For his recent cover story interview with Rolling Stone, Johnny Depp invited writer Brian Hiatt into his office at his Los Angeles based production company, Infinitum Nihil. As the two sat in the office they faced a set of double doors that opened into what Hiatt described as “a sort of museum” with all sorts of memorabilia from Johnny Depp’s rather extensive and eccentric oeuvre. Oh, and life-size replica of the Elephant Man’s skeleton.
Here’s how Hiatt described it in the article, from his viewpoint in Depp’s office:
We’re facing double doors open to the adjoining room, which serves as a sort of museum: There’s a Pirates of the Caribbean pinball machine with Depp’s face on it, and for no particular reason, a life-size replica of the Elephant Man’s skeleton, behind glass. Between the skeleton and the pinball machine is a headless mannequin, clad in the original black-leather-and-metal outfit Depp wore as the tragic, mechanical man-boy title character in 1990′s Edward Scissorhands.
Just in case you were wondering, here is a 3D CGI rendering of the Elephant Man’s skeleton by IMA Solutions:
So what in the world is Johnny Depp doing with a life-size replica of the Elephant Man’s skeleton?!? It seems his fascination with Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man’s real name) dates back to at least February of 2011 when he talked about visiting the actual skeleton of the Elephant Man in the hospital where it is kept in an interview for Vanity Fair:
Vanity Fair: Yes, but that’s no different than Glenn Gould having to anticipate how Bach would want his work played. I thought the Hatter’s reading of “Jabberwocky” was luminous. Yesterday you read me a poem written by the Elephant Man. I didn’t know he wrote poetry. The poem you recited was heartbreaking. How did you come to find it?
Johnny Depp: I made an appointment at the hospital where they had his remains. His skeleton is there, a plaster mask is there, and his hat and veil and all this other stuff is there. And right on the wall next to him is this gorgeous poem that he wrote about himself and about his life: “Dragging this vile body / Round the years / I am not what first appears / A senseless freak / Devoid of hope or tears.” This guy was deep, and so, so gifted.
Johnny Depp isn’t the only celebrity to show interest in the Elephant Man’s bones, Michael Jackson reportedly offered to buy them in 1987 for $1 million, but the hospital refused to sell out of respect for Merrick. The attempted purchase was the birth of the urban myth that the Elephant Man’s bones were actually in the possession of Jackson. (Though it has nothing to do with the Elephant Man’s skeleton, Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Willy Wonka in the 2005 remake Charlie and the Chocolate Factory drew numerous comparisons to Michael Jackson.)
Speaking of Michael Jackson, here’s how Hiatt described Johnny Depp’s “corner office at his production company, an elegant cave where crimson curtains are closed against the late-afternoon sun:”
In Depp’s office, his brown, computer-free wood desk is framed on the left by a Pirates of the Caribbean poster, and on the right, another of his paintings, a surreal and faintly creepy portrait of a faceless man in a featureless white uniform (hilariously, I later learn he titled it “Phil Collins”). There’s a hundred-year-old acoustic guitar in the corner, and vintage-y art-deco chandeliers hang from the ceiling. On the bookshelves are various awards, baby pictures of his kids, volumes by authors from William Blake and Nathanael West to Neil Gaiman and Anne Rice. There’s even a rare copy of Bare-Faced Messiah, an Eighties L. Ron Hubbard exposé that would make for interesting conversation if Tom Cruise stopped by.
That sounds pretty much exactly as I imagined it!
For those who want to learn more about the Elephant Man’s skeleton, try to track down the Discovery special Meet the Elephant Man. Here’s a clip from IMA Solutions featuring Benjamin Moreno, supervisor of the 3D scanning process of the skeleton of Joseph Carey Merrick and of the VFX of the documentary, as well as Leslie Biesecker from the National Human Genome Research Institute:
And a synospsis of the special:
Joseph Merrick was, for much of his lifetime was regarded as a freak, a sideshow exhibit, a figure of derision. However, because of the unique friendship of one man his legend endures, the legend of the Elephant Man lives on. On the 120th anniversary of Merrick’s death, and the 30th anniversary of the David Lynch film about his life, a team of experts have brought Joseph Merrick back to life. With exclusive access to his skeleton – for possibly the last time due to its fragility – they have been able to recreate it in the virtual world and use this as a basis for modelling work – using photographs, measurements, casts and first-hand accounts – that puts flesh onto Merrick’s bones. How did he move? How did he speak? And, most intriguingly, how did he die? Also, accompanying the team will be Brian Richards, a modern-day sufferer of Proteus Syndrome: the disease that turned Joseph Merrick into the Elephant Man. It’s a hugely personal journey for Brian who is just a year younger than Merrick was when he died – and feels that this is his chance to find the answers he has been seeking about his own future.
We’ll wrap this post up with some footage of Merrick’s actual (very fragile) skeleton being transported for an MRI:
