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The name they gave him was Mah-Woo-Meh, which means “shapeshifter.”
It’s a good nickname for a politician. An even better one for an actor.
The Comanche bestowed it upon Johnny Depp as he prepared to play Tonto in Wednesday’s megabudget reboot of “The Lone Ranger,” the cowboy franchise that began with a Detroit radio serial in 1933 and has since spawned TV shows, comic books and feature films.
Depp got to know some of the Native Americans who consulted on the film and was ceremonially adopted into the tribe last year.
“I couldn’t ever have dreamed anything like that would ever happen,” Depp says. “I have a new family.”
The name the tribe chose for him, shapeshifter, is apt. The Tonto character, and in some ways the plot of the movie itself, began with Depp disappearing into costume.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer had been trying to reinvent “The Lone Ranger” for several years with Gore Verbinski (of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise) directing. Verbinski floated the idea to Depp while working on the first “Pirates” sequel in 2005.
“Johnny asked me, ‘What’s this Lone Ranger thing?’ ” Verbinski says. “I think Jerry told him he was playing the Lone Ranger. I said, ‘No, no. Tonto.’ You could see his eyes light up. He was immediately interested.”
In 2010, while working on “The Rum Diary,” Depp stumbled across a painting that his makeup artist, Joel Harlow, had pulled for reference on that project. The painting was called “I Am Crow,” by Kirby Sattler and depicted a Native American warrior, his face striped white and black, with a bird flying behind (or perched on, it’s ambiguous) his head.
“[Johnny] saw the picture, and he said, ‘You know what? Let’s pull that aside, because that could be an interesting look for Tonto,’ ” Harlow says.
Harlow and Depp did a quick makeup test there in Puerto Rico, with Depp donning a prosthetic nose and a long wig. His face was painted, and a fake bird was stuck on top of his head. Depp went out and rolled around in some weeds while a photographer took test shots.
When the photos were sent to Bruckheimer, he loved them, but he had one question: Who is this actor?
“I didn’t know it was him. I really didn’t,” Bruckheimer says. “That’s why you go to Johnny. He creates these wonderful characters.”
With Depp in place as Tonto, major revisions had to be made on the existing script by “Pirates” scribes Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio.
“I told Jerry the only version I want to do is the one in which Tonto tells the story,” Verbinski says. “I thought he was miscast in the other drafts. He was a sidekick. If you cast Johnny Depp as a sidekick, the whole thing would be out of balance.”
Verbinski worked with writer Justin Haythe for a year and a half to craft a new story that put Tonto front and center. In this version, a young boy discovers an elderly Tonto working at a circus, and the Indian spins a tale of his youth that involves teaming with a lawyer-turned-masked vigilante named John Reid (Armie Hammer) to track down outlaw Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner).
The script was also driven by those test makeup shots Depp had taken months earlier.
“The first thing I was shown was the look that he was inventing for himself, and that gives you a narrative guidepost,” Haythe says. “You think, ‘Where are these things from, the bird and the face paint?’ ”
“The bird is striking. Knowing what the bird is and what it represents, it’s pretty hard to deny that that’s going to be talked about,” Harlow says. “Some people will embrace it, some people won’t.”
Tonto believes the crow atop his head is a spiritual guide, and its presence suggested a mystical component to the character. Tonto’s mysticisms also provide the origin of key elements of the Lone Ranger mythos, including the mask, the silver bullet and the white horse, Silver, which, in this reboot, are provided by Tonto, not Reid.
Depp also created some of the character’s tics, including his penchant for trading handfuls of bird seed for objects he takes off dead men. The original idea was to have Tonto be a bit of a thief, but the actor balked. He suggested the trade concept instead.
Depp says he was absolutely out to rehabilitate Tonto, who throughout much of his existence has been unjustly portrayed to some.
“I can remember very well as a little kid seeing the series on TV — you know, the black-and-white series with Clayton Moore [as the Lone Ranger] and the great Jay Silverheels [as Tonto] — and I was always perturbed by the idea of Tonto being a sidekick,” Depp says. “I just thought it was potentially an opportunity to right the wrong.”
