An Inside Look of the Film Public Enemies

Instead of being in Florida or Mexico, a requisite for Spring Break getaways, many people were standing downtown in Columbus during the week of March 17. The reason? Johnny Depp. Or rather, Johnny Depp, Michael Mann, the film and set crew, along with everything else associated with making a movie.

Public Enemies is a 1930s gangster movie documenting the life and robberies of John Dillinger, a notorious gangster and bank robber, and one of the most sought after “public enemies” of the Great Depression era. Depp is playing Dillinger, while the movie is being directed by Michael Mann.

I had an inside look at how the movie is being filmed, luckily, because of the fact that the movie will feature Depp running out of the old bank in downtown Columbus, which is also my mother’s art gallery. I asked her how she felt about the movie being made in Columbus.

“It was a very unusual experience being in the middle of the making of a movie, and get to see how it was made and see the actors working. It was very interesting. It’s put Columbus on the map; some people didn’t even existed!”

Since the crew took more than two weeks of preparing the downtown to look right for the 1930s era, I could see how the buildings gradually changed from the modern state they were in to a historic look. That didn’t stop me from being surprised at how different the town looked when it was finished. It was like stepping 75 years back into time, except there were cameras and film crew everywhere.

The fact that they only used the outside of the bank for a brief, perhaps 30 second long clip in the movie, didn’t stop Mann from having Depp and his fellow gangsters run out of the building more than 50 times. Depp was kind enough to grace us with his presence in between filming. He came over with a polite smile and asked how everyone was doing. It was a great privilege to meet him and I have to say I’m slightly surprised at how normal he seemed-the opposite of most characters he plays in movies.

During an interview with an extra, Leroy Clark of Shawano, WI, Clark mentioned “Johnny [Depp] came up to me and asked me if I was cold.” (Clark was playing the extra role as a homeless person.) Clark also owns a 1933 Plymouth with four suicide doors, which is the kind of car that the crew needed for this movie.

Later on when they will be filming up in Little Bohemia, the “hideout” town that Dillinger used, Clark will be driving from Shawano for them to use his car. “Little Bohemia should be exciting because that’s the shootout,” Clark told me. And as a plus: “I asked Johnny if when I come up there he could sit in my car and I could take a picture after the set was done and he said yes.”

Considering that the general perception of film makers and crew is that they are more aloof than anything, I was surprised to learn that many of the people associated with the movie were friendly and polite. I overheard one of the women working on set remarking on how nice people in Columbus were. “Usually people are upset that we’re using their town for filming,” she said. “But all of you are so friendly and grateful that we’re here. It’s a nice change.”

All in all, Columbus was granted a great opportunity for its economy, publicity, and general image. Be sure to look for Public Enemies when it comes out in theaters during fall of 2009.