“He could be charming. He could be ruthless. He was like a cobra—you never knew where he could strike,” says director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) of notorious crime boss Whitey Bulger, played by Johnny Depp in Black Mass (out Sept. 18). The film tells the true story of how Bulger, the
brother of a state senator (Benedict Cumberbatch), became the most feared gangster in Boston while simultaneously serving as an FBI informant to take down the Italian Mafia.
Depp may not seem the obvious choice for the role of the blue-eyed, fair-haired Bulger, but once he was in character, the effect was palpable. “A lot of people on set knew Whitey intimately,” says Cooper. “They got chills at the resemblance. Some of them couldn’t even look at him.”
