Johnny Depp Transforms Into a Terrifying Mobster in First 'Black Mass' Photo

Depp as Whitey Bulger (EW)

Yesterday, we saw Johnny Depp return to a very familiar look as Captain Jack Sparrow in the first photo from the set of Pirates of the Caribbean 5. Today, we’re seeing a very different version of the Oscar-nominated actor.

As you can see in the photo above, which comes to us courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, Depp has completely transformed for his role as notorious Boston gangster Whitey Bulger for the upcoming crime drama Black Mass. “A lot of people on set knew Whitey intimately,” said the film’s director Scott Cooper. “They got chills at the resemblance. Some of them couldn’t even look at him.”

With a haircut that recalls his days playing Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and a thousand yard stare even creepier than his Mad Hatter eyes in Alice in Wonderland, Depp is terrifying without even having to say a word.

A 1959 mug shot of the real Bulger (AP Photo/Sundance Institute, David Boeri Archives)

Bulger’s story is one of the most incredible crime sagas of the 20th and early 21st century. He ran Boston’s ruthless Winter Hill Gang, but was also busy as an FBI informant snitching on other gangsters. He was convicted of participating in various crimes in 2013, including multiple murders and drug trafficking, and later received two life sentences. It’s a story you might remember from the recent HBO doc Whitey. We’ll see how much they fictionalize it when Black Mass hits theaters on Sept. 18.

For more on Depp’s transformation, head over to EW.