The Professor
About the Film
Richard Brown is a jaded English professor at a small New England college whose life is turned upside down when a doctor tells him he has terminal lung cancer and perhaps a year to live. Rather than share the news, he decides to spend whatever time he has left exactly as he pleases — stripping away every pretence, obligation and social nicety.
He starts teaching only the students who genuinely want to learn, offering blanket passing grades to the rest, and indulges freely in drink, cannabis and blunt honesty with colleagues, family and his unfaithful wife. What begins as reckless self-destruction gradually becomes a kind of liberation, as Richard reconnects with his daughter and finds an unexpected, hard-won clarity about how to live — and how to say goodbye.
Plot synopsis by johnny-depp.org.
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp carries the film as Richard Brown, a witty, world-weary literature professor who responds to a terminal diagnosis by casting off every filter. Depp plays him with a dry, melancholy humour — equal parts caustic and tender — anchoring a dark comedy-drama about mortality, honesty and living on one’s own terms. The film was released internationally under the alternate title Richard Says Goodbye.
Cast & Crew
Cast
Richard BrownJohnny Depp
Veronica BrownRosemarie DeWitt
ClaireZoey Deutch
Peter MatthewDanny Huston
Olivia BrownOdessa Young
Henry WrightRon Livingston
Crew
Director / WriterWayne Roberts
MusicBryce Dessner & Aaron Dessner
CinematographyTim Orr
ProducersBrian Kavanaugh-Jones, Greg Shapiro, Braden Aftergood
StudioSaban Films
Filming Locations
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
More about this film
Trivia
- The film was originally titled Richard Says Goodbye, the name still used in several territories.
- The score is by Bryce and Aaron Dessner of the rock band The National.
- It premiered at the Zurich Film Festival before its 2019 US release.
- Depp’s real-life friend and frequent collaborator, the film leans heavily on his gift for dry, understated comedy.
