I don’t know where our local paper gets their movie capsules, but in the description for the new movie “Black Mass”, they refer to an “unrecognizable Johnny Depp” playing Whitey Bulger. However, every time I see a trailer for the movie, I see an easily recognizable Johnny Depp wearing a cheap baldy wig. In fact, the first time I saw a trailer for the movie I thought it was supposed to be a comedy because the baldy wig looked so obviously fake, until I realized it was actually a serious mobster movie. I don’t think I would be able to enjoy this movie because I would constantly be distracted by the cheap makeup FX.
The first time I saw the trailer, I spent the first half of it thinking “Who the hell is that?” until the aha moment that it was Johnny Depp. Now of course, it’s clearly him. So maybe “Not instantly recognizable unless you already know who it is” is a better description.
I’d say he was completely unrecognizable to both me and my SO. With me that means next to nothing as I have a hard time with faces, but he is excellent with them and was surprised too.
I agree the wig is not great, but I loooooove me some JDepp so it’d be pretty hard for me not to recognize him. That being said, did they mean it in the literal sense, or that his performance / immersion into the character makes you forget it’s him?
Maybe Johnny Depp’s actual bald head is just that ugly.
Now who the hell is playing Billy Bulger? Never saw that guy before.
That’s not a “bad baldy wig.” a Bad Baldy Wig is like the one that was almost used in a production of 1776 I was in to make the actor look like Ben Franklin. The RIGHT way to do this is to make a bald wig with hair along the sides, leaving the center bare – like the Johnny Depp wig used.
The WRONG way to do this is to say “Hey, why do I have to glue hair on this bald wig? The actor’s already GOT hair!” and to simply cut slits in the bald wig through which you pull the actor’s actual hair. This will NOT work as planned, especially if your actor has naturally curly, non-Ben Franklin-like hair. He ends up looking like Bozo the Clown. And when you pull the bald cap off in frustration, the actor;'s hair gets caught in the slits and it hurts. And he hits you. (I was not directly involved in this fiasco – I was an observer, playing Charles Thomson)
For what it’s worth, I don’t understand the OP – I think the makeup job on Depp looks pretty good.
The bald thing didn’t bother me, but the contacts to change JD’s dark eyes blue gives me the creeps. To me, they look “Siberian Husky” blue, not human being blue.
Eh. It’s Johnny Depp; he’s “hit-or-miss” with me, but when he’s good (ala Pirates, Donnie Brasco, Blow) he’s great.
I recognized JD the second I saw the trailer. I hear he does a great job in this movie. I’m definitely planning on seeint it.
It was clearly Johnny Depp to me.
Now if you want unrecognizable, go watch the “Pan” trailer or commercial without looking up who plays Blackbeard, and see if you can recognize him.
(no points if you already know.)
OK, so maybe I’m being too hard on the makeup dept. I think part of the problem is that Depp has such a baby face that the bald head just seems so out of place, and that’s why it’s coming across as fake looking to me.
I never did see “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas”… Did they have to do something similar to make him look like Hunter S. Thompson?
They used a razor, not a wig. But he was about the same age when he made that movie as Thompson was when he wrote the book, so they didn’t need to age him otherwise, just give him male pattern baldness.
Seriously? I’m going to assume this is a whoosh in referring to this Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning, practically ubiquitous actor.
Yeah, it was just a joke at how they worked so hard to get Johnny Depp to look like Whitey, while AFAICT all they did to Benedict Cumberbatch was give him a slightly different haircut to get him to look like Billy. Maybe they’ll have him stand in a hole in all his scenes to get the height right.
I agree that it looks laughably bad and that I have no interest in seeing the film because I wouldn’t be able to take it seriously. But I don’t think it’s a wig. I think they shaved a bald patch onto Depp’s head. But, since he has such a thick head of hair, it doesn’t look like a bald spot. Someone who is really balding gets a fall off in follicle oomph as it approaches the bald spot. The head doesn’t suddenly convert from everything to nothing on a line.
So probably they should have shaved his head entirely and attached a bald wig. Or just slipped the whole thing unless it was central to the plot somehow.
Eh, the initial reaction is that it looks hinky. But, JD always goes for a “look” with his roles, so this is really no different. I’m sure if one were watching the movie from the start, the baldy makeup would drift into the background very quickly.
Call me blind, but I don’t think this guy looks like this guy. Sure, with some squinting and scrutiny and knowing who it is, you can kinda see it. I don’t think it’s obvious right away.
I’m not sure what y’all are seeing that looks fake. Is your brain yelling “fake!” because it doesn’t look like him? I think that’s more what’s happening. It looks bad in that it’s certainly not attractive, but what could be done to look more realistic? That’s an entire prosthetic forehead, BTW, and a full lace wig. Plus the eyes/brows and teeth and the rest of the full face of makeup. Pretty much as realistic as you can get short of hiring an actor who grew that head himself.
I agree that would not have recognized him if I didn’t know it was him. But your first pic and your last pic are of completely different quality, and only the last one looks fake, in that it looks like a 3D render. It has nothing to do with who it is–and, in fact, I cannot tell that’s Johnny at all. But I also can’t tell it’s the same guy in the first pic.
It’s an uncanny valley thing, so I can’t exactly explain what looks fake. Though I think maybe it’s that the skin texture is wrong or the wrinkles aren’t quite realistic? The hair looks fine–albeit in a style I would never expect to see today. You don’t comb it back, you have it short.
