This week Johnny Depp’s new movie Jeanne du Barry opens in US theatres accompanied by a specially recorded interview with the Hollywood star.

During his conversation at home in London with Mark Salisbury, the actor reflected on playing French King Louis XV. And it turns out that the 60-year-old could relate to the real-life monarch given the unique strangeness that comes with being famous.

Depp said: “I think for someone in that position, and again, some of this stuff resonates for me — not that I’m a king of any sort.

“But it resonates just in the sense that this guy, within his circle, let’s say, within his world, he had to be available kind of at all times.

“And yet he was, in a sense, hidden away and living his life that way. So the layers between him and the real world, they start to get thicker and weirder.”

Depp told us: “As this film is introduced to UK audiences, I am endlessly grateful to Maïwenn for her bravery in choosing me as her King of France. Despite trying, and failing, to talk her out of it, Louis XV was a challenge I didn’t hesitate to step into.

“From my family, I do have some French, but learning the language of the Court of Versailles and the many different personas he had, was uniquely fulfilling for a working actor from Kentucky.”

Jeanne du Barry is out now in UK cinemas and US theatres.