This is the first official still (from EW.com) of Johnny Depp as Bostonian gangster Whitey Bulger. The film’s first trailer dropped yesterday. It actually previewed Tuesday night for a bunch of critics to create “buzz” on Twitter. And maybe so we would stop focusing on how Johnny caused some bumps with a late return to Pirates. The tactic may have worked.
Critics were impressed at Johnny’s “cold and powerful” portrayal of Bulger. I saw it differently because this felt like Johnny slathering himself in makeup again. Bad teeth, crazy contacts (Kaiser called them “zombie contacts.”) I didn’t see “ice cold.” I saw “eccentric and wacky with effectively foreboding background music.” Kaiser and I both agree that Scarfy’s ripping off Joe Pesci in Goodfellas. It’s so obvious and sad. Plus, Scorsese’s film contained humorous and satiric elements, so Depp nipping Pesci’s vibe to play a super-scary guy is distracting. If you haven’t seen the trailer, let’s do this. Benedict Cumberbatch (who plays Whitey’s brother, Bill) makes a quickie appearance at the end. Johnny overreacts (and overacts) over a steak recipe, but it’s supposed to be intimidating.
Kaiser is worried about how this film will affect Bendy’s career, and I can see why she’s concerned. Bendy will be fine, Depp notsomuch. This truly feels like Johnny’s make-or-break effort at legitimate acting. Especially after Transcendence and Mortdecai, he needs a non-Disney hit (although he pretends to not give a f***). This film’s box-office performance will determine whether studios will want anything to do with the Scarfmonster again.
Warner Bros chose a September release date, which means they’re semi-confident. They know audiences see Johnny as a gimmicky joke. His personal life has eclipsed his professional one, and he’s a messy cliché now. The studio didn’t want this film to compete with summer blockbusters, but they felt good enough to not dump it in January or February. I’d love for Johnny to make a real comeback. We’ll see what happens.
Movie still courtesy of EW.com/Warner Bros, photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet
I am DYING to hear what the Bostonians think of the accent?
I couldnt make out what he was trying to do, I could make out Irish a bit which is fair enough but it sounded a bit New York-y/Brooklyn to me?
(bendy’s accent is probably going to suck, he didnt have a starring role so I doubt put in the time with a coach)
I think he managed to pull off that genuinely creepy, could turn at any moment vibe which impressed me. Its more self contained that Pesci.
Depp can’t do a Boston accent at all. It was awful in Blow and this one just sounds really weird, and as you said, more New York-y. Actually more like a RI gangster than a Boston one.
The problem with Bendy’s accent is that Billy Bulger is an orator and his voice and accent are well known. If Cumberbatch didn’t study recordings of Billy, (and given all the time he was spending at Met galas and tennis matches, he probably didn’t) his accent will be a train wreck – and he looks all wrong.
It sounds more like a Brooklyn accent. It’s atrocious. And I kept seeing the Mad Hatter.
lilacflowers, yeah, I couldn’t believe that Bendy was chosen for Billy because the physicality is all wrong, and now that you mention it, the ability to capture the accent and oratory skills. As corny as his St. Patrick’s Day political breakfasts were, he was nationally known for them.
As soon as Whitey was captured in LA, astounding given how many Boston transplants live here, at least two major competing film projects emerged. This one is a star-driven vehicle for Depp, a chance to remind audiences of his performances in Donnie Brasco and Blow, that was rushed to get made and out in theaters before the other one.
With that, I think Black Mass would’ve been better with lesser-known character actors to play many of these parts, especially that of Billy. Instead, we have Depp and Bendy playing some version of themselves. Except for shits of the city and area itself, I’ve no interest in seeing this version whatsoever.
p.s. I meant *shots*!
Most people won’t notice accents. Cumberbatch looks fine, a passing resemblance is all that’s needed (if that, most moviegoers won’t even know who the guy he’s playing is). No idea what he did for prep but I’m sure he can multitask.
The early word of mouth on this is really good, could be Depp’s comeback.
