CANNES DISPATCH 1 …
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS

You can call it a comeback, but as Johnny Depp tells me, “I mean, you have to have gone away to come back. I didn’t go nowhere…” It was lovely to shoot Johnny on his return to Cannes – and the first major outing in the film world since his highly publicised trial – for the world premiere of Jeanne Du Barry, directed by and co-starring French actress and filmmaker Maïwenn, which opened this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Johnny is back in the Hollywood spotlight, and it’s a unique moment for the actor. Johnny was last at the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in 2011. 12 years later, being back in Cannes is somewhat of a phoenix moment for the actor, “That was a real surprise,” he says.

In the car en route to the premiere, he talked about his tight, mischief-filled friendship with Marlon Brando and what it means to him to be welcomed back at Cannes.