Johnny Depp Explains Why The Lone Ranger's Tonto Has a Bird on His Head
In an interview with EW, Lone Ranger co-star Johnny Depp explained the startling new look of his character, Tonto, who wears feathers and black and white face paint but, more importantly, has a bird sitting on his head. Inspiration came from a painting entitled "I Am Crow" by artist Kirby Sattler: "It seemed to me like you could almost see the separate sections of the individual, if you know what I mean," Depp said. Nobody knows what this means, but sure. WHAT ABOUT THE BIRD??
"It just so happened Sattler had painted a bird flying directly behind the warrior’s head. It looked to me like it was sitting on top. I thought: Tonto’s got a bird on his head. It’s his spirit guide in a way. It’s dead to others, but it’s not dead to him. It’s very much alive.”
Below: A look at the Sattler original, via the artist's official site:
[EW]
Comments
UGH.
Ugh? Really?
Yes, Johnny Depp clearly has no track record for creating incredible characters.
Surely, you could do better.
yay! more racism. Seriously, would it have KILLED them to cast an actual Native American?!!? No no! Must be a white dude. LIKE OMFG.
Okay, don't want an argument here, just thought I would jump in and say J D is part American Indian, Cherokee to be exact. Take a REALLY good close look at him without makeup and you can see it. I hope this helps. Also, I'm with you, if you can cast a person of actual Indian ancestory for a Native American part, they by all means you should.
Is that why he refuses to take a DNA test? Lets be real, johnny has always been very vague and cryptic about his supposed "indian" heritage, something tells me its just a family myth spun down the pipeline. Yea he might be by looking at him but from the way its perpetuated from him it sounds like he isn't very sure about it... and at this point to get a DNA test and then it turns out he isn't would just make him look silly.
I'm 1/8th Cherokee as well, just like Depp...but that wouldn't give me the right to play a Native American on screen anymore than he does.
I don't know if he's crazy or he's a genius...probably both!
@ MIA - Johnny Depp is a native american - "Depp was born in Owensboro, Kentucky..." It is possible, perhaps even likely, that he is not American Indian, but he is indeed a native American. Just saying...
Johnny has American Indian ancestry. I think (but don't quote me) he's said it's partly why he wanted to play Tonto, to turn the stereotype on its head. (So to speak. lol)
C'mon people! Fuck Johnny's Indian origin. The man's a fucking genius. I care a damn if he plays an Indian, or Afrikaans, or Chinese or whatever, Coz I know whatever he's playing he'll make it worthwhile.
The lone ranger outfit is horrible and not traditional, it makes him look like a bad guy, a big mistake, why cant they ever get it right, also the white hat is to big and doesn't go with the ugly suite, they need to have a good look at Clayton Moore, his hat fitted perfect to his head wasn't overly big, even if they didn't want the light blue suite [buckskin] they should have just made the original buckskin design a little darker, but this new design is like a city guy or lawyer and gives no impression of the lone ranger what so ever, a big mistake on Disney part, they need to speak to the costume designers and start again.
what a bunch of critics and over analysis freaks on here! its a fkn movie people. who cares if hes a black guy doing a white role or whatever, doesnt matter if this is an awesome part or not, its probably something he watched as a kid and thought itd be cool to play the part. i agree with srijit all the way. why cant we comment on things about the movie instead of start shit, im tired of the negativity in most posts, grow the fk up people, n no one really cares about your views either so why waste your time on negativity? have a nice day assholes, i became one of you by posting this, thanks for reading.
I don't care if Johnny Depp is playing a Native American or whatever, but the bird is stupid. It looks like Tonto put a dead animal on his head. It looks silly.
It reminds me of when Michelangelo put horns on his Moses sculpture because of a bad Bible translation. It was supposed to read "halo." This is a complete (deliberate) misreading of the Sattler painting and the dead bird looks like a memento mori, also makes Tonto look like a pokemon trainer.
AND the Sattler painting humanizes Crow, look at his face, the lines on the face. Depp looks like a cartoon by comparison. Between the stuffed animal and the face paint, Tonto looks dehumanized. Nice work fellas.