The only resemblance Cumberbatch bears to Billy Bulger is that they are both white men. Although the glimpses in that trailer are very brief, he can’t even carry himself like Billy. But you’re right, few will notice that he isn’t close to the former Massachusetts Senate President in any way.
And yes, I am hearing really good things about this and Depp’s performance, despite the horrific attempt at an accent.
What accent? Depp does his version of a tough guy here, but I don’t hear Boston (and by that, I mean Southie and Chucktown) in it, nor do I see Whitey Bulger in him.
Jack Nicholson did a far better characterization, though his accent was also not much of a Boston one but all “Jack” (eg. one of his best lines, “what can I use you fuh?” should’ve been “foah”); nevertheless, I enjoyed it.
Born and raised there, I never had an accent, but I was surrounded by extended family and friends who did. So we grew up mimicking it just for fun, much to my fah-thah’s dismay.
Do people from other cities, regions or countries scrutinize accents as much as those of us from Boston do? I find it distracting when done badly, ruins the film for me, better for most actors not to do much of one at all.
I feel like they should just stop trying to do the boston accent unless they have someone that is from boston. Honestly i have lived here for 20 years and less than 1/3 of the people i know speaks with the accent, and most of them are just very faint.
The interesting story here is that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were working on an adaptation of the Whitey Bulger story as their first joint film venture in years before Warner Brothers announced their film with Johnny Depp. Matt Damon was going to star as Whitey Bulger and Ben Affleck was going to direct the film. The last I heard (see June 2014 “Screenrant” link below) they were still hoping to develop their own Whitey Bulger adaptation for the screen. I guess at this point it depends upon how the WB Johnny Depp adaptation is received.
http://screenrant.com/ben-affleck-matt-damon-whitey-bulger-movie-2013-2014/
Why is it when he changes his appearance for a role it’s considered gimmicky, but when other do obvious Oscar bait starvation tricks or ‘roid up for a character it’s met with a different reaction? Aren’t actors suppose to change their looks for each character? Besides I’m sure the make up artists that are employed on his movies are happy to have a job.
Anyway it looks good and thankfully has nothing to do with Disney or Burton, so I’ ll be watching.
I hear you on that. I’m kind of feeling like no matter what he does, he’ll never get any credit. As I was reading the write-up for this article, tbh, I got the feeling like “damn, he just can’t do anything right on CB can he?” Yet someone like Jake G gets all meat-headed up and is praised for it. Like someone said below, I feel like there are blinders on here. I’m an unapologetic Johnny fan girl, and that’s defintely coloring my opinion. But I feel like it’s a little unfair.
Yep totally agree. This website definitely has favourites. Nothing wrong with that – it’s their site, so up to them what the focus is. But there’s definitely a bias when it comes to Johnny
@Klein, very well said. Agreed on all points.
I think because he’s known for costume changes more than the acting in the films.
The movie looks like it’s going to be good but I was more focused on the bad makeup than the acting tbh so I hope it isn’t as distracting throughout the whole movie.
He looks like Clint Howard trying to impersonate Ledger’s Joker.
I think he looks just like Steve Buscemi.
He does!
I thought he’s playing Hunter S Thompson again.
Trailer looks dope, can’t wait to see it.
I knew there was an actor hiding in there somewhere still.
Glad I’m not the only one who thought so.
I think it looks great as well. All the reviews I’ve seen elsewhere have been very positive.
Yes! I’m with you
I agree. Not sure if I want to see the movie, but from what I can tell from the trailer, *that’s* the Johnny Depp I used to know and love. I’d really love to see him stop with the uninspired franchise nonsense and start doing more roles like this again.
Agreed this looks good.
Yes think it looks good. Not a johnny fan but whoa impressive in the trailer.
Hey he’s not a drunken rock-star pirate, so I’m in. Although I love that pirate. 🙂 Johnny 4Ever. I’m praying for a comeback, because the man is incredibly talented. His career is a shambles, but the chops are still with him.
