Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer star in The Lone Ranger!

I wasn’t at all sure if I would like this movie, which is pretty ridiculous since I have never ever seen a Johnny Depp movie I didn’t like! Thankfully, my worries were all for naught! After watching it with my family last weekend, I think Disney’s The Lone Ranger is one of the best family movies I have had the pleasure to watch in  a long long time. I would even go so far as to say it’s on par with another family favorite — Pirates of the Caribbean. The wit, the adventure, the scenery and props, the actors and even the score were all impeccable.  We all loved the train fight scenes, they were breathtaking and not at all overdone like some other recent movies we have watched.

Our family seriously laughed out loud during many parts and at one point I was enraged by the injustices happening to the Native Americans on screen. The story was great, maybe not quite as deep or fleshed out as I would have liked but this is a Disney kids’ movie, after all. Having never seen the original Lone Ranger television series, I can’t say anything about how close the movie came to the original. My husband though, loved watching The Lone Ranger as a kid and he also loved the movie, even if he did say it wasn’t quite the same. 

Starring Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as John Reid aka Lone Ranger, The Lone Ranger is in stores now! I know this film would be the perfect gift for anyone who likes an awesome Disney action and adventure movie for the whole family! You can buy The Lone Ranger on Blu-ray Combo Pack, Digital HD, and On-Demand, just in time for Christmas! 

As I am always interested in how actors can get into character so amazingly well, I wanted to share this great interview with my favorite actor from the movie! Check it out!

Interview with Johnny Depp for the Blue-Ray and DVD release of The Lone Ranger. 

How would you describe your new take on The Lone Ranger with Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski?

The Lone Ranger is a well-told story populated with great actors. It’s written by great writers, and it’s directed by a great director. It’s a big adventure film that has really nice themes in it, and it’s a lot of fun to watch. We wanted to give audiences around the world a big, expansive experience that’s a great piece of entertainment.

How did you come up with iconic the look of Tonto in your new movie?

The inspiration came from a painting I saw of a warrior with stripes down his face. The stripes were slightly different than the stripes we used for Tonto, but what caught my attention was the fact that there was a crow flying in the painting, just behind the warrior. At first glance, I thought the crow was on the warrior’s head. It wasn’t, but I then decided that the best thing to do was to take a dead bird and put it on top of Tonto’s head. That’s his spirit guide. Everyone should try it, by the way. It really is something!

How important is the makeup when you’re working on a character like this?

The makeup is everything really. Once you start to replace your own skin with that of the character and the costume, you start to see that this man has been through quite a lot. I was in makeup for a couple of hours every day, unless I decided to wear it home. That happened quite often because it would save time the next morning. It wasn’t comfortable and I looked funny, but it was worth it… I think.

How do you make an iconic character like Tonto relative to today?

I think he’s very relevant. For however long cinema’s been around, Native Americans have been treated very poorly by Hollywood. For the most part, they’ve been depicted as savages, or whatever terms they’they’ve used to describe them. I didn’t want to play this character as the sidekick to the Lone Ranger. I didn’didn’t want the Lone Ranger to say to him, “Go fetch me a soda, boy.” Instead, I wanted to portray him as a warrior and as a man with great integrity and dignity. It’s my small sliver of a contribution to try and right the wrongs that have been committed in the past.

How would you describe your experience of working alongside Native Americans on The Lone Ranger?

The production was blessed by the Navaho and the Comanche, and we were treated incredibly by these wonderful, generous people. We all ended up having great relationships with them. One day, I got a call saying that a woman named Ladonna Harris – a very strong activist – had decided she wanted to adopt me into her family and into the Comanche Nation, which will always be the greatest honor that I’ve ever been given. It was amazing.

What makes actor Armie Hammer perfect for the role of the Lone Ranger?

First and foremost, Armie is a great guy. He’s very smart, very quick and very clever and he’s super-talented. He committed to playing the Lone Ranger as an earnest, naïve, ‘white man’ – and that’s exactly right. Armie is a young actor coming up the ranks and he looks like a classic movie star – and what’s more, he has the chops to back it up. He fully committed to this role; he played it perfectly, he got the humor, and he didn’t want to play it as the ‘cool guy’ as it were. I found him a dream to work with and I feel like I’ve made a really good friend in Armie.

