HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Johnny Depp stars as an American tourist whose playful dalliance with a stranger leads to a web of intrigue, romance and danger in The Tourist.
During an impromptu trip to Europe to mend a broken heart, Frank (Depp) unexpectedly finds himself in a flirtatious encounter with Elise (Angelina Jolie), an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path. Against the breathtaking backdrop of Paris and Venice, their whirlwind romance quickly evolves as they find themselves unwittingly thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Obviously, Jolie and Depp are two of the most engaging, charismatic, and talented actors working in film, but as the film requires its characters to share an immediate attraction to each other, all felt it was a good idea to meet and talk before signing on. And believe it or not, that is how Jolie and Depp met for the first time. Despite being two of the biggest movie stars, they had not entered each other's orbit until they sat down to discuss The Tourist with the director and producer, Graham King, who recalls them having "instant chemistry."
"My main interest was to play the ultimate ordinary man," Depp says of his character. "The people who are perceived as 'normal' are the ones I find the strangest, really: they have tics and flaws and weird mannerisms. This is a guy who hasn't really lived much of a life, so that was the great challenge – to play him as hyper-normal."
"My character in this film is different than any other film," adds Jolie. " [Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck] gave me very specific direction. My natural modern rhythm is quicker and harder. At the beginning of the shoot, Florian's note to me was to slow down, as Elise lives in a world of quiet luxury and elegance."
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