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'Adventures
in Neverland' - The Night I Met Johnny
Depp
I had the privilege
of meeting Johnny Depp during the filming of 'JM Barrie's Neverland'
in summer 2002. They were filming night shoots at the Richmond Theatre,
Richmond-upon-Thames, Surrey, England on three consecutive nights: Sunday
18th to Tuesday 20 August '02. On the first evening that I visited the
filming location I had to leave before Johnny was due to show up on
set. On my second visit, however, I had the incredible good fortune
of being able to watch him at work for over 6 hours - an evening that
culminated in meeting him at 3:15 in the morning. I don't have any photographs
of that extraordinary night, but I do have vivid and wonderful memories
together with Johnny's inscription for me in my little 'Dead Man' book.
:irene |
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The
Richmond Theatre, Surrey, England
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CHAPTER ONE - Sunday 18th August 2002 I went over to Richmond-upon-Thames in Surrey yesterday, Sunday 18 August, to see if I could watch the 'JM Barrie's Neverland' location filming that Reemi reported from the 'Dark Horizons' site. And I arrived about 6 hours too early, because they were doing NIGHT shoots! 2:00pm: Finding the location was easy enough - the big film lorries parked outside the Richmond Theatre were a bit of a giveaway, together with the notices from 'Neverland Films' apologising for the road closure. At first I thought I'd actually missed everything because nothing seemed to be happening, but after about an hour people began bringing props out of the theatre and decorating the roadway with them. So, having spent ages getting there, I decided to stay and wait for the action. Luckily I'd bought a good book with me, so I found a shady spot on Richmond Green and watched the set decorators in action between the chapters of my novel. |
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The
Richmond Theatre and the Little Green
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| 8:00pm: CUT to many hours later, and the little road outside the theatre has been transformed with glowing Victorian lamp-posts, greenery covering the few modern-day signs, earth-covered roads, a splendid mixture of horse-drawn gigs and flys and early motorcars, and a couple of ENORMOUS floating air balloons suspended 60 foot up, shining light down upon the scene. I was very surprised that there weren't any big arc lights, or any of the other cumbersome equipment that you normally associate with film sets. The huge air balloons were lit up (with halogen gas? I don't know), and the one suspended directly above the theatre steps looked like the full moon magnified x 10. Although these suspended lights were brilliant white, they cast a warm night-time glow upon everything. | |
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The theatre has
a little open green right in front of it (it's actually called 'Little
Green') so all the crew and the extras were parked there, and they'd
slung up a tape barrier in the shape of a large 'V' for the public to
stand behind. So there was plenty of space to stand and get a view -
and even a couple of park benches to sit on if you were lucky! |
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Article
on 'Neverland' filming in the local newspaper
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can probably imagine what the next few hours were like.. I stayed and
watched it for as long as I could, although they didn't actually film
very much. The director didn't yell 'Action!' or 'Cut!' like I'd expected
- all the main crew and security were hooked up to earpieces so they knew
what was happening. Basically they did lots of rehearsals of the extras
entering and leaving the theatre for the performance of one of JM Barrie's
plays. They had a little billboard on the pavement in front of the theatre,
but I couldn't read what play it was. And they'd erected big maroon signs
on either side of the theatre entrance that read 'Duke of Westminster's
Theatre' (the real theatre is the 'Duke of York's', so there must have
been some sort of copyright problem with using the real name). The few
times the cameras did roll, the extras did their bit and then suddenly
there in their midst would be someone dressed in t-shirt & jeans,
exiting the theatre with them, so you knew that the take was finished!
The security guys stopped anyone who took pictures because the flash would
show up on the film - even though they were scarcely filming anything.
Just before I left, Dustin Hoffman appeared and did a scene, standing on the upper steps and greeting the people as they were arriving. As far as I could tell they'd greyed his hair, but by that time my eyes were so sore with looking that I couldn't have cared less if he'd been wearing a fruit bowl on his head a la Carmen Miranda. I then heard that Johnny wouldn't be arriving to do his scenes until midnight. |
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| Apparently
they've been filming at the Richmond Theatre for a week now, but someone
told me they've only been doing interior scenes inside the theatre. 'Neverland'
is doing 2 more night shoots - today (Monday) & tomorrow, although
the final night will be 'foyer scenes' so there won't be much to see.
11:00pm: I had to push off home otherwise I'd have been stranded in Richmond overnight, but I'm going back today for another peek. Wish me better luck for tonight!! |
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