In Public Enemies Johnny Depp plays legendary bank robber John Dillinger in a film about the gangster whose Robin Hood adventures made him a folk hero of the Great Depression. He talks to Michele Manelis

Johnny Depp drew on memories of his grandfather to play John Dillinger. Photo / Supplied by Paramount

Johnny Depp drew on memories of his grandfather to play John Dillinger. Photo / Supplied by Paramount

Who better to play America's beloved outlaw than Johnny Depp? The Depression era's subversive pinup boy, John Dillinger, who famously robbed banks across the US, and like Robin Hood, refused to take money from the average Joe, is immortalised in this adaptation on his life.

Depp, 46, is promoting the movie at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills.

Arriving without the fanfare appendage of his movie star peers Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, he is softly spoken and apologises for being two hours late. "I'm so sorry for my tardiness. I can't help it. It's always been a problem of mine," he smiles, shrugging his shoulders.

Unlike his usual, left-of-centre ensemble which would include worn shoes with holes in them, and an old hat, today he looks almost conservative in dark jeans, a shirt, and a red scarf tumbling out of one of his jeans pockets - which looks like a remnant from his Captain Jack Sparrow days in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Depp, who has earned three Academy Award nominations, took to the role of Dillinger like a second skin. "He was the ultimate common man existentialist hero. I have an admiration for him. Yes, he robbed banks but he tried not to hurt anybody in the process."

Directed by Michael Mann, the cast includes Christian Bale as Dillinger's arch-enemy, FBI agent Melvin Purvis, French Oscar winner, Marion Cotillard, as his girlfriend Billie Frechette, and a particularly inhumane Edgar J. Hoover, played by Billy Crudup. Exemplary cast notwithstanding, the movie is definitely riding on Depp's shoulders.

It's not the first time he's played a morally ambiguous character - he has often taken roles which explore the dark side of humanity, including Edward Scissorhands, From Hell, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and of course his blockbuster franchise in Pirates of the Caribbean.

"It's not like I only like playing the bad guy. It depends on the bad guy or what we perceive as the bad guy. For example, if I was given the choice to be in a room with either Dillinger or J. Edgar Hoover with my back to them, I would choose Dillinger. J. Edgar Hoover was a vicious, vicious man," he says.

"But fascination with bad guys, you've got people like Dillinger who was like Bonnie and Clyde. The common man who came up and said, 'I'm going to stand up against the establishment and do what I have to do for me and mine.'

"Then you've got the Charles Mansons of the world, who I suppose it is easy to be fascinated with because of the savagery that can exist in man. So I think they are very different things. People like to slow down to look at car accidents too, don't they? Haven't you always found that to be kind of obtuse?" This Kentucky-born farm boy has a few geographical elements in common with Dillinger which he had to lean on due to the lack of research material in terms of actual footage or audio tapes.