Johnny Depp had a question about Ebenezer Scrooge before he could play him. What had happened to this man that he wanted so little to do with anyone else? At a November 1 screening of Ebenezer in New York, Depp said the first time he put on Scrooge’s clothes, he felt he had a way into the role.
“This is a guy who’s trying to make himself invisible to the world,” Depp told PEOPLE. He compared the feeling of stepping into a character’s wardrobe to putting on a “suit of armor.”
Depp, 63, wore a brown fedora, blue-tinted glasses and a dark suit to The Whitby Hotel on Sunday. By Monday night, he was back in Scrooge’s coat and makeup for an appearance in Manhattan’s Bryant Park.
Ebenezer brings Depp back to a leading role in a major Hollywood studio film. Director Ti West, whose horror films include X and Pearl, worked from Nathaniel Halpern’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.
Two of Scrooge’s Ghosts Joined Depp on the Red Carpet
Johnny Depp is in NYC for a special screening of his new Christmas movie #EbenezerMovie https://t.co/EPeY6SXw8i
— JustJared.com (@JustJared) November 2, 2026
Andrea Riseborough and Tramell Tillman joined Depp and West for the screening. The two actors play the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Christmas Present. Just Jared published photographs from the carpet, where Tillman also posed with the film’s costume designer, Catherine George.
West cast two actors as Ebenezer. Arthur Conti plays him as a young man, before he becomes the miser Depp described. Rupert Grint plays his employee Bob Cratchit, Sam Claflin is his nephew Fred, and Ian McKellen plays Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s late business partner.
Depp Asked for Moles and a Longer Chin
In Paramount’s October 27 featurette, Depp talks about looking for the person behind Scrooge’s greed. At the screening, he explained why even the way Scrooge carries himself mattered. Depp saw a man who had spent years trying to escape other people’s notice, and he wanted to give that impulse a history.
Depp also had ideas about the face beneath Scrooge’s hat. In a separate behind-the-scenes video, prosthetics designer Barrie Gower recalled that Depp suggested adding moles and asked for a slightly longer chin. Tillman said the first time he saw his costar in full makeup, he didn’t recognize him.
Scrooge Took His Christmas Grudge to Bryant Park
On November 2, Depp brought Scrooge to a park already decorated for the holidays. In footage published by Just Jared, he takes Christmas cookies and tosses them to the ground. Still in character, he knocks over a Christmas tree and picks arguments with people in the square.
Depp had given San Diego Comic-Con attendees a taste of that temper in July, when he scolded the crowd in character and introduced the trailer in Hall H. Paramount Pictures will release Ebenezer in U.S. theaters on November 13.