His acting, for the first time in ages, didn’t leave me drenched in gauche. Good for him for ditching the drunken slurry shtick that seemed to haunt just about every character in his established career.
It looks pretty interesting to me. It reminds me of his character in Blow. An awesome film.
I quite like the look of it although I think he’s perceived so negatively at the moment that it might not do so well.
I’m going to watch it though. I like Goodfellas enough to be able to enjoy even half baked rip offs (like another JD film, Blow).
True. That trailer reminded me of the “You’re a funny guy” scene from Goodfellas.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r_DwZfyXAXI
That’s why that speech sounded so familiar! Nice work pinpointed that.
I agree Goodfellas and Casino are some of my faves so he is Definitely trying to Joe Pasci Pesci here
QQ, those are two of my favorite movies as well. Nobody does gangster better than Pesci.
“This guy could f*ck up a cup of coffee.”
I am wondering if that is a ripoff of Good Fellas or anecdotal.
I find him more attractive as Whitey Bulger than as Scarfy. What does that say about me!!!!
That accent is all over the place but never manages to reach South Boston but people from elsewhere won’t notice. David Harbour gets so much time in the trailer that his name should be in the credits too. Cumberbatch looks all wrong.
Yes, David Harbour should be in the credits, surprising that he is not, because he plays FBI agent John Morris, a pivotal character in the whole Whitey Bulger story. His involvement set a not very good precedent for the FBI, the lengths they will go to to infiltrate the mob, illustrating the fine line between cops and criminals.
Sidenote: My hometown is where Morris lived and quite a few of those meetings with Bulger took place. My older sister was friends with his daughter and, if memory serves correctly, I think she was at the house on one occasion when those guys paid a visit.
I feel like you guys so dislike him at this point that you’re a bit blindered. As others have said, reaction elsewhere has been fairly uniformly positive, and the director’s other work has been well-received. I honestly think this will be a comeback vehicle for him, at least until Pirates 23 & Alice in Wonderland 2 come outt and squanders it again.
I just see Johnny in makeup again. I hope he proves me wrong.
And those are some impressive birthin’ hips.
I really want him to have a good comeback, to be the glorious and talented Johnny that he was and not the mess he is nowadays. He needs to snap out of it, enough of your midlife crisis, enough of movies based on how much make-up/wig/weirdness your character has.
Even if this trailer does nothing for me, I hope it’ll help him rebuild his career..
Nothing will ever top the awesomeness of Goodfellas. Others have tried and failed, even Scorcese himself with The Departed.
willy wonka
I didn’t care for the trailer, but am still hoping this will be a good movie because it was a great book.
I should check out the book Black Mass then, but did you read The Brothers Bulger? Scary stuff…
No fan of Howie Carr’s politics, but I don’t doubt that much of what he wrote is true.
Just added that to my Kindle wish list. Thanks for the tip!
He’s unrecognizable with those eyes!! Nice, can’t wait to see it. Go johnny!
The recipe scene reminds me of the time when, at a restaurant, I asked the gangster at the table how one dish we were eating was made. He actually said to me ‘I’d tell you, but I’d have to kill you.’ And he laughed like it was the funniest thing ever. Yeah… I wasn’t laughing.
New here. Freaking love you guys.
I had this strange thought, and I’m sure it’s not original:
Johnny Depp can only act behind a mask. There have to be teeth involved. Tons of makeup, a strange accent, and bizarre overacting that all kind of works. Sometimes.
I think that happened to Eddie Murphy years ago. Like around the time he got caught with the hooker in the meat-packing district.
I do hope he gets into rehab. He must have had some kind of recovery to keep it together all these years. I remember from back in the Kate Moss days how out of control he was.
I agree with you on this. Depp has had a long career, but I don’t think he really has the range. Some actors can’t really escape their own persona.
He actually does have the range. He’s given lots of great performances without a “mask” or “bizzare overacting” see his Oscar nominated performance in Finding Neverland, Donnie Brasco, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Blow, Public Enemies, etc.
