Johnny Depp and filmmaker Bruce Robinson took the stage at the Austin Film Festival following the screening of The Rum Diary to take questions from a moderator and the audience.
Depp had turned Hunter onto Robinson’s “Withnail and I” and “How to Get Ahead in Advertising,” and the Gonzo writer, according to Depp, “lost his mind, and he lost it over and over and over.” Thompson adored and related to “Withnail,” which Depp said he thinks inspired in the American writer memories of his “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” days.
A seemingly deeply inebriated Robinson, who early in the Q&A said “Oh my god, if you could know what a horrible state I’m in tonight,” discussed his life in England as a garbage collector 40 years ago, when his flat-mate threw “Fear and Loathing in Las Vega” at him, introducing the Brit to the author.
“I couldn’t believe here was this person who was writing in the vernacular that I did,” Robinson said.
In discussing a wild night pounding Coronas after filming in Puerto Rico, Depp, in a line that could be pulled from a Thompson story, said, “And then we started to taste the rum.”
Source: Dangerous Minds
