Journalists Abandon Johnny Depp Junket in San Sebastian as Row Over Press Access Escalates
variety.comAlex Ritman A group of international journalists abandoned a press junket for the Johnny Depp film “Modi” at the San Sebastian Film Festival on Tuesday in the latest escalation of a growing row from within the industry over press access to talent.
Variety understands that 12 journalists working for various international publications had been invited to take part in the interviews for the buzzy film, directed by Depp and launching at the Spanish festival.
Understandably, Depp was the star attraction and the individual everyone wanted to speak to, but according to Italian freelancer writer Marco Consoli the group was offered a roundtable with the actor, plus his co-stars Riccardo Scamarcio and Antonia Desalt, with an allocation of just 15 minutes for each of two tables of six journalists. “The pairing of talent has been happening for some years now and makes our job more and more challenging,” says Consoli. “Because most of the time, when you ask a question they start to talk to each other, and it’s very hard to get a proper interview with any of them.” Despite such concerns, the journalists reluctantly agreed to the pairings.
But when the start of the junket then ran late, the publicists reportedly explained that, as there wasn’t enough time, they would be forced to conduct the interviews in one group of 12 reporters for 20 minutes.
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