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Johnny Depp Public Enemies Press Conference

There are some traits Dillinger has in common with actors, the improvisation, the idea of being immortal in people's memories.
Johnny Depp: "He's certainly like an actor, but as I've said before, when somebody hands you the ball, depending on where you've been in your life, if you worked in the sewers or pumped gas or worked construction or whatever you did, when somebody hands you the ball, you run with with it as far as they'll let you, which is all I've been doing for 25 years.

John Dillinger came out of prison after 10 years, in a way, sort of giving him the ball. I hate the idea of him manipulating the media. I don't think he did. I think he just understood the game and I think he understood that there was a game to be played and he, because of his savvy and the stuff he'd learned while inside, he learned how to play the game well, as he would. So there are parallels. I also think Dillinger, he had a somehow semi-fascination with Hollywood and the idea of movies and his legend and leaving his mark. I don't know that that's... I think most people feel like that in a way."

Why did people see Dillinger as this rock star-like figure back then?

Johnny Depp: "At that time, with what was going on in the world - especially in the States - Dillinger, those people, not all of them, but a good majority of those people, it was the common man standing up up against the establishment and saying, 'No. Oh no. I've had it up to here. So now I'm going to get some and I'm gonna get some at whatever cost.' There are comparisons, that Dillinger is the Robin Hood of that time.

There is some some truth to it. He did literally, with the farmers at the bank with their life savings, he did actually hand it back to them and say, 'I don't want your money. I don't want it. I came for the bank's money. The bank's money is my money and I'm taking it.' And he did. That's not to say he's a saint, but he was a man's man at that time. He stood up. He stood up against... Because certainly the government and J. Edgar Hoover, at best they were slimy. So who were the criminals, really?"

What was it like working with Marion Cotillard and establishing that relationship?

Johnny Depp: "She's great. She's just simply great. She was there months before she even started shooting, just working. She went over onto the Menominee reservation and spent time with Billie Frechette's family. Deeply dedicated and worked so hard on her accent and I thought she was amazing. She was perfect for Billie Frechette. When you read some of the stuff about Dillinger and how he felt about that woman... They were these uninvited, perfectly matched outside people, her being half-French half-Menominee at that time working as a hat-check girl in Chicago, him being this ex-con, never been able to keep a woman in his life, his mom died when he was little and he was a whole heartbreaking thing. When they met, it was absolute fireworks. And I honestly believe that John Dillinger, had he not been sold out by Anna Sage, he would have made one last hit and he would have gone to South America and he would have waited for Billie. Totally convinced of it. And Marion was wonderful."