Johnny Depp Surprises Christopher Lee at the London Film Festival

Johnny Depp staged a surprise appearance Saturday, October 19 at the London Film Festival when he awarded the British Institute Fellowship award to his friend Christopher Lee. Earlier, Depp told Lee he could not make it to the awarding night but he pulled it off by unexpectedly getting on stage to bestow the most prestigious honor to one of the greatest actors in the film industry.

Honoring a friend

Depp and Lee are good friends and have high regard of each other. In his presentation speech, Depp said that it was a great honor for him to present the award to a man that had fascinated and inspired him to become an actor. The star of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory said that his work experience with Christopher Lee was a childhood dream come true. He added that the pleasure of working with the film icon is not just about Lee’s greatness as an actor, but it is about knowing and becoming friends with a person that he came to trust. Depp called Lee a national treasure and a genuine artist. The two artists worked together in Sleepy Hollow, Dark Shadows and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Lee’s response

After receiving the British Fellowship Institute award, Lee made his acceptance speech and responded to Depp. The actor complimented his friend back by saying that Depp is one of the few younger actors who is a real star. Sir Christopher further said that he could not thank Depp enough for his good words about him. He then looked back at his 67 years as an actor and said he always had the strange feeling that someone other than him was portraying the roles he played in his movies. Lee appeared in 250 films that included the Hammer Films thrillers “Dracula.” He also appeared as the villain Scaramanga in the James Bond film “The Man with the Golden Gun.” Aside from these movies, he played the role of the founder of Pakistan in “Jinnah” and appeared as Saruman in “The Lord of the Rings.”

Other awardees

The London Film Festival honored other awardees for their creations and performances. Anthony Chen received the Sutherland Award for creating the most original and imaginative film debut. Chen directed Ilo ilo, a film that tells the life and hardships of a family in Singapore. Paul-Julien Robert was given the best Grierson award for his best documentary work “My Fathers, My Mother and Me.” The film is about life in Friedrichshof, a huge European community that was established in the 70s.

Tom Hanks as Walt Disney

Toward the end of the London Film Festival ceremony, the world premiere of “Saving Mr. Banks” was shown. The movie dramatizes the filming of the movie “Mary Poppins” in 1964. It stars Emma Thompson as author PL Travers while Tom Hanks plays the character of Walt Disney. In an appearance at Bafta’s London headquarters where Hanks delivered a talk on Life in Pictures, Hanks admitted that he had some difficulties in portraying Disney’s role in the said movie.

The London Film Festival is the biggest film event in the United Kingdom. During the festival, some 300 film features are screened including documentaries and short films from 50 countries. This year is the festival’s 56th year of running.