Tonto was introduced in the 11th episode of the radio series. He was created by producer George Trendle and writer Fran Striker, and his origin story, later echoed in the pilot of the 1949 TV series, had Tonto discovering Texas Ranger John Reid, the lone survivor of an ambush by the villainous Cavendish, and nursing the cowboy back to health.
In a bit of credulity-straining symmetry, Tonto recognizes Reid from his own childhood as the boy who saved his life. Tonto’s village was raided by “renegade Indians” and Tonto was left for dead, when a young Reid finds him and saves him.
Even though Tonto was played by a Native American actor on TV, the character was still viewed by many as a negative stereotype. Tonto spoke in broken English (“Lie still. Me not hurt you,” is his first line on TV), and he was often portrayed as little more than a second banana to the Lone Ranger.
Native American author Sherman Alexie wrote a 1998 piece in the Los Angeles Times called “I Hated Tonto (Still Do)” about how his self-image was shaped by movie stereotypes. “I never, not once, imagined myself to be Tonto,” he wrote.
Much of the criticism aimed at Tonto stems from the fact he was created and written by white men who seemingly didn’t know much about Native American culture. Tonto is identified in the radio series as a member of the Potawatomi nation, a tribe that lived in Michigan where the radio serial originated but did not extend to the southwest where Tonto and the Ranger’s adventures were taking place.
Tonto’s catchphrase, “kemosabe,” which he claims means “faithful scout,” also appears to be somewhat nonsensical. Legend has it the word was appropriated from a local Michigan camp, Camp Kee-Mo Sah-Bee, by the radio show’s director.
Even the name “Tonto” has drawn fire, as it means “stupid” in Spanish.
In the new reboot, the name has stuck and Tonto still refers to the Lone Ranger as “kemosabe” (though here he says the translation is “wrong brother”), but elements of his origin have been tweaked. The part about Reid saving Tonto as a boy has been chucked in favor of a darker backstory that has Tonto accidentally getting his tribe slaughtered by white silver miners and becoming an outcast.
Depp’s character speaks far more fluid English than iterations in the past, and his voice was developed with the help of Comanche advisors.
Tonto is also far less subservient in this version. He joins the Ranger, not to blindly follow a white man, but because his own personal quest for justice aligns with Reid’s. He then proves himself, in many ways, as a more capable fighter, tracker, planner and rider than the Ranger.
Despite the Native-American character’s beefed up role, not everyone is happy with casting Depp — basically a white man who claims to have a tiny amount of Cherokee blood — in the part.
Kiowa tribe member Hanay Geiogamah, who advised Disney on “Pocahontas,” told the Huffington Post that Americans were probably going to like Depp’s Tonto better than Silverheels’, but they would still be “responding to a non-Indian, stereotypical image.”
Lena Dunham, creator of HBO’s “Girls,” recently tweeted: “Can someone tell me whether we’re supposed to be offended by Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Tonto or not? Must know for dinner parties/Twitter.”
Verbinski dismisses the suggestion he should have cast someone else: “Show me the actor that’s as good as Johnny Depp.”
Haythe says he expected controversy around the character, but he tried not to let it affect his writing.
“At a certain point, you have to push that all aside and write a character without too much self-consciousness,” he says. “That’s the big pitfall. You end up not writing a real person because you’re overly concerned about what it’s going to represent to people.”
Tonto and the entire “Lone Ranger” movie almost failed to make it to the screen at all. In 2011, the project was shelved by Disney over its ballooning budget, estimated to be more than $250 million. Trims were made, and the long-gestating movie began filming in February 2012.
“Unfortunately, you have to make certain sacrifices and where you film and how you film,” Bruckheimer says. “Chances are, they would have ended up on the editing floor any way. It makes you focus more on the story and the characters.”
Haythe says one big action piece in the middle was axed, but he won’t reveal what it was because he hopes to use it in another screenplay.
Perhaps in a sequel to “The Lone Ranger”? A follow-up is possible, although Verbinski says it’s foolish to think about it before box office returns come in.
Other expansions are also possible. Place your bets on which comes first: “The Lone Ranger 2” or a theme park ride.
— Additional reporting by Gregory E. Miller