Keller @ Large: Johnny Depp Doesn't Understand Whitey Bulger Story
BOSTON (CBS) - Before Tuesday night, I wasn't sure if I'd shell out for tickets to see "Black Mass," the movie based on the terrific Dick Lehr/Gerry O'Neil book about Whitey Bulger's reign of terror.
But after hearing the comments of "Black Mass" star Johnny Depp outside the theater in Brookline, I definitely won't be paying to see it. In fact, I'll wait until it hits free TV rather than subsidize it.
Depp is an accomplished actor, and the critics say he's good in the movie. But that doesn't make him smart.
In fact, his remarks suggest he still doesn't understand what the story is about.
"I'm not sure anybody knows the entire truth," Depp said, indicating he didn't bother to read the trial transcript. "Some ugly things happened, [but] nobody wakes up in the morning to brush their teeth and shave and says I'm evil and I'm gonna do the worst [bleep] I can do today."
So wrong.
Whitey Bulger woke up every morning with blood on his hands and bloodlust in his soul. He slaughtered women, threatened children and butchered their parents, guided the carnage of his associates just as surely as Charles Manson did, then ratted them out to the feds.
Depp said Tuesday night "I just don't believe that [pure] evil exists," a statement only a coddled, mega-rich movie star steeped in profound ignorance could make. His foolishness does a disservice to a great book, and insults the victims and the community at large.
So, no, I won't be contributing to his box office take.
That's blood money he's pocketing.
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