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Watch Ewan McGregor, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany & Johnny Depp In New Behind-The-Scenes MORTDECAI Featurette
The cast of MORTDECAI, Ewan McGregor, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany & Johnny Depp, discuss the making of the upcoming movie in this behind-the-scenes featurette.
Add to the list of puckish rogues, charming ne’er-do-wells and sly adventurers played by Johnny Depp the role of Charlie Mortdecai, cash-strapped British aristocrat and protagonist of the new action-comedy MORTDECAI. Based on the charismatic anti-hero of Kyril Bonfiglioli’s popular trilogy (Don’t Point That Thing at Me, Something Nasty in the Woodshed and After You with the Pistol), Charlie Mortdecai is a professional bon vivant and occasional art dealer perpetually at the end of his financial rope.
Upbeat, satirical and utterly British in style and tone, the novels featuring Charlie and his manservant Jock Strapp are often compared to P.G. Wodehouse’s madcap creations, the Jeeves and Wooster stories. In Mortdecai, Charlie charms, schemes and blunders his way in and out of hilariously compromising situations as he attempts to beat out an array of international evildoers on the trail of a priceless Goya masterpiece that could also be the key to claiming missing Nazi millions.
“Actually, Charlie gets involved in finding the Goya because he sees an opportunity to sell it,” Depp says. “His aristocratic ways are intact, but his bank book is worn out and Charlie needs to rectify that.”
Badly behaved, violently snobbish and completely self-interested, Charlie was also endlessly appealing to the actor. “He is a blatant narcissist who has no relationship with the truth, except as he sees it,” says Depp. “What drew me to the character more than anything was the challenge of making this guy, who is a little bit shady and most definitely a con man, someone you can sympathize with.”
Depp took his inspiration from classic English film comedians including Peter Sellers, Sid James, Bernard Cribbins and especially Terry-Thomas, the irrepressible, gap-toothed star who defined the term “upper class twit” for several generations.
MORTDECAI opens in theaters on January 23.
The film is rated R for some language and sexual material.
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