Johnny Depp Holds Court as ‘Black Mass’ Lights Up Venice Film Festival

4 September 2015 7:36 AM, PDT | Variety - Film News | See recent Variety - Film News news »

Venice – Johnny Depp starrer “Black Mass” world-preemed to positive response Friday at the Venice Film Festival where a relaxed Depp held court musing on the challenges of playing Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger in a natural fashion. Talking about his dramatically receding hairline, he said he feels risky physical transformations are part of his duty to give audiences “something new each time.”

Director Scott Cooper’s biopic of Bulger, who became an FBI informant and used this status to eliminate criminal competition during the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s, was greeted with applause at the Venice press screening and the press conference was packed to the rafters.

Depp downplayed the purely criminal component of Bulger, whom he described as a man of “very proud Irish immigrant stock, who was loyal to his neighborhood. He would help a little old old lady groceries into her home and then a few minutes »

- Nick Vivarelli

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