Why Jack White has no film career in his future
Jack White only looks like a man just waiting to be immortalized by Johnny Depp. In the press conference for Emmett Malloy’s tour documentary, The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights, the vampire-hued rock god emerged as his own image maker. Doing 90 per cent of the talking, White spoke about his directorial ambitions (he just did a video for the band The Dead Weather and would like to do films if they weren’t so darn time consuming) and control-freakish impulses (the color red on the film poster had to be “his” red; the editing seems to have been done by a royal “we”).
Asked if he’d do more acting, he kidded: “Free Jack 2 was just offered to me—out 2012.” In seriousness, he mumbled the usual about waiting for the right time and project. But isn’t acting redundant, anyway, for someone so in character?
Now that we think about it, we’d rather White cast Depp than be played by him. Just one problem: White says he “can’t have fake conversations” and would rather not say anything than participate in shallow, meaningless talk (our paraphrase). Umm. We speak from nine days of immersion in the world’s shallowest pool. No bullshit? There goes your film career, dude.
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/culture/why-jack-white-has-no-film-career-in-his-future/&title=Why Jack White has no film career in his future&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/2835128073_ecdf19644b_o.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_12209" align="alignleft" width="175" caption="Jack White (Photo by Christopher Harte)"][/caption]
Jack White only looks like a man just waiting to be immortalized by Johnny Depp. In the press conference for Emmett Malloy's tour documentary, The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights, the vampire-hued rock god emerged as his own image maker. Doing 90 per cent of the talking, White spoke about his directorial ambitions (he just did a video for the band The Dead Weather and would like to do films if they weren't so darn time consuming) and control-freakish impulses (the color red on the film poster had to be "his" red; the editing seems to have been done by a royal "we").
Asked if he'd do more acting, he kidded: "Free Jack 2 was just offered to me—out 2012." In seriousness, he mumbled the usual about waiting for the right time and project. But isn't acting redundant, anyway, for someone so in character?
Now that we think about it, we'd rather White cast Depp than be played by him. Just one problem: White says he "can't have fake conversations" and would rather not say anything than participate in shallow, meaningless talk (our paraphrase). Umm. We speak from nine days of immersion in the world's shallowest pool. No bullshit? There goes your film career, dude.){kind=link}
Ahhhh, Jack White is in The Dead Weather (or Dead Weather as you refer to them).
Research (aka Google) is easy. Just sayin’.
Sarah Nicole Prickett,
youz an arse.
Maybe the pool only looked shallow because of your own myopia. I’ve heard that if someone is enough of an airhead, then they don’t even sink when they’re in over their depth, they just float and bobble around on the surface.
Jack White is a man whom many people, myself included, have a hard time understanding. From the outside, his modes of creative expression are perplexing enough to get labeled “quirky” or even “bizarre.” But that’s often the case with artistic genius; and he usually comes up with some brilliant stuff.
That reminds us (or should) of the old adage: Just because you don’t understand what a man is doing, that does not mean that *he* is confused. Likewise, just because you can’t grasp his depth, that does not make him shallow.
Along with his magician’s love for wrapping his musical arts in cloaks of mystery and wonder, and his often startlingly bold originality (quick: how many rockstars have actually taken matador lessons so they could fight a bull in a music video?), the theme of emotional authenticity and a raw, innocent purity of heart has run through virtually every musical and artistic endeavor Jack White has been involved with.
Not to blame you too much if you happen to be ignorant of that fact; but it might at least have occurred to you to consider that possibility, before you blithely brushed the notion away with a wave of your hand and assumed that Jack White must be a fake because that’s what you’re most familiar with. The truth here is not that others are shallow, but that you are quite out of your depth; and it shows.
I’m well aware that the Dead Weather is Jack White’s band, thank you. “I just shot a video for the Dead Weather”–his words.
And Dee, read more carefully: I was calling the TIFF circuit shallow and fake. Said no such thing about Mr. White. I’m rather an admirer. I also think he plays up his eccentrities, as all good rock iconoclasts do.
Delia strikes yet again! Don’t listen to DeeDee. It is her life’s mission to defend Jack against every single solitary negative comment made about him no matter how minuscule. She’s like a crusader for Jack. It’s sweet and all and I tend to do it too, but Delia is like Jack’s guardian angel or attorney or some shit. She’ll defend him at all costs and she scours the net for Jack White dissage so she can unleash her righteous, vindictive anger and try to disparage you by denigrating your intelligence. She’s plain loony.