Tim Burton speaks
about Helena's
role in the film
Tim Burton: I
thought it was important that because I'd never done anything like this before
myself and it's quite a difficult musical to do, in the stage thing, that was,
that was a hard role, all the roles are hard. And I just didn't want it to seem
like I was just giving the job to my girlfriend or anything, so I really was
probably harder on that for that reason. And I just wanted to make sure that it
was basically she was really right for it - which she is, which she was and is,
so I probably was a bit harder on her than others for the reason of just
wanting to really make sure it was right."
Many people make
comparisons between this film and Edward
Scissorhands, for obvious reasons. We ask Tim Burton and Johnny Depp about
this link.
Tim Burton: For
me, it's only the fact that we did that movie and we did this movie. I mean,
you know, we're not lost on the sharp instrument angle. But the thing about
this character, which I love is different from that is that we did that a long
time ago and we're probably much more--I certainly was much more-- optimistic
in you know, which that character sort of represented. But now, the Sweeney
character is much sort of more interiorized, darker character, which I love.
Seeing Johnny do both of those things was really amazing for me to see, because
I think this character for me is one of my favorite characters he's done, just
'cause I love the interior, brooding quality of the character. Then, you put
that with him singing, and it's just created to me a really amazing new thing
for me.
Johnny Depp:
There are similarities in the sense that Scissorhands,
maybe even Sleepy Hollow and Ichabod Crane in a way, are characters who, are
very much living inside their own head. Edward was a bit more innocent, be aware
of it. I think there was only one moment when you saw Edward get angry.
Tim Burton: Yeah,
yeah, this guy's just angry the whole time!
Johnny Depp:
Always angry. Probably only one moment when Sweeney smiles.
Tim Burton: Yeah,
it's like if Edward Scissorhands, you
know, went into a major depression…for several years.
We asked Johnny (who
I must say at this conference donned a very handsome goatee) if in the making
of this film he learned the value of a good shave
Johnny Depp: Um, you
know what? No, I didn't. I've never really experienced that full, that full-on
thing, because this is a full beard for me. This is a lumberjack look for me.
I'm hiding behind this. So yeah, no didn't do that. But I can definitely
appreciate it, because when you get in there with a complete stranger and they
lather your face up and bring some incredibly sharp instrument up towards your
throat, it's kind of frightening.
Tim Burton: It
is. I tried it once, and it was really frightening to have a complete stranger
with a razor at your throat. You don't even know who he is.
Johnny Depp:Yeah.
Tim Burton: It's
just the sound of it
Johnny Depp:
Yeah!
Tim Burton: It's quite
a, it's frightening, in a way.
We asked Tim Burton
how Sacha Baron Cohen was cast.
Tim Burton: It
was after Borat came out, and he came
in to audition; he brought in this score of Fiddler
on the Roof and basically did all of Fiddler
on the Roof in the studio, and he was great! I admired him, because he
could have gone off and done a whole bunch of different stuff, but you know, he
chose to do this and that it was great that he did it.
Johnny Depp: God,
I'd have loved to have seen that. A lot.
Tim Burton: I
wish I'd had a camera, because he literally went through the whole score of Fiddler on the Roof.
Johnny Depp: All
of it?
Tim Burton: All
of it! It was great.
We asked about the
difficult blending of genres, being a musical and a slasher, how that has an
effect on Tim Burton's mind and whether that keeps him awake at night.
Tim Burton: Well,
I mean, it's always a risk. I remember when I first saw the show in London, back when I was
still a student. You know, I didn't know
anything about the music, but I remember seeing the show, and right when
Johanna came on, these two ladies, these two very proper British ladies were
sitting in front of me, they were sort of chatting throughout the show, and
then when Johanna came up and the blood started spurting across the stage, they
both stopped, and paused for a minute, one leaned over to the other and said,
"Was that really necessary?" But in fact, it was necessary, and I've
seen other productions of it where they've tried to be a bit more politically
correct and skimp on it and it really lost something, because the show is based
in those old, grand guignol theatre melodramas, where they had buckets pouring
out over the stage. So, it just felt like that was true to the spirit of what
the show is and was it's over the top, too, so it never felt like it was. It's
more of an emotional release than it is a kind of a reality thing in this
movie. And the studio, they were cool about it, they accept it, they knew it,
because they knew what the show was. But, yeah, any movie is a risk. But it's
nice to be able to do something like that where it, you know, doesn't fit into
either "musical" or "slasher movie" category; kind of its
own category.
Sweeney Todd in the film is a very depressed character and we asked
Johnny Depp if there are any moments in the film where Sweeney expresses
moments of happiness.
Johnny Depp: I don't
know. I haven't seen the film! I mean, the funny thing is the joy of the
filming it was like a laugh riot; it was a great time.
Tim Burton: Yeah
Johnny Depp: A
great experience. It was great fun, I mean, we laughed like fiends.
Tim Burton: I'd
say the humor from my point of view, from his character comes from how just
serious he is, and just how single-minded he is.
