Johnny Depp Is ‘Not a Morning Person,' Everyone on the Set of Pirates 5 Agrees
Hot on the heels of the "Earpiece" story, comes this:
Looks like this is mentioned in this bigger Hollywood Reporter piece:
Johnny Depp: A Star in Crisis and the Insane Story of His "Missing" Millions
Hot on the heels of the "Earpiece" story, comes this:
Still, sources close to the production report tales of excessive drinking, physical fights with [Amber] Heard and constant lateness on set, which often left hundreds of extras waiting for hours at a time. Time and again, Bruckheimer, an assistant director and a flotilla of Disney executives led by production chief Sean Bailey were forced to huddle and debate how to handle their star's tardiness. ”He's not a morning person," quips one member of that group.
It doesn't seem like there are many scenes you can film without Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow, so his tardiness affected the whole production. ”There were certainly days when our plans were challenged," Bailey told THR. To accommodate Depp's tardiness, a production assistant was stationed outside Depp's house in an unmarked car, charged with announcing when the star was finally awake.
”When he got up, he'd turn on the light, and the moment the light went on [the PA] would call the line producer, who would then call the directors [Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg]: ‘He's up! He's getting ready!' " says an on-set source. ”They even had a special code term, like ‘The eagle has landed.' Johnny had no idea this was going on."
Depp's lateness caused some behind-the-scenes drama between his agent and Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer (that Bruckheimer denies). By the time Depp arrived on set, THR's source says, he was totally charming. ”Everyone was an innocent bystander watching this train wreck," the source recalled. ”But when Johnny came on set, he was charming, nice. He's yin and yang." In the time since Pirates filmed, Bruckheimer says, Depp has changed his ways: ”He just finished Murder on the Orient Express and was on time every day."
Looks like this is mentioned in this bigger Hollywood Reporter piece:
Johnny Depp: A Star in Crisis and the Insane Story of His "Missing" Millions
Depp's cash flow had reached a crisis point, they declared. Even though the star had become wildly wealthy (later, Mandel would claim Depp earned more than $650 million in the 13-plus years he had been represented by The Management Group, the company Mandel had started in 1987 with his brother Robert), there just wasn't enough liquid money to cover Depp's $2 million in monthly bills.
Without a fire sale, Depp — then arguably the biggest star in Hollywood and certainly one of the best paid, thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise — would never be able to meet his obligations. Not the payments on his portfolio of real estate around the world. Not the impulse purchases such as the three Leonor Fini paintings he had bought from a Manhattan gallery (the first two for $320,000, the third as a $245,000 gift for then-girlfriend Amber Heard). Not the $3.6 million he paid annually for his 40-person staff. Not the $350,000 he laid out each month to maintain his 156-foot yacht. And not the hundreds of thousands of dollars he paid to sustain his ex-partner, Vanessa Paradis, and their children, Lily-Rose and Jack.
Mandel dug into his briefcase for a one-page summary he had prepared, but Depp waved it away. Still, after three hours, the actor agreed to a compromise: He would sell his beloved Amphitrite, the yacht he had bought for $10 million and spent $8 million renovating, where he'd hosted such friends as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
That exchange, the start of an increasingly fraught relationship between the star and his team, would culminate in the 2016 firing of Mandel and Depp's longtime agent, United Talent Agency's Tracey Jacobs, along with a $25 million lawsuit filed Jan. 13 by Depp against the Mandels' TMG, accusing them of fraud and mismanagement, among other things.
TMG has since countersued, alleging that Depp, now 53, failed to pay its commission on his income from the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and painting a portrait of an out-of-control movie star, reeling from a nasty split from Heard and used to spending freely, including $30,000 a month on wine. The Mandels seek a court declaration that "Depp is responsible for his own financial waste"; Depp's side wants them to pay him millions, claiming they served as lawyers as well as accountants and therefore — if Depp's interpretation of a California statute is correct — had no right to a percentage of his earnings without a proper contract.