As the face of Dior Sauvage for 10 years, Johnny Depp returns for a new cinematic adventure, captured by Jean-Baptiste Mondino in a big-screen homage to mythical westerns. Against a backdrop of ochre and blue, the film evokes the untamed spirit of the wild.
ESQUIRE (ESQ): The Sauvage film was shot by French photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino. Can you describe your relationship?
Johnny Depp (JD): Jean-Baptiste is a very renowned photographer of course, but he is also a great renegade filmmaker. I could do 25 films with him or read the telephone book for him if he wanted me to. When we worked together the first time, for the first Sauvage film, it felt to me like I met this wonderful kindred spirit who was as interested as I was in letting moments create themselves. He allowed an infinite amount of freedom than you would normally have on a film shoot. He wants imagery, he wants to create poetry and he has the best eye and the best sense of humour. He has no fear, and is the sweetest man in the world, but also absolutely stuck to his vision. Jean-Baptiste is one of the most creative people I have ever worked with. I adore him.
ESQ: The desert is really another main character of the film. Is it a place that has been important in your life?
JD: Many years ago, when I finished a film, I would either get on an Amtrack train and go North, or split in my old pickup truck, drive out to the desert and stay at some motel. I also shot in the wild deserts of Nevada and Arizona, and got to see these beautiful spiritual monuments… The desert is a very powerful place.
ESQ: Unlike earthly possessions, scent is something that you can’t let go of. What scent defines you best?
JD: Maybe cigarette smoke (laughter), or a beautiful smelling tobacco scent… Scents are all too important for all of us; the smell of your grandmother’s perfume for instance sticks in as a very strong memory that can take you right back to a time and place. I smell cheap aftershave, and I suddenly can see my pop finishing his shave and slapping his cheeks. It’s like listening to some song that will immediately transport you back to a drive you took with your family or something…
ESQ: Do you associate the characters you played with scents?
JD: Absolutely. Certain characters that I’ve played have a scent. Like in Laurence Dunmore’s The Libertine, John Wilmot was a bit of a dandy, so his scent was really important to me. Or for Barnabus Collins, the 2000-year-old vampire from Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, we mixed all these strange things together -with a dirt base of course…
ESQ: You have been the face of Sauvage for 10 years. What made you say yes to Dior, the first luxury brand you chose to work with?
JD: At first, I was kind of shocked. Dior has been maintaining an elegance and a sense of legacy for almost a century. The fact that they saw something in me that they felt could express what they were looking for Sauvage meant a lot.
You are an actor, but also a musician, a painter, a director. Do you have any other hidden talents?
JD: I don’t know that I could call all the above -acting, playing, writing or recording music, drawing or painting- talents. These are parts of me that need to be fed, things I have to do. It’s not about the result, but about what gets you wherever you’re going. It’s about the journey.
The line “In the wild, everything is always in front of you” is deeply resonant in the campaign. Who came up with it?
JD: We had a line and we knew that there was something there but Jean Baptiste kept looking for a better way to phrase it. And then I just said those words in a conversation and he said “Yes, that’s it!”