No, I’m not saying Depp hasn’t given some great performances…
Personally, I really liked Donnie Brasco and Blow at the time, but maybe he’s just too “known” as a personality now. I think that’s the problem when actors become big stars. Most people will go to see if Depp can pull-off playing Whitey, not for the story itself, and that’s what everyone’s talking about here.
If Depp’s accent and makeup aren’t quite right, other actors miscast or background scenes for the time period wrong, it’s distracting.
I will say, however, that the last photo here of Depp as Whitey in all white looks exactly like the surveillance photos of the gangster himself, so maybe he can pull it off!
so no matter what the guy does he can do no right.
yea, his personal life is all over the place. and he’s made some poor choices the past few years. but the man can act. and the trailer is a nice reminder of it.
it’s not freakin pesci. it’s not just makeup. i can’t speak for the accuracy of the accent, but what he’s doing here is unlike anything he has done before.
it’s time for a backlash against the backlash.
People do act like he’s done something really bad instead of just wear a few scarves
People are really over-the-top in their hatred of him.
I mean, celebrities here get dragged all the time for supporting and working with rapists, or for making cavalier comparisons to rape, and Depp has done both. Furthermore, plenty of people took issue with “The Lone Ranger”.
If those things don’t bother you, that’s fine, but let’s not pretend that there aren’t perfectly reasonable reasons for disliking him.
@DNA No they are not. No one is perfect. We do/say “dumb” things all the time. We are just lucky that not everything we do is publicisezeds.
He is a great guy who has a reptation of being very nice and generous and all the videos him with fans are proof of that.
The subject here is his acting, and it’s very good in that trailer.
@DN – really? that’s your line of defense here? you’re taking some things way out of context. his comments, etc. and the lone ranger, his heart was in the right place, even if the movie was a mess. and he has throughout his career talked about his native heritage and his frustration at their treatment in hollywood, etc.
from almost all accounts he’s a decent bloke. he dresses oddly, and is dating a younger woman. that’s the reason most here are up in arms. his movies have always been hit or miss. look at his 90s output. but, the last few years have been particularly weak.
The commenter I responded to said that there was no reason to dislike him besides his habit of wearing a bunch of scarves. My point is – that’s simply not true.
Everyone has a line between “OK, I don’t like that this celebrity said/did X, but I still feel positively towards them” and “OK, this is too much, I’m no longer a fan”
Now the stuff I mentioned about Depp (defending & working with a rapist, his dumb rape comparisons) may not cross that line for you personally, but that doesn’t mean that it’s unreasonable for other people to feel differently. Contrary to what the commenter I responded to stated, there are perfectly legitimate reasons to dislike Depp.
Re: Johnny Depp’s alleged (and completely unsubstantiated) native heritage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Depp#Claims_of_Native_American_ancestry_and_Comanche_adoption
Without a doubt, non-Native Americans have absolutely no business telling actual Native Americans that their objections to the movie, his role, and Depp’s unproven claims about his ancestry are illegitimate.
Though of course, the people who were loudest about defending Depp against those mean, oversensitive Natives usually hadn’t even bothered to seek out the thoughtful critiques that were made.
I LOVE how you called him the scarfmonster! ROTFL
The contacts annoy me. They look so fake, was the real Whitey Bulger’s eyes really that crazy-looking?
Other than that it seems okay. I’ll probably see it for Joel Edgerton, he’s one of my favorite actors (I even watched the terrible Exodus for him).
Came here to say the same. Whitey’s eyes are blue but not that blue, Johnny looks like Zombie Gangster. Here’s hoping he keeps those sunnies on for most of the film.
They said he had gorgeous blue eyes but I was thinking more like Frank Sinatra and less Walking Dead.
I thought those were supposed to look like cataracts!
