What's with the makeup on
Johnny Depp's Barnabas Collins?
By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, NBC
Today, September 14, 2011Gotta confess, I love Dark Shadows. When I was a kid in
the 1970s, it aired in a prime after-school time slot and I watched with my mom.
She was no fan of regular soap operas, but somehow Dark Shadows, with its
Gothic theme, vampires, family crypts and chained coffins, didn't seem like a
soap. It had drama, action, intrigue and plenty of spine-tingling scenes. (That
little ghost girl Sarah, Barnabas Collins' sister, haunted me for
years.)
In fact, when I co-wrote Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops: The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s, (shameless plug!) I made sure Dark Shadows got an entry all its own.
Dark Shadows, it seems, was a childhood fave of Johnny Depp as well, and he's now starring as beloved head vamp Barnabas Collins in the big-screen edition, due out May 11, 2012. At the time I wrote the book entry, I wondered if the proposed movie version would ever get off the ground.
But when photos from the set started to trickle out, I stopped short. As played by Jonathan Frid (who's still with us at 86), Barnabas was an imposing, aristocratic leading man who was also the part of an established New England family. Yes, vampirism was thrust upon him thanks to vengeful witch Angelique, but even as a vampire he was stately and dignified. One thing he was not was a freak.
And yet that's exactly how he looks in these photos. Numerous blogs have compared this Barnabas to Michael Jackson or earlier Depp character Edward Scissorhands. (Tim Burton directed Edward and is directing Dark Shadows.) Some have suggested that perhaps Barnabas needed the makeup to go out in the daytime.
I'm reserving judgment for now, but really, Johnny Depp — as a fan since childhood, you should know better than most not to mess with Barnabas Collins. Moviegoers have watched too many of our beloved childhood memories (Bewitched, The Flintstones, Land of the Lost) get dragged through horrible film versions just because Hollywood doesn't have any new ideas.
Fans will call down many a curse on your head should the beloved soap be trashed onscreen.
In fact, when I co-wrote Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops: The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s, (shameless plug!) I made sure Dark Shadows got an entry all its own.
Dark Shadows, it seems, was a childhood fave of Johnny Depp as well, and he's now starring as beloved head vamp Barnabas Collins in the big-screen edition, due out May 11, 2012. At the time I wrote the book entry, I wondered if the proposed movie version would ever get off the ground.
But when photos from the set started to trickle out, I stopped short. As played by Jonathan Frid (who's still with us at 86), Barnabas was an imposing, aristocratic leading man who was also the part of an established New England family. Yes, vampirism was thrust upon him thanks to vengeful witch Angelique, but even as a vampire he was stately and dignified. One thing he was not was a freak.
And yet that's exactly how he looks in these photos. Numerous blogs have compared this Barnabas to Michael Jackson or earlier Depp character Edward Scissorhands. (Tim Burton directed Edward and is directing Dark Shadows.) Some have suggested that perhaps Barnabas needed the makeup to go out in the daytime.
I'm reserving judgment for now, but really, Johnny Depp — as a fan since childhood, you should know better than most not to mess with Barnabas Collins. Moviegoers have watched too many of our beloved childhood memories (Bewitched, The Flintstones, Land of the Lost) get dragged through horrible film versions just because Hollywood doesn't have any new ideas.
Fans will call down many a curse on your head should the beloved soap be trashed onscreen.
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