Johnny Depp on Mick Doohan documentary and Black Mass movie

JOHNNY Depp said he can’t wait to get back to Australia, despite the Boo and Pistol scandal, and has serious plans to make a film about one of our own.

JOHNNY Depp said he can’t wait to get back to Australia, despite the Boo and Pistol scandal, and has serious plans to make a film about one of our own.

Depp spent several months on the Gold Coast shooting the fifth instalment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and during that time became really good friends with race car driver and five-time MotoGP world champion Mick Doohan.

“I want to do a documentary about him,” he said. “He’s just a wonderful man.”

Depp says he has no hard feelings towards Australia over the quarantine scandal.

“I love that really dry sense of humour in Australia and that’s what I’ll miss, as well as our crew on Pirates. They were really funny,” he said. “But one thing I won’t miss about the country is the poisonous creatures. Everything is poisonous.”

Mick Doohan and Johnny Depp have become firm friends. Picture: Jamie Hanson

The Hollywood star spoke to news.com.au on Friday about the quarantine scandal, and was highly critical of Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce who said at the time the two dogs needed to “bugger off home” or face being euthanised.

Depp’s wife Amber Heard will have the case brought against her today over the alleged illegal importation of the pair’s two Yorkshire terriers.

The Southport Magistrates Court in Queensland will hear the matter this morning after the pair brought their two canines into the country earlier this year via private jet without declaring them on the in-flight manifest.

News Corp Australia understands Heard will not be in attendance at court today and her lawyers will seek an adjournment of the matter until a later date.

Depp and I are chatting at the exclusive island restaurant Acquerello: St Regis San Clement Palace, once an 18th century insane asylum. He arrived by speed boat after the press conference to promote Black Mass, tailed by two boat-loads of paparazzi.

Minutes prior to Depp’s arrival, fellow cast members Joel Edgerton and Dakota Johnson were on hand to greet him, along with director Scott Cooper.

Wearing a dark green blazer, beige pants, and white shirt, with a safety pin dangling from his left ear, Depp is more formally dressed than is his preference, and also noticeably heavier than usual.

Depp labelled Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce a “sweaty, big-gutted man from Australia”.

Still sporting Jack Sparrow’s gold teeth, he said, “I’ve finished shooting the film in Australia but I have one more scene to go so I need to keep them on for now. They’re bonded to my real teeth and it takes six hours to put on and really hurts to take them off.”

Black Mass is tipped to put Depp back in the good graces of critics and fans after a string of box office flops: The Lone Ranger, Transcendence, and Mortedcai. Arguably, he is in need of a hit.

To play real life Irish-American gangster, James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, Depp had to radically change his appearance.

“My eyeballs are black as the ace of spades so clearly I had to wear blue contacts. They had to be painted because they needed to be piercing; they had to cut right through you.”

He also dons an almost-bald hairpiece with thinning blonde hair. But It’s not merely his physicality that deems the otherwise handsome actor unrecognisable in the film.

I tell Depp that his role as Bulger marks the first time audiences will see him remiss of any redeemable charm, save for the endearing relationship the mobster has with his mother.

Depp smiles. “That’s beautiful. That’s great because it’s important for me that that came across. Bulger had this very dark side and he was certainly broken and did horrible things, though he did have a human and sensitive side when it came to his family, particularly his mum.”

Joel Edgerton goes toe-to-toe with Depp playing the two-faced FBI agent, John Connelly and says, “Johnny is such a sweet man and it’s really something to see him completely disappear into this menacing criminal.”

The story is set in Boston, which inevitably required the whole cast to adopt the city’s distinctive accent, says Edgerton,

“That’s what I was most worried about, getting the accent right.” According to early reviews, they more than got it right and early buzz suggests the movie will be heavily represented during award season.

Depp and Heard at the screening of The Danish Girl. AFP PHOTO/TIZIANA FABI

Naturally, Depp has frequented Venice many times to promote his films. “I was here once as a tourist and spent four months and that was fantastic,” he said. “I walked around a lot late at night and no one bothered me.” Before leaving the island restaurant, he turned to allow the paps to get some shots of him before heading back to central Venice to join his glamorous wife, Heard, also at the festival to promote her movie, The Danish Girl.

The same night he was greeted by thousands of fans at the Black Mass premiere, and took time to shake many of their hands.

“They’re my bosses,” he explains with a genuine smile. “Without them, I’d be unemployed.”