Johnny Depp explains his inspiration for how he portrays ‘Mad Hatter’

(HMG) – Johnny Depp didn’t settle for first impressions of his character in ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ he immersed himself in the psychedelic world of Lewis Carroll’s famous tale in order to portray the Mad Hatter.

‘I read the Lewis Carroll stories over and over again, and I learned everything I could about Victorian times,’ Depp says.‘It would have been too easy, and not very believable, to have played the Mad Hatter as just a straightforward crazy guy.‘But I knew Tim would be wanting more than that – there had to be a reason why he was like that, because something had tipped him over the edge.’Depp’s research revealed that the term ‘mad as a hatter’ came from a truth – that hatters in Victorian times suffered from mercury poisoning, a side-effect of the hat- manufacturing process which would affect the mind. In the 18th and 19th centuries, mercury was used in the manufacture of felt. And when used in hats, it could be absorbed through the skin which affected the mind through maladies such as Korsakoff’s syndrome.‘So now we knew why he’s mad, and after that, anything went,’ Depp says.‘The mercury would have also shown through his skin and his hair, so the Hatter would have looked as mad as he behaved.’Hatters and mill workers often fell victim to mercury poisoning which, in Carroll’s time, had an orange tint – hence Depp’s interest in adding that colour to the character.Alice In Wonderland hits theatres in 3-D on March 5.