Combining human intelligence, digital super-power and a form of immortality, he rapidly succumbs to the somewhat cliched temptation to dominate the world, leaving his wife (played by British actress Rebecca Hall) in desperate straits.
Despite the often weighty tone of the movie — which opened in the United States last week amid some poor reviews — the 50-year-old actor managed to find some humour when talking about it. “Well, having no intelligence, I’m looking forward to gaining something, whether artificial or superficial,” he quipped at a Beverly Hills press conference with his fellow actors and filmmakers.
Becoming serious again, he conceded: “For me, it’s always more difficult and slightly exposing to play something close to yourself.
“First, I always try to hide because I can’t stand the way I look. I think it’s important to change every time and do something that’s as interesting as you can for your characters.”
But an actor’s choices are not the only ones in how a role is played.
“You have the author’s intent, the filmmaker’s vision and then you have your own wants, desires and needs for the character. It’s collaborative,” he told reporters.
In Transcendence, Depp said he “knew right off the bat certainly there was no need to go into some pink-haired, clown nose, Ronald McDonald shoes.”
The movie is a first directing credit for Wally Pfister, who was director of photography on a number of blockbuster filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s films, including on the three Dark Knight movies and Inception, which won him an Oscar in 2011. Pfister said he was seriously worried about whether he was up to the challenge.
“The most scary thing was choosing the right material. If you’re going to pick such a risky move in your life, you surely want to be careful about the material that you’re going to choose and the story that you’re going to tell,” he said.
The heart of the film, he said, is the conflict between man and machine. Pfister also highlighted the environmental dimension, embodied in Hall’s character, who wants technology to help save the planet.
“Her belief is that technology should be used for the betterment of mankind,” he said.
“It’s very important to her, and one of these aspects is, if we’re going to create this nanotechnology, if we are going to have the world’s most powerful machines, why don’t we use it to fix some of the mistakes that we have made?
“And one of those mistakes, in her mind, is what the industrial complex has done to the world.”
Depp admitted that he was a long way from the master of technology he plays in the movie.
“Things go wrong all the time, especially between me and technology. I’m not familiar with it, and I’m too old-school a brain and dumb to be able to figure it out,” he said.
Pretending to tap out a text on his cell phone, he added: “Anything I have to attack with my thumbs for any period of time makes me feel stupid. So I try to avoid it as much as possible — to protect my thumbs, of course.”
Critics have not been kind to Pfister’s directing debut: it has only an 18% positive rating on the Rotten Tomatoes movie review website.
“Ace cinematographer (Pfister) remains a distinctive visual stylist, but Transcendence’s thought-provoking themes exceed the movie’s narrative grasp,” it said. — AFP
Emma Stone struggles to follow own path
Actress Emma Stone says it’s important for people to make their own decisions in life, adding this isn’t something she always finds easy. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 actress who is dating actor and co-star Andrew Garfield said that she struggles to find direction in life, reports contactmusic.com.
“I absolutely think that people should follow their own path. And that’s probably something, oddly, I have gone back to over the past couple of years and I think that’s the thing I have struggled with more recently than ever,” said Stone. The 25-year-old beauty believes it is important to make a good impression in public as she knows she is regarded as a role model by some of the youths. “Being a role model is in no way at all a burden. But that is something I have been more conscious of lately, probably because I haven’t had to do interviews for a long time now,” she said.
“It’s so important to be clear on your feelings about things and what you are going to say publicly, because I think that young women and people are incredibly important and they need to have people in the public sphere they can look up to. “I am not saying I am one of them, but I do attach a big sense of importance to that. That’s one of many reasons why I wish I were more eloquent,” she added. — IANS
Marisa Tomei feels she’s too old to play Gaga
Actress Marisa Tomei believes she isn’t the right person to essay Lady Gaga in a movie on the poker face singer’s life. Nevertheless, she is flattered that Gaga wants her to take on the role.
“I was so flattered and I couldn’t believe she said that. But I was thinking, ‘What kind of movie?’ Is it going to be some avant-garde thing where she goes back in time or I would play her older than she actually is? I don’t understand, is it a ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ thing,” femalefirst.co.uk quoted Tomei as saying. Gaga had once said that her friends often call her Tomei when she gets angry.
The singer told SiriusXM Morning Mash Up in February: “I would have Marisa Tomei play me. I am such a Marisa Tomei fan. All my friends call me Marisa when I get angry. Because my New York accent just flies out of my body and I start smacking my gums.” — IANS
John Legend to produce his first movie
Singer John Legend has teamed up with Step Up: All screenwriter John Swetnam to executive produce his first feature film titled Breaking Through. Swetnam, who penned Evidence in 2013 and the upcoming Warner Bros thriller Into The Storm, will make his feature directorial debut with this film, the shooting of which is expected to begin this summer, reports deadline.com. The project has been billed as a “documentary-style dance drama for the YouTube generation” as it will be the first feature film that will combine two sub-genres — dance movies and found footage in a plot. The casting will start soon on the picture, which is looking forward to discover new dance talent like the Step Up films. — IANS
