# Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 12, 2006, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnny-depp-as-sweeney-todd/339680 "2006-01-12T17:02:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnny-depp-as-sweeney-todd/339680/21 "2006-01-13T10:44:40Z")
Meh. Depp cannot walk on water. Sorry, but he just is not The Ultimate Actor. He was absolutely wonderful in PotC, but just… meh in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (much as this film has grown on me, and it has, I still think his performance just falls a bit flat in this movie and isn’t Wonka-esque enough, by the book). I just don’t think he’d be able to do the _brooding menace_ thing that, IMO, is required for a masterful role as Sweeney Todd in the musical. And I do think it needs an actor of imposing stature and frame; that’s part of the point of it; that his clients are blissfully unaware of the power of the man and danger of his sharp blade, yet the audience is painfully aware of these things, is all part of the experience. I attended a small production of the musical at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton last year and it was really very good; the cast was quite a young one, but Todd was played by an actor who was tallish and heavily/strongly built; it was wonderful. Favourite songs: Worst Pies in London, By the Sea. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnny-depp-as-sweeney-todd/339680/22 "2006-01-13T11:39:53Z")
Is the movie going to be based off the play, or off the recently confirmed [historical facts](http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/todd/index_1.html)? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnny-depp-as-sweeney-todd/339680/23 "2006-01-13T12:23:07Z")
The link in the OP suggests that it’s the musical, but as it’s all rumour and speculation, it could be anything. The [BBC](http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/sweeneytodd/) recently did it as a non-musical drama adaptation - it’s very, very dark when presented this way, without music. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnny-depp-as-sweeney-todd/339680/24 "2006-01-13T12:31:02Z")
My point being that the play isn’t very accurate in some respects, and treats the subject as mere legend. Read the link I provided. I think that as far as looks and prescence go, Johnny Depp could pull the role off, he’s pretty muscular, all he’d need would be make up to make him look malnourished/gaunt and red hair. (I picture the Demon Barber as being rather puny seeming, but upon closer observation possessed of “wiry” strength.) > [@from the link I posted](#): > > He is described as a scary-looking character with bright red hair and heavy eyebrows that seemed to meet over his nose. He rarely was in good humor, frequently complaining about the high levels of crime, poverty and drunkenness outside his doorway. His eyes had an evil glimmer, the papers reported upon his arrest. and > [@from the link I posted](#): > > “There was also something very sinister about him with his pale face and reddish hair,” wrote Gentleman’s Magazine in an 1853 retrospective. “At times he was like some hobgoblin, his strange, dark eyes agleam with greed and cunning.” Another later account called him “so repulsive in appearance that it is a wonder that…customers…did not immediately flee when the demon in human frame commenced operations.” ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnny-depp-as-sweeney-todd/339680/25 "2006-01-13T17:19:18Z")
That is a neat link. I don’t know if they’re going to use this material or the musical. Sondheim’s Sweeney is much more sympathetic, obviously. It would be interesting to see what could be made out of this material. My concern is that they don’t turn him into Edward Scissorhands’ evil twin. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnny-depp-as-sweeney-todd/339680/26 "2006-01-14T00:04:09Z")
Oh please God, not Depp. Sondheim’s Sweeney is supposed to be terrifying and yet sympathetic – not creepy and pathetic. To me, every time Depp plays “dark” he comes across the same way – as an otherwordly man-child eunuch who looks like the spawn of Michael Jackson and Gollum. Blech. And for that matter, thank God Burton seems to be off the project. His version of “dark” has become too twee for my liking. Alan Rickman? ( **choie goes off into a happy place… then reluctantly tears herself back…** The thought is delightful, but can he sing? That’s the key for me. It would be a travesty to have someone croaking his way through _Sweeney_ the way Gerald Barton did _Phantom_! The role of Sweeney requires a _voice_, a real gut-wrenching, powerful, dynamic instrument – one that can croon a tender, hoarsely-whispered love song to a set of razors and then bellow out the fury Sweeney aims at the entirety of mankind in _Epiphany_. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnny-depp-as-sweeney-todd/339680/27 "2006-01-14T19:05:55Z")
I don’t see much in the way of musicals in Rickman’s [stage resumé](http://www.alan-rickman.com/#resume). I don’t remember Asher in _Joseph,_ but he did sing “You’re the Fairest Flower” from _Little Mary Sunshine._ So he can sing, but that isn’t a particularly challenging song. It’s an average pretty-boy tenor type solo, with a pretty easy range. Nothing in that show requires anything near the kind of subtlety that Sweeney does. Please don’t ask me how I know this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnny-depp-as-sweeney-todd/339680.md?page=1)