Black Mass director Scott Cooper revealed during a recent interview with The Boston Globe that actress Sienna Miller has been cut out of the upcoming Whitey Bulger biopic Black Mass.
Cooper praised Miller’s performance in the film, calling her work alongside Johnny Depp’s Bulger “fantastic,” but had his reasons for removing her from the final cut. He bluntly said, “It came down to narrative choices.” The director apparently wanted the film to mainly just focus on Bulger’s years as a crime boss in Boston, and not the years in which he was on the run with Miller’s character, which Cooper said were “less dramatic.”
Miller would have played Catherine Greig, who was Bulger’s real-life girlfriend for 16 years. The actress said that she worked with a dialect coach to perfect her Boston accent for the film. In the past, Miller also admitted that she only shot for about two weeks, and her role was more like a cameo than anything else.
In 1970s South Boston, FBI Agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) persuades Irish mobster James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp) to collaborate with the FBI and eliminate a common enemy: the Italian mob. The drama tells the true story of this unholy alliance, which spiraled out of control, allowing Whitey to evade law enforcement, consolidate power, and become one of the most ruthless and powerful gangsters in Boston history.
While it won’t be released in the US until September 18, 2015, Black Mass is making its debut at the Venice Film Festival today.
Black Mass stars Johnny Depp (Public Enemies) as Whitey Bulger alongside a stellar cast, including Joel Edgerton (Exodus: Gods and Kings), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game), Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey), Peter Sarsgaard (Night Moves), Adam Scott (The Overnight), Corey Stoll (Ant-Man) and Kevin Bacon (Cop Car).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=qvTY7eXXIMg
Originally published September 4, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