Johnny Depp:
Thanks
Tim Burton: …and
the relationship he has with Mrs. Lovett and anybody else. You know, he's
pretty much on one track, and there's something weirdly humorous about that,
but I guess it depends on what you think is funny.
For Tim Burton and
Johnny Depp, we asked each what they get out of the other.
Tim Burton: Well,
I'll say that he tries anything. The fact is that he's not a singer, you know,
he's musical, but he would try one of the hardest musicals ever to do. It just
says it all. He's just willing to go out there, and believe me, something I've
learned is singing is very exposing, especially if you're not a singer, it's a
very exposing process, and anybody who can do that can basically do anything,
you know? So for me, it's just an artistic pleasure to see somebody try
different things and actually achieve it…and achieve it beyond your
expectations.
Johnny Depp: Tim
since the first second that we met all those years ago, in that little cafe,
coffee shop in Los Angeles,
there, for me, was a kind of instant connection on a lot of different levels.
The most obtuse levels where this kind of weird fascination of understanding
absurdity, the absurdity of things that were typically perfectly acceptable in
the 1970 for example like macramé owls and resin grapes, and you know, fake fruit;
plastic fruit on your kitchen table. No one thought even twice about it so
there's that weird connection right on the spot, and ever since then I have only wanted to as a friend, but as an
actor a well, give him as much as closure to what he wants or what I think he
wants. Any actor's job is to just give the director options. You know, just
give them a bunch of...options. Funny thing is, I like, for example, when I go
into a movie and I'm preparing the character I start getting these ideas as
they come to me, and you got to incorporate them into the character. I feel
good about it myself, I have hope that others will feel the same. But when I'm
working with Tim, as I'm coming up with a character, before I'm thinking about
what I feel about the character, I'm thinking bout him. I'm just hoping that I
won't let him down. So, so he comes first, and then I come in there.
Tim Burton:
Another thing: he's great! He doesn't like looking at himself, which is great
for me. You don't have to spend, after the monitor, after a take, "I'm
gonna go look and see, No, that's not a good" you know, he's just
completely open to like "Whatever, you know. And I don't really care to
look at myself. I don't wanna look at myself." He just does a great job
of, and believe me; that's a huge issue for me, to not have that kind of vanity
of looking at yourself and stopping. It keeps the process going; keeps it vital
and that means a lot to me and the crew and I think everybody else. You know,
they get in a spirit of just doing it. And not sitting around and waiting
and...
We asked Tim Burton
the unique visual style in the film represents his view on the world.
Tim Burton: Well,
our inspiration on this were these old horror movies, so we wanted to make the
characters look like that. Johnny and I
always talked about old horror movie actors so it was an opportunity to do
that, so you'd set the world in that. For the flash backs you just treat it
like the story. That was the happier time in his life, so it's a bit more
lurid, the color, you know, sort of the opposite of flashbacks, which usually
are sort of de-saturated. We sort of inverted that because that seemed to be
more appropriate to the telling of the story, and then, her fantasy, we put a
lot of color into, because that's her fantasy of a wonderful life. And so, you
just try to use color as an emotional character and that's why we made those
choices.
And finally, we asked
Tim Burton what it was like not to work with Danny Elfman for once.
Tim Burton: Well,
you know, the score was already done, that was one the reasons I did this. But
I think Danny would appreciate this score. Sondheim, when we first talked to
him, said he wrote the score like a Bernard Herman score, which was
interesting, when we recorded the orchestra, you don't hear the vocals, it's
really like a great, old-fashioned movie score. So, you know, it had the same
kind of strength you usually get with working with Danny, but there's such a
wealth of music and themes that Sondheim wrote; it was all right there from the
very beginning.
* * * * * * * *
DreamWorks Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures Presents a
Parkes/MacDonald and Zanuck Company Production, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, directed by Tim
Burton. Produced by Richard D. Zanuck, Walter Parkes, Laurie
MacDonald and John Logan; Executive Producer Patrick McCormick.
Based on the Broadway musical with music and lyrics by
Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler; originally staged by Harold Prince. From
an adaptation by Christopher Bond, screenplay by John Logan. Johnny Depp and Tim Burton join forces again in a big-screen
adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's award-winning musical thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet
Street…
"Depp stars in the title role as a man unjustly sent to
prison who vows revenge, not only for that cruel punishment, but for the
devastating consequences of what happened to his wife and daughter. When he
returns to reopen his barber shop, Sweeney Todd becomes the Demon Barber of
Fleet Street who 'shaved the faces of gentlemen who never thereafter were heard
of again,'" state press notes. "Joining Depp is Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs.
Lovett, Sweeney's amorous accomplice, who creates diabolical meat pies. The
cast also includes Alan Rickman, who portrays the evil Judge Turpin, who sends
Sweeney to prison, Timothy Spall as the Judge's wicked associate Beadle Bamford
and Sacha Baron Cohen as a rival barber, the flamboyant Signor Adolfo Pirelli."
For limited national release December 21, 2007 and wide
January 11, 2008.
(photos courtesy SweeneyToddMovie.com, top to bottom): Sweeney Todd movie poster; Tim Burton and Johnny Depp on-set; Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter; Johnny Depp
