'Rum Diary' Remembrance: Johnny Depp Talks About 'Explosive' Hunter S. Thompson
by Richard Sharp
There are many reasons to be jealous of Johnny Depp: his impossibly hot French wife, the equally smoking women he gets to play "tourist" with, his ludicrous Keith Richard act, and the fact that he's wildly commercially successful but still somehow remains well...actually cool for example.
But in my book, the coolest thing Johnny Depp has done to date is becoming good friends with Hunter S. Thompson and literally blowing up all kinds of sh&* with the legendary author and madman (before Thompson ultimately decided to blow his own brains out after a poor bout of health in 2005).
Depp plays Hunter S. Thompson for a second time, after slaying the role in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," in "Rum Diary," the film version of Thompson's first, truly wonderful novel.
The film, which opens this weekend, captures the rapidly evolving signature brilliant insanity of a young Hunter S. gonzoing his way through a job as a poorly paid but massively drunken newspaperman in Puerto Rico.
As part of the promo for the film, Depp penned an article for Newsweek, talking about his experiences meeting and befriending HST, mainly through a shared love of mind-altering substances and explosions. It's a rare and insightful glimpse at the gleeful embrace of life on the edge that defined one of our most talented and entertaining literary icons.
The story, entitled "My Explosive Pal, Hunter S. Thompson" starts off with a bang:
"Suddenly I see the door spring open, and I see sparks! I realized there was a large-ish, three-foot cattle prod and a Taser gun, and the sea began to part—people were leaping and hurling themselves out of the path of the mayhem that was approaching—and I heard the voice first say, 'Out of my way, you bastards!' He was using them as 'just-in-case weapons,' but it was a very economical way for him to clear the path. He made the Red Sea part, arrived at my table, and said, 'How are you? My name is Hunter.'”
Read the entire article here, and check out a preview of "Rum Diary" below: