“Johnny Depp was a 120 percent involved in his costume,” says “The Lone Ranger” costume designer Penny Rose. “He has a real feel for the visual of the character.” Tonto’s overall look began with a painting called “I Am Crow” by Kirby Sattler (above) that makeup artist Joel Harlow showed Depp while he was filming “The Rum Diary.” Here’s how he became Tonto.
1. THE CROW
Depp thought the Sattler painting could be used for Tonto, so Harlow began crafting an early take on the bird, headpiece and wig. Some versions had the crow’s beak open. “The bird had a life of its own,” Rose says. “The bird had expressions. The bird had movement. He was an excellent bird.”
2. WAR PAINT
Harlow discussed Depp’s face paint with the film’s Comanche consultants. Historically, the white probably would have been clay from a river bottom — hence the cracked look — and the black would have been a mixture of bone and coal. On set, Harlow used overlapping silicone prosthetics. “When you’re shooting in 110-degree weather, sometimes in the water, some dust storms and snow at one point, there’s no way you would have been able to maintain any continuity if you had used an actual mud-like material,” Harlow says.
3. BREASTPLATE
Rose fashioned Depp’s chestpiece in a single afternoon. Some research into Native American dress was done, but in the end, “a lot of it was based on whether it would be giving him a good look or not.”
4. TONTO’S BELT
Tonto wears a belt containing a knife made from a railroad spike (a nod to the plot about railway advancement), and other trinkets. “I just put myself in Tonto’s shoes and wondered where he’d be,” Rose says. “Had he picked up a little bit of metal from the railway track? Did he have a rabbit’s foot? Or a bird’s head? Do you think he ever found a button?”
— additional reporting by Gregory E. Miller