FILM · 2015
Black Mass
36 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (36)
- #001
Most of the murder scenes were filmed at the real-life locations where the murders took place.
- #002
The film's ending briefly shows James "Whitey" Bulger being captured, and that is in fact accurate. Living under the alias Charlie Gasko, Bulger was arrested on June 22, 2011, in the parking lot of the Princess Eugenia Apartments in Santa Monica, California. According to FBI agent Scott Gareola, Bulger immediately raised his hands. When ordered to kneel, Bulger replied: "I ain't getting down on my fucking knees." He was wearing white pants and reportedly did not want to get them dirty on the garage's oil-stained floor.
- #003
To make sure Johnny Depp's performance was faithful to the real James "Whitey" Bulger, Scott Cooper hired some of Bulger's former associates as consultants on the film. Each of them praised Depp's performance and said: "That's Whitey."
- #004
While preparing for the role, Johnny Depp tried to speak with James "Whitey" Bulger several times.
- #005
James 'Whitey' Bulger was killed on October 30, 2018, at the United States Penitentiary Hazelton near Bruceton, WV. Bulger was in a wheelchair and had been there for less than a day. He was beaten to death by multiple inmates armed with a padlock wrapped in a sock and a knife.
- #006
When Bulger was finally arrested, he was using the name Charlie. It was also his code name as an informant.
- #007
Johnny Depp said that of all the films he has made, this is his favorite.
- #008
In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003), Johnny Depp admitted that he broke his rule of not watching his own films with this one. He was at the film's premiere in Venice. He was about to stop watching the film, but director Scott Cooper asked him to stay, and he did.
- #009
During production, the real-life John Connolly's murder conspiracy conviction was overturned. However, in 2015 it was reinstated.
- #010
Despite filming a significant number of scenes as Catherine Greig, Sienna Miller's role was cut due to the pace of progress.
- #011
In an interview related to episode #11.13 (2013), Johnny Depp stated that he picked up the Boston accent for the film from hanging out with Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.
- #012
Several prominent members of the Winter Hill Gang were not depicted or mentioned in the film. For example, Bulger's boss Howie Winter was arrested in 1979. Another key associate was gunrunner Patrick Nee, who brought Bulger into the I.R.A. He was directly involved in the murders of Brian Halloran and John McIntyre.
- #013
Jesse Plemons gained weight for the role of Kevin Weeks. The producers of his next project, the series Fargo (2014), asked him to keep the weight on. He plays a character whose profession is a butcher.
- #014
The light blue contact lenses Johnny Depp wore for his eyes in "Black Mass" were made at Johnny's request. While working on "Tusk," Johnny met set decorator Brian Bull, complimented him by saying his eyes were interesting, and asked if he could photograph Brian's eyes in order to have lenses made for his next film, "Black Mass."
- #015
Revere Beach in Revere, Massachusetts, just north of Boston, was transformed into Miami Beach for the Miami scenes. The producers added real palm trees to the beach and dressed a local pizzeria up as a Cuban cafe.
- #016
Johnny Depp left the project over salary issues. He later returned as the lead.
- #017
Former President of the Massachusetts State Senate William Bulger is so short that one of his critics labeled him a "corrupt midget" during a rumor. Benedict Cumberbatch is eight inches taller than the real-life William Bulger.
- #018
Black Mass is Johnny Depp's fourth role as a real-life gangster, in this case James "Whitey" Bulger. He previously played Joseph D. Pistone in Donnie Brasco (1997), George Jung in Blow (2001) and John Dillinger in Public Enemies (2009).
- #019
In the 1960s, 28 West Broadway was the Transit Café, the loan-sharking hub of the Killeen gang. By the 1970s the establishment had become Triple O's, named after the three O'Neil brothers who ran it. Former boxer Kevin Weeks worked there as a bouncer before joining Bulger's crew, and James "Whitey" Bulger held court upstairs. Local old-timers remember Triple O's as the safest place in the neighborhood, partly because the police station on D St. and Broadway was three blocks away. Everyone knew that if a fight broke out at Triple O's, you did not take it outside. It was one way the gang stayed out of sight for many years. The bar closed in 2011 and now houses a cozy restaurant called The Maiden.
- #020
Whitey Bulger was second on the FBI's Most Wanted list, behind Osama bin Laden. When bin Laden was killed in May 2011, Bulger moved into the top spot about a month before his capture in Santa Monica, California, the following June.
- #021
According to Scott Cooper, the film's original runtime was close to three hours but was cut down because of pacing problems.
- #022
The term "black mass" originally refers to a satanic ritual in which the traditional rites of the Catholic Church are inverted for evil rather