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Antonia Desplat, who stars in Johnny Depp’s new movie as a director, Modi: Three Days on the Wings of Madness, tells PEOPLE that working with Depp is “a dream” The new movie, which hits theaters in North America on Nov. 7, also stars Riccardo Scamarcio, Al Pacino, Bruno Gouery, Ryan McParland and Stephen Graham”I’m fascinated by that period of Paris between the turn of the century and up until the 40s,” Depp tells PEOPLE at the movie’s Los Angeles premiere
One of the actors in Johnny Depp‘s new movie is praising his directing skills as Modi: Three Days on the Wings of Madness finally opens in North America.
“He’s wonderful because he understands what it is to be an actor. So he gives you the space to explore,” Antonia Desplat, one of the stars of Depp’s new movie as a director, tells PEOPLE at Modi’s Los Angeles premiere on Tuesday, Nov. 4. “He gives you space to bring ideas [to] the table. It’s a dream.”
Desplat, 31, costars with Riccardo Scamarcio, Al Pacino, Bruno Gouery, Ryan McParland and Stephen Graham in Modi. The movie follows Scamarcio as real-life Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani in Paris in 1916. (The real Modigliani died in Paris at 35 in 1920.)
When asked what makes Depp, 62, unique as a director, Desplat adds, “Mistakes. He loves mistakes and that for him is movie magic. And he’s right because that’s when real life sort of merges into the life that you’re butchering as a character and you just have to act upon it in a really real way, and that’s quite rough.”
Bruno Gouery, Johnny Depp, Antonia Desplat and Riccardo Scamarcio on Nov. 4, 2025.
Tommaso Boddi/Variety/Getty
Modi takes audiences through “a chaotic series of events through the streets and bars of war-torn Paris during World War I,” according to a synopsis. “On the run from the police, Modi’s desire to end his career and leave the city is dismissed by fellow Bohemians. The chaos reaches a crescendo when he’s faced with a collector who could change his life.”
When Depp stopped by to chat with PEOPLE at the premiere, he said that the period of time the movie depicts in Paris is “a very special time in our culture.”
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Johnny Depp and Antonia Desplat on July 8, 2025.
Gareth Cattermole/Getty
“I’m fascinated by that period of Paris between the turn of the century and up until the 40s,” Depp says. “So much came out, so much beautiful stuff.”
Depp originally announced he had finished filming Modi in Budapest in November 2023. The movie marks the second feature-length film Depp has directed in his decades-long career. The Pirates of the Caribbean star made his directorial debut way back in 1997 with The Brave.
Modi: Three Days on the Wings of Madness releases in select theaters in North America on Nov. 7,