HFPA members joined other international journalists in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to talk with the director and cast of The Lone Ranger, which is destined for Hollywood history as the most expensive Western ever made.
Starring Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the Ranger and directed by Gore Verbinski, the movie was filmed over seven months across four states in the American Southwest. The interviews were held at a spa and resort outside Santa Fe, where Armie Hammer revealed that the most difficult things about the long shoot were the physical action and the heat. “But,” he said, “it didn’t stop us waking up every morning like a bunch of kids excited that we were doing our dream job.

“We prepared for it, not by working out or anything like that, but by cycling. We did a lot of bike riding to get our legs strong and to be ready for spending 12 hours a day in the saddle.”
Depp told members he had acquired a new name after being adopted as an honorary member of the Comanche tribe.
“It’s Mah-Woo-Meh, which means Shapeshifter,” he said. “It was quite apt. The name hadn’t been used for years and they had to get permission from the elders to use it. I’m very proud of it and it’s possibly the greatest memento I have ever returned with from anywhere.”