French filmmaker Maïwenn and Hollywood star Johnny Depp made an appearance at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia on Friday. The event featured a special screening of their period romance movie called Jeanne du Barry, which is backed by Saudi Arabia. Maïwenn was responsible for co-writing, directing, and playing the lead role of the titular courtesan in the film, while Depp portrayed King Louis XV, who falls in love with du Barry and installs her as his last official mistress at the Court of Versailles. During the Q&A session that followed the screening, the Red Sea Head of International Programming, Kaleem Aftab, faced criticism after he said he found some parts of the film “very funny.” Maïwenn rebuked him by reminding him that it is a love story and that the king is dying. She then asked the audience if they had watched the movie.
Amidst the Q&A session, Depp humorously suggested Aftab to continue digging by saying that he had a small shovel downstairs. The movie was premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2021 as the opening film and was one of the initial international films to receive financial support from the Red Sea Film Foundation earlier this year. During the conversation, both Maïwenn and Depp candidly answered questions regarding their inspiration behind the movie and its creation.
During a Q&A session at the Red Sea Film Festival, Maïwenn and Johnny Depp discussed the challenges of directing and acting simultaneously, both having experience in this area. Maïwenn mentioned that it was unsettling for Depp to switch between being the boss on set to performing a romantic scene, but he praised her ability to move between both activities effortlessly. Depp shared his opinion that an actor should clear their head of everything when getting into character, while a director needs to be aware of everything happening on set. Maïwenn revealed that Depp listened to different music for different scenes to get into the mood. She admitted that directing and acting were challenging but decided to do both as she knew the role of Jeanne du Barry by heart and felt similarities between herself and the character.
