, a Los Angeles Police (LAPD) inspector who investigated the murder of rapper Notorious B.I.G. in 1997, before being pushed to resign two years later. For France Inter, he returns to his role, to the political dimension of the film but also to his attachment to the Deauville festival.

FRANCE INTER: This is a very critical film about the Los Angeles police...

JOHNNY DEPP: "Many people didn't want this movie to be made. The 1990s in L.A. was a very radical time. Tensions were strong, there had been riots, tanks, the deployment of the National Guard, etc. And when Christopher Wallace [the real name of Notorious B.I.G., ed.] was murdered in Los Angeles, I believe that behind his death, it is not as simple as someone who would have come out of nowhere to kill him. It's not that simple. There are several layers, which overlap, and take you to the truth."

Do you like to play in films that have a political dimension?

"You sometimes have the opportunity, by acting in a film, to transmit important information to the public, things to which they would not have yet been exposed, facts that have never been brought to light for various reasons... I like to be able to give information to people, to do something good. And not only for people by giving them the truth, but also to support Voletta Wallace, Biggie's mother, after all the suffering she had to endure. She still has no answers. Russell Poole [who died in 2015 of an aneurysm rupture] is the one who came closest to the truth."

Russell Poole was a whistleblower: do you think his message would have had more resonance today?

"I believe that today, with the Internet, with the possibility that we have to have the information, the truth, in our hands, and to send it directly to people via the Internet, Russell Poole's investigation would have been very different. I think there would necessarily have been a way out: today, those responsible would have been before the court. But the file is not yet closed with the Los Angeles police - the case is not resolved but it is not closed, which blocks the appeals. Ms. Wallace's attempts to get justice have been aborted."

How do you feel, here in France, in Deauville, in this festival that you know well?

"I'm always happy to come to France! I am very much admiring of the organizers of this festival: it honors cinema, authors, real filmmakers, not just successful directors, who make money in Hollywood. Succeeding in making a film is already a success. It is a festival that works for the recognition of young filmmakers, films of all kinds, independent films. I have always been impressed by the diversity of cinema that is represented there. The Cannes Film Festival looks more like a circus. Some festivals become big circuses. That of Deauville remains, in my opinion, a house, a home for filmmakers, moviegoers, people who respect cinema. Not only for people who come to laugh in front of stupid movies. Very Bad Trip was not projected here (laurs)!"

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