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"There wasn't nothing that really put our people down." "I was kinda scared: Is he gonna make fun of us?" offered Anthony Monessy. We're not savages," said Nolan Tedenopper.
"I believe whatever Johnny says sheds some light on the way people look at our tribe different. "When he spoke our language, he did pretty good at it. "He did a perfect job as Tonto he was phenomenal," said Kimberly De Jesus.
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The Comanches who got free tickets to the screening seemed starstruck and gushed about Depp.
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Outside a movie theater, festive dancers greeted Depp on the red carpet blessed by a tribal elder. Then they joined a gathering of Comanche VIP's at a special screening of The Lone Ranger for tribal members. In Lawton, the chairman of the Comanche Nation, Wallace Coffey welcomed Depp, presenting him with a beaded medallion necklace of his Tonto character.
"He's able to change into all these different things he plays, from a Caribbean pirate to a Comanche." "We gave him a Comanche name: Shape Shifter," says Harris. And in Santa Fe, social activist La Donna Harris adopted Depp as an honorary son and member of the Comanche tribe. During production, a local Navajo elder blessed the set in Monument Valley. The studio gave proceeds of the movie's world premiere to the American Indian College Fund. "It was always something that I always felt very proud to have."īehind the scenes, Depp and Disney labored for months to court Native Americans. "But over there, could have been Cherokee, could have been Creek, could have been Choctaw," he says. I thought, 'Wow! That's a very interesting concept.' Then there was also a bird flying behind the guy's head, the warrior's head, and I thought, 'Wow, that's amazing bird.' Well, he's not on his head, he should be on his head, as an extension of himself, a warrior, his spirit guide."Īsked if he's Native American, Depp says he grew up in Kentucky, where his great-grandmother and great-grandfather told him he had Cherokee blood. "It was a warrior, and at first glance I saw a face split into quarters. "Going against the grain of what had been done before, I knew it would require a very, very important iconic look," says Depp, who says he took it from a painting by artist Kirby Sattler, which he saw on the Internet. And on top of his head sits a dead black crow. His face is painted white with black stripes. But Depp's new Tonto is tattooed and shirtless. The 1950's Jay Silverheels' Tonto was calm and stoic, wore his hair in a braid and donned a headband and a buckskin vest. Depp's Tonto is a deadpan spirit warrior from the Comanche tribe. Tonto is first seen in Disney's new The Lone Ranger on display at a sideshow diorama labeled "noble savage." Depp says the character is meant to be humorous - the Lone Ranger even kids him about the word Tonto meaning "dummy" in Spanish. "In my own small way, it was my attempt to right the wrongs of what had been done with regards to the representation of Native Americans in cinema." "Tonto never deserved to be called a sidekick."ĭepp wanted to play Tonto as the Lone Ranger's equal partner.
"But even at the ripe old age of 5 or 6 or 7, watching that on TV, I had the very distinct feeling that there was something very wrong," he says from a hotel room in Lawton, Okla., before a special screening of the new movie.
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Johnny Depp, who helped create Tonto's character for the new movie, says he grew up watching reruns of the TV series, which he says was pure entertainment.Īdorned with a dead black crow, headband and face paint, Depp said he knew his Tonto would need to go "against the grain of what had been done before, knew it would require a very, very important iconic look." Me take care of you."ĭisney's version is out in theaters this week, and it's an action-comedy with Johnny Depp in the role of Tonto.īut audiences may wonder whether the new movie plays with old Hollywood stereotypes of Native Americans. "You Kemo Sabe," he would say to the Lone Ranger. In the series, Western settlers face down what they call "redskins" and "savages." And trusty Tonto is always on hand to interpret the smoke signals.īeginning in 1949, in films and on TV, Tonto was played by Jay Silverheels, an actor who in real life was the son of a Canadian Mohawk tribal chief. Tonto made his first appearance on the radio in the 1930s, voiced by a non-Native American actor, John Todd. The faithful companion helps the white man fight bad guys, and does so speaking in pidgin English. The Lone Ranger has long been a fictional hero, taming the Wild West with his trusty Indian guide, Tonto. Johnny Depp says that with his portrayal of Tonto in The Lone Ranger, he tried to "right the wrongs of what had been done with regards to the representation of Native Americans in cinema."
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