Depp has personal motives for signing up to play Tonto. He is fiercely proud of his own Native American heritage, and for him this film was the chance to redress the balance, to make some small amends for the way that American Indians have been portrayed on film in the past.
‘I was told at a very young age that I have some Indian blood – God knows how much, but it’s there. It’s part of me.
'My great grandmother on my mum’s side, Mae Sloan, had quite the look – the braids, the whole thing. And she was a wonderful, beautiful woman. She lived until she was 102 and she chewed tobacco till the day she died.
‘We were told that we were of Cherokee descent, but it’s possible it could have been Creek Indian. I remember one story vividly, dating back to the late 1700s or early 1800s. It was a story about an Indian woman who had an affair and then married a white man and within no time at all she was murdered, beheaded.
‘The question was, was she murdered by a white man who didn’t agree with her marrying this guy?
'Or was it Indians who did it because she had married outside of her tribe? WeÂ’ll never know. But we always heard that story and we were told that it was one of our relatives and itÂ’s stayed with me.Â’
Depp was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, the youngest of four children.
He can remember watching cowboy movies on the TV but, he smiles, ‘The Duke (John Wayne) never got me. I’d watch these cowboy movies and the Indians were always portrayed as these savages. They were always the bad guys, and that didn’t sit right with me. And when I played cowboys and Indians I wanted to be the Indian.
‘I remember watching The Lone Ranger on TV when I was a kid, and I always identified with Tonto. And even back then I always wondered why Tonto, the Indian, was the sidekick. Why isn’t he the hero? Why is he the guy who has to go and do what the Lone Ranger tells him?
'So when I got the opportunity to play Tonto, I wanted to play him as a warrior with great dignity and great integrity and at the same time with a sense of humour about the white man and all the things they do. ItÂ’s my way of trying to give back, because of the way that they have been mistreated in cinema.
‘What they teach you, certainly in American schools, is mostly a lie. Look at Andrew Jackson, who is celebrated as one of the great soldiers and presidents.
'His face is on the $20 bill, and that p***** me off because he was a cold-blooded, killing machine who murdered countless Indians. Abraham LincolnÂ’s face is on the penny, the smallest denomination of money you can have in the States.
'So the Great Emancipator was put on the least amount of money and Andrew JacksonÂ’s face is on the $20 bill. What does that say?
‘History is in the hands of those who get to write the books, as they say. And until you grow up and read about the true facts that’s the stuff they teach you in school.’
Such is DeppÂ’s commitment to the Native American cause, he is planning to spend millions of his own money to return land, Wounded Knee, in South Dakota, to their ownership.
The site, the scene of an 1890 massacre, is up for sale for $3.9 million. Local Native Americans say they cannot afford to buy it. Depp is outraged.
‘It’s very sacred ground and many atrocities were committed against the Sioux there. And in the 1970s there was a stand-off between the Feds (Federal government) and the people who should own that land. This historical land is so important to the Sioux culture and all I want to do is buy it and give it back. Why doesn’t the government do that?’’
Is he really prepared to pay for the land?
‘I am doing my best to make that happen. It’s land they were pushed on to and then they were massacred there. It really saddens me.’
Before filming on The Lone Ranger started, Depp met leaders of Native American communities to get their blessing and the production hired a Comanche expert, William ‘Two Raven’ Voelker, as an adviser.
‘The main thing was, “Are we doing right by the Indian? Let’s not make any mistakes here.” The idea was to give back to them and to make sure that we got it right.
‘The production was blessed by the Navajo and the Comanche and I got a call from LaDonna Harris, who has been a Comanche activist for many years, to say that she wanted to adopt me into her family and into the Comanche nation. It’s a great honour.’
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