Seeking a project where his performance will seem naturalistic and restrained by default, Johnny Depp has reportedly joined the cast of Kevin Smith’s Tusk, the movie where Justin Long is surgically transformed into a walrus. (Gypsies tramps and thieves, we heard it from the walrus of the town—Tusk!) As previously reported, Smith scripted the film based on a bizarre want ad he and SModcast co-host Scott Mosier read, as well as on his being high, with Long playing a journalist who becomes entangled in the life of an adventurer portrayed by Micahel Parks, then shortly becomes en-walrused.
Now Long has said in an interview that the film’s third crucial role, that of the French-Canadian inspector Guy Lapointe, will be played by Depp—a part that’s relatively small, yet nevertheless rife with outrageous accent and hat possibilities. The Wrap notes that, officially, Tusk’s production company will only admit that Smith has “cast a friend,” but it somewhat nosily points out that Smith and Depp have co-hosted charity events, and that their daughters went to the same school, which it believes means Depp “would qualify as a friend.” And really, if you can’t ask your friend whose daughter once went to your daughter’s school to chase a guy in a walrus costume around, he is no friend at all.