Johnny Depp Plays With Darkness And Mirror Balls

By ANNIE S. ALEJO

Vampire slicks and finger tricks: Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins in Dark Shadows (publicity photo)

MANILA, Philippines The upheaval in the 60s reached fever pitch halfway through the decade. The spreading counterculture sparked revolutions not only in people's social concerns but also in fashion, music and pop culture. Daytime television also did not escape the changing times.

One show that shook the status quo of the soap operas back then was Dark Shadows. Suddenly, television was able to show a unique blend of gothic mystery, romance and melodrama revolving around a reluctant vampire and the innocent young girl drawn to him, a jealous vixen with powers of seduction and sorcery and the strange family with even stranger secrets housed in the depths of the creepy old mansion.

While most moviegoers are too young to remember or even know the series, superstar Johnny Depp is what youd call a fan. There was nothing like it, certainly not in the daytime, with its vampires and ghosts and witches. Ive always been attracted to that genre, even as a very young kid, so when I got a hold of Dark Shadows, I didnt let go.

These days, his fascination with the darkness has resulted in his playing the central character, Barnabas Collins, in the updated movie version of Dark Shadows. Essentially, the TV show was, as the films director Tim Burton describes, a soap opera, but with a weird, supernatural undercurrent. The movie version, well, its a whole new animala quirky one with outrageous characters that, as one producer notes, doesnt take itself too seriously.

Depp, who is also a producer in the movie, counts this as his eighth coll! aboratio n with Burton. The sense of fun that the two had in helping develop the movie reflected in the humor they infused into it, something that really wasnt central to the original series but its creator, the late Dan Curtis, had wanted it to have, according to the latters collaborator, producer David Kennedy.

Depps character, Barnabas Collins, was a young boy from England that came to America with his parents in 1750. The family built a fishing empire in a town that had come to be called Collinsport, and two decades later, Barnabas had become its master. But the rich and powerful playboy got entangled in a love triangle of sorts, falling in love with the young Josette DuPres (Bella Heathcote) and breaking the heart of the witch Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). As punishment, Angelique turned Barnabas into a vampire and buried him alive.

Two hundred years lateror, 196, according to AngeliqueBarnabas is accidentally released from his tomb, a strange man (if vampires can be called as such) in an even stranger world in 1972.

It sparked a whole series of ideas, says Depp of his character waking up, so to speak, in this new world. The thought of this very elegant man of the 1700s, having been cursed and locked away for 200 years, coming back to 1972maybe the worst time, aesthetically, in human existence, where people accepted everything from ugly little troll dolls to macram jewelry and resin grapes to lava lamps. We thought what a great way to incorporate this vampire being the eyes that we never had back then, the eyes that can see the absurdity in those things.

Whereas in the 60s, the idea of a protagonist being a vampire was considered groundbreaking, its not that strange to audiences nowadays, considering the list of popular vampires in recent pop culture like Angel (David Boreanaz) and Spike (James Masters) from 1997-2003s TV hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer; and Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) and Eric Northman (Alexnader Skarsgrd) from the current True Blood series. The movies also had its s! hare of bloodsuckers, from the vampires Lestat (Tom Cruise) and Louis (Brad Pitt) in 1994s Interview With the Vampire to the sun-shimmering metrosexual Edward (Robert Pattinson) in the successful Twilight film franchise.

Transforming Depp into the vampire Barnabas required coat after coat of customized grease painta makeup blend with a surprising number of colorsfor that chalky complexion. Depp also had his choice of fangs ranging from curved or straight ones, short and long ones; and rattlesnake type fangs to a mouthpiece with fangs that would drop down into place depending on the way the actor opened his mouth.

But Depp notes, The hands really helped make the character, especially since Burton wanted Barnabas to be tactileto be touching things as if hes feeling them out first. I had to learn how to touch things or pick things up about three inches from where my fingers actually were. It took a little while but I got used to it, he shares.

And for fans of the series, this modern take is something they need not try to get used to because, as Depp points out, It was done with great respect for the series and for Dan Curtis. I hope die-hard fans will love it because you dont get more die-hard than myself or Tim.

So what does a 200-year-old vampire have to do with mirror balls and Alice Cooper (who makes an appearance in the movie as himself)? Wouldnt you like to know! Dark Shadows, which also stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Chlo Grace Moretz, among others, opens nationwide today, May 10.

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