To me this seems like classic, awesome Johnny Depp. Yeah, his gimmicky schtick has gotten really old, but he IS a really talented actor and I think that roles like this are where he shines (Donnie Brasco, anyone?! Amazing!) I’ve never gone over to the “Johnny Depp sucks now” side, though. I’ve always thought he was just making terrible choices.
This looks worlds better than anything else Johnny Depp-related from recent memory. He is still slurring a bit, but maybe it works with this character.
I’m looking forward to seeing this, maybe even at the cinema.
Depp’s off-screen persona, especially during the making of this film, is pretty unlikeable, but, hey, so is that of my celebrity-soulmate Leonardo DiCaprio, so I’ve learned to get used to it. Our significant others should thank sites like Celebitchy for taking the misguided wind out of our movie-star fantasies.
@ umade_bed I agree that it is good that these days stars are more critically watched by their audiences thanks to sites like these. Jonny Depp became a star in the days (the 90’s) when this wasn’t the case. He was able to cultivate an artistic image which always had a strong element of affectation in it, but people weren’t able to be critical of it like they can be now.
And while I think Depp made some courageous choices in his career, the main reasons for his succes were his beautiful face, the fact that he was a hard worker, and his kindness to fans. A good performer with a talent for mimicry, but not a very good character actor.
Not a very good character actor? That’s not why he is still in the business 30 years after his acting debut. He is an incredible actor, don’t take that away from him. He is incredible in that trailer.
You can’t really say the main reason for his success was his beautiful face when Edward Scissorhands was his breakout role.
But @maryjane you could still see his beautiful face in Edward Scissorhands! To me, that’s part of what made the character so endearing & sweet – his looks.
The contacts are HORRIBLE. Couldn’t they have found some that looked better?
Sorry people but this looks like it will be an awesome movie. Can’t wait to see it.
That trailer was pretty scary. Those crazy eyes-yikes. I don’t know….I’m gonna go out on a limb and say this movie might actually be good.
Don’t get me wrong- I love him and want to see everything he’s in. But it has gotten a little strange and gimmicky-feeling. I’d rather focus on his acting.
Amber is so pretty. I wonder how she is as an actor.
I thought the trailer was meh. When I think scary, I think Cristopher Walken, de Niro or Ray Liotta (whatever happened to him, I used to love him!) or Pacino in Devil’s Advocate. No idea if he nailed the accent but if this is his comeback vehicle, it may be a critical success, I don’t see it as a commercial one.
Let’s be honest, Depp’s biggest audience is female fans and here he is in the “ugly” getup… Will this draw the crowds? Doubtful.
Yes. Most of the people excited for this are males but I’ve seen lots of females excited, too. Many female fans are actually really excited to see him in this getup.
tell what you want about his career’s choices or his personal life, but this trailer was great. Great acting, far far away from his comfort zone.
wooow! he was scary.
“Black Mass” appears to be a rip off of other gangster movies. And, Johnny Depp appears to have given a lukewarm copy cat performance of other actors in similar roles. For a Johnny Depp come back, I seriously doubt if “Black Mass” will do it.
I seriously think it will do it. Everyone elsewhere is saying his performance looks Oscar-worthy.
I hope this movie about Bulger is great. lets see if Billy is in this, the boys ran Boston, Truth is stranger then fiction
There is nothing behind his eyes. It’s like he’s letting the contacts do all the acting there.
I do like his accent and pacing – even though I’m not aware of what his accent is supposed to be. But the bad teeth and contacts are very distracting to me. Think I’ll pass.
Probably because he’s playing a scray guy..
Letting the contacts do all the acting? Really? You think he can give a performance that good because he’s wearing contacts? If it was all up to makeup and contacts we would see all actors give good performances.
Johnny will win the Oscar!
I’ve read comments from the advance screenings they did a few days back and word is that this is Johnny’s best performance on his entire career and he’s totally terrifying.
Also that the movie surely will have many other awards nominations and wins
The actual story here is amazing. I hope they don’t fictionalize it too much, but I’d rather have seen the interplay between the two brothers as the center of the movie. This story doesn’t need stunt acting.