Once again, Johnny Depp is unrecognizable. This time there are no eery green contact lenses like in “Alice in Wonderland,” and no gold teeth from “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
Now, as he prepares to play Boston crime lord Whitey Bulger in “Black Mass,” all he needs is a loaded gun, a mean scowl and killer instincts.
“He could be charming. He could be ruthless. He was like a cobra — you never knew where he could strike,” director Scott Cooper said of Bulger, according to Entertainment Weekly.
(Photo: Entertainment Weekly)
The biopic tells the violence-filled true story of how Bulger, brother to a state senator (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), became the most terrifying gangster in Boston while simultaneously shadowing as an FBI informant against the Italian Mafia.
Depp wasn’t an obvious choice for the role as the blue-eyed Bulger.
Cooper said the two pored over old FBI photos and surveillance tapes for hours to get Depp’s look just right.
Here's your first look at Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger in 'Black Mass': http://t.co/roC9sqANfA pic.twitter.com/UIpIm2ghpv
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) April 22, 2015
“A lot of people on set knew Whitey intimately,” Cooper told EW.
“They got chills at the resemblance. Some of them couldn’t even look at him.”
Former mob boss and fugitive James “Whitey” Bulger, who was arrested in Santa Monica, California in June 2011. (Photo: Reuters)
“Black Mass” is due out Sept. 18.