Johnny Depp On How Al Pacino Persuaded Him To Direct ‘Modi – Three Days On The Wing Of Madness’: “When Pacino Speaks, You Listen” — San Sebastian

Zac Ntim
·3-min read

Johnny Depp received an enthusiastic welcome this afternoon as he returned to Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival, where he will debut his latest directorial effort, Modi – Three Days On The Wing Of Madness.

Depp arrived in Spain last night, where he was met with cheering fans outside the city’s Maria Cristina Hotel. This afternoon he appeared in front of a largely starstruck press corps with his Modi cast and collaborators, including Antonia Desplat and Riccardo Scamarcio.

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Opening the session, Depp told the journalists in the room that he was first approached about the project by veteran actor Al Pacino.

“I got a very strange phone call from Al Pacino who said ‘Do remember this Modigliani project?’ and he said I should direct it,” Depp said. “For some reason, Al saw me driving this strange machine. And when Pacino speaks, you listen, so I ran with it. But I had no idea what it would be until the pieces of the puzzle came together.”

Modi is Depp’s second directorial effort and comes 27 years after The Brave, his debut film as a director and he told the crowd in San Sebastian that he had an “infinitely more positive experience” making Modi.

“When I was making The Brave 27 years ago the last thing I wanted to do was attempt to make a film again,” he said. “There was too much math. The mathematics was too much. You find yourself in this sort of structured hole.”

Depp added that with Modi he was able to feel free like a “giant toddler.”

“But I’ll never do it again,” Depp quipped about directing before rowing back, telling the crowd that he “might” once again step behind the camera.

Described as a “seventy-two-hour whirlwind in the life of bohemian artist Amedeo Modigliani”, the film follows the artists through a chaotic series of events through the streets of war-torn Paris in 1916. The film’s ensemble cast also features Stephen Graham, Al Pacino, Bruno Gouery, and Luisa Ranieri. The film’s synopsis reads: On the run from the police, his desire to end his career and leave the city is dismissed by fellow artists Maurice Utrillo, Chaim Soutine, and Modi’s muse, Beatrice Hastings. Modi seeks advice from his art dealer and friend, Leopold Zborowski — however, after a night of hallucinations, the chaos in Modi’s mind reaches a crescendo when faced with an American collector, Maurice Gangnat, who has the power to change his life.

Depp was asked during the presser by a journalist whether he could see any links between the chaotic artistic life of  Modigliani and his own, at which point he appeared to make reference to his own public struggles.

“We’ve all been through a number of things. Maybe yours didn’t turn into a soap opera, but we all experience things,” he said.

The Pirates of the Caribbean actor described his time working on Modi as “very organic.”

“I was very lucky. It was a singular experience for me. Very organic which does happen. This was a very organic grouping and things happened without having to go to anyone for anything,” he said.

“These very talented people ran with it,” Depp added, gesturing to his cast.

“I feel like the luckiest guy in the world to capture their behavior and reactions.”

Depp’s cast was also full of praise for his direction, which they described as free-flowing and respectful. Antonia Desplat told the crowd of journalists that the crew often only worked on “one scene a day.”

“This is very rare on a movie set. We trusted him and he trusted us,” she said.

Modi – Three Days On The Wing Of Madness will debut this evening in San Sebastián. The screening marks Depp’s return to San Sebastián after receiving the festival’s Donostia Award for lifetime achievement in 2021. Producers on the pic are Andrea Iervolino and Barry Navidi. Vincent Maraval’s Goodfellas is handling sales.

San Sebastian runs until September 28.

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