How much fun did you have playing an outlaw alongside Armie?

Outlaws are fun. They get to do things that we can’t. They break the rules, so there is that vicarious thrill in playing one.

Have you ever worn a mask – like the Lone Ranger – to visit places without being recognized?

I have actually. I’ve worn ridiculous things to be able to go out in public. I’ll glue on a fake nose and a ZZ Top beard. I’ll wear a bandana over my head and I’ll look like a weathered roadie!

What can you tell us about the horseback incident that happened during the film shoot?

I’m not sure it was an accident; I think the horse had it in for me. We’d been working on the horses a lot that day when we decided to jump over a couple of obstacles. I don’t know if it was user error or what, but we fell.

What went through your mind when you fell?

It happened very fast and very slow. You’d expect to be riddled with fear or adrenaline, but it just happened and I saw everything very clearly. The horse has incredibly muscular front legs that were moving at a very dangerous speed, but I held on to the mane. Like an idiot, I was trying to get back up! At a certain point, I had to make a decision: do I go down and hit the deck on my own or do I wait for a hoof to split my face in two?

What did you choose to do?

I chose to fall on my own. Incredibly, the horse lifted his front legs and he missed me. The horse could’ve crushed me in a second, so I was very lucky that the horse’s instincts were very good.

Audiences know you as Jack Sparrow from the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise. How hard was it to leave Jack Sparrow behind and play another iconic character?

How hard was it to leave Jack Sparrow? He’s still in there. He never really goes away. [Puts on his Jack Sparrow voice] Sometimes I can’t stop him, love!

With so many iconic characters under your belt, how closely do you watch yourself on screen in these various guises?

A long time ago, I made a choice that I was better off not watching my films, which is a drag because I miss out on a lot of my friends’ incredible work. But I feel like it would harm me. I’d rather stay as ignorant as possible about the results of playing a character, because once you’ve finished playing the character; it’s really none of your business any more. After you’ve finished, it’s down to the director to make any choices about what happens on screen. My job is to give options to the director – and that’s it.

Have you ever seen yourself on screen?

I adore the process of creating these moments, but I’ve never really looked back on them. Well, I did once. Somebody put together a reel of various bits of different films that I have done. When I saw all of the characters that I’d played lined up in a row, I thought it was amazing that I was able to get away with it. Truly. I was amazed that I still get jobs! I’m shocked.

You’ve stepped behind the camera to direct a couple of projects in the past. Do you have any desires to direct again?

Yes, I do. I’ve been working on a film for the last four years, and we’ve just completed the filming part. It’s a documentary on Keith Richards and it’s the opportunity to experience Keith in a different light because he’s a very mysterious being. Essentially, the project has involved Keith and I sitting around having conversations, so it all boils down to his wisdom and his philosophy and his experiences.

What’s going on with your music career? Are you starting that up again?

Music has always been my first love. It’s what I did ever since I was a kid – and I never stopped; I still play every day. It’s not like I was searching for a second career or anything, but one thing led to another and I was asked to go up on stage to play with someone a while ago. When people saw me on stage, they said, “Wow, he can actually play the guitar.” And after that, some really sweet invites started turning up, “Hey, come and play here.” And, “Hey, come and play there.” It’s been a really great experience to play again. 

• Blooper Reel (RT 4:12) – BD, DVD & Select Digital Retailers Only
• Deleted Scene – BD & Select Digital Retailers Only
• Riding The Rails Of The Lone Ranger (RT: 10:36) – BD & Select Digital Retailers Only. For the production of the movie, director Gore Verbinski had a five mile oval track built along with multiple engines and cars. See the incredible effort that went into crafting such a detailed and important part of The Lone Ranger.
• Armies’s Western Road Trip (RT: 14:28) – BD & Select Digital Retailers Only. Armie Hammer (The Lone Ranger) takes viewers on a tour of the scenic locations the production shot in as we see and learn more about the amazing places he went to become The Lone Ranger.
• Becoming A Cowboy (RT: 8:02) – BD & Select Digital Retailers Only. Before the cast began shooting the film, they had to learn how to shoot a gun…and ride a horse. In this piece we follow the cowboy (and cowgirl) cast to boot camp, where they got a chance to experience what their characters would really be living like in the Wild West.