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Wednesday 16 September
Depp on his ‘comeback’ as Whitey Bulger in ‘Black Mass’
JAKE COYLE Actors Dakota Johnson, left, and Johnny Depp attend the press conference for “Black Mass” on of the whimsy that has ac-
AP Film Writer companied some of the
TORONTO (AP) — There’s day 5 of the Toronto International Film Festival at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on Monday, Sept. 14, 2015, 52-year-old actor’s recent
no surer way to make John- films like “The Lone Rang-
ny Depp chuckle than to in Toronto. Associated Press er” and “Mortdecai.” But
cite those who call his icy Depp, who sympatheti-
performance as the Bos- ous Irish-Catholic fiefdom. populated ensemble, in- of Boston.” cally played John Dillinger
ton gangster Whitey Bulger Based on the book by Bos- cluding Joel Edgerton, “No disrespect to any vic- in Michael Mann’s “Public
in “Black Mass” a return to ton Globe reporters Dick Benedict Cumberbatch tims or families of victims, Enemies,” says he sought
form for the actor. Lehr and Gerard O’Neill, it’s and Julianne Nicholson. but there was some ele- to find Bulger’s humanity.
“My comeback!” Depp the first fact-based movie But Depp’s Bulger is the ment for me that was kind “You can’t approach him
wryly exclaims, his eyes about the notorious crime centerpiece of the film, of glad that he got away,” as a gangster. You can’t
lighting up behind blue- boss and FBI informant and it has prompted pre- says Depp. “For 16 years approach him as just in-
tinted glasses. (memorably the inspiration dictions of an Oscar nomi- he was on the lam and he nately evil because no one
For an actor who has al- to Jack Nicholson’s gang- nation for Depp. In a joint wasn’t causing any trou- wakes up and shaves and
ways delighted in head-to- ster in “The Departed”) interview with Cooper, the ble. He was living his life. goes, ‘I’m an evil mother
toe transformation, playing since the long-vanished director of “Crazy Heart” Good on him.” f------,’” says Depp. “He’s a
the part of the rebounding Bulger was arrested in Cali- and “Out of the Furnace,” With blond hair slicked Catholic boy and kind of in
superstar is not one that fornia in 2011. He was later the two discussed the chal- back and pale freckled a weird way a pillar of the
appeals. It doesn’t suit him sentenced to two life terms lenges of portraying a folk- skin, Depp’s Bulger is har- community, very sensitive
much, anyway; his stardom for, among other things, his hero criminal who has, as rowing in its sleazy ruthless- in a lot of ways.”
has always been predicat- involvement in 11 murders. Cooper said, “left a real ness and cold-blooded Depp calls the first time he
ed on the wild abandon of “Black Mass” is a richly emotional scar on the city intimidation, bearing none emerged from make-up
his metamorphoses. during the Boston shoot
“I don’t watch movies, so and walked to set as “a
I don’t know what other frozen moment.” Coo-
people are doing because per, too, recalls vividly the
I don’t care what other chilled reactions by Bos-
people are doing,” he tonians, some of whom
says. “I want to do what I knew Bulger and perhaps
want to do, and if it works, weren’t eager to see him
great, and if it doesn’t, f--- resurrected on South Bos-
it, I can pump gas again.” ton streets. “Johnny takes
Scott Cooper’s “Black risks as an actor that most
Mass,” which opens Friday, movie stars won’t even
is an expansive look at the take because they’re too
bonds of old-neighbor- fearful that they’ll lose their
hood loyalties that fostered audience, that they’ll lose
the FBI’s disastrous shield- their status as a movie star,”
ing of Bulger’s Winter Hill says Cooper, the direc-
Gang, which eradicated tor of the gritty blue-collar
Boston’s Italian mafia only dramas “Crazy Heart” and
to replace it with a murder- “Out of the Furnace.”q
Daughter of Malcolm X
Among book award finalists
HILLEL ITALIE kovich and the Siege of ending Thursday, longlists In this Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015, file photo, Ilyasah Shabazz,
AP National Writer Leningrad.” for poetry, nonfiction and daughter of Malcolm X, speaks about her father and family
NEW YORK (AP) — A The eclectic list, released fiction will come out. The with a mural depicting their lives behind her, as family,
daughter of Malcolm X Monday by the National foundation, which presents activists, actors, and politicians remembered the civil rights
and prize-winning authors Book Foundation, includes the awards, announced leader during a ceremony at the New York site in Harlem
Gary Paulsen and M.T. An- a graphic novel originally last week that Don DeLillo where he was killed 50 years earlier to the day.
derson are among the 10 serialized on the Internet would receive an honorary
nominees on the National and Anderson’s nonfic- medal. Associated Press
Book Awards’ longlist for tion account of the com- Other books making the
young people’s literature. poser Shostakovich during people’s literature long- Ellsberg and the Secret His- try’s involvement in Viet-
Ilyasah Shabazz collabo- World War II. Nominees list are Neal Shusterman’s
rated with Kekla Magoon range from the 76-year-old “Challenger Deep,” Ali tory of the Vietnam War” nam. Rae Carson’s “Walk
on “X: A Novel,” a story Paulsen, who has written Benjamin’s “The Thing
about the early years of more than 100 books, to About Jellyfish” and Laura tells of the former military on Earth a Stranger” is the
her father, who was as- debut novelist Becky Alber- Ruby’s “Bone Gap.” analyst who in 1971 leaked first of a planned trilogy set
sassinated in 1965 when talli’s “Simon vs. the Homo Noelle Stevenson’s “Nimo- the so-called Pentagon in the U.S. during the 19th-
Shabazz was just 2 years Sapiens Agenda.” na” is a graphic novel and Papers detailing the coun- century Gold Rush.q
old. Paulsen was cited for Judges will narrow the list to adventure story that be-
“This Side of Wild: Mutts, five finalists on Oct. 14, with gan as a webcomic while
Mares, and Laughing Di- the winner to be revealed Stevenson was a student
nosaurs” and Anderson for at a ceremony in Manhat- at Maryland Institute Col-
“Symphony for the City of tan on Nov. 18. Over the lege of Art. Steve Sheinkin’s
the Dead: Dmitri Shosta- next three days this week, “Most Dangerous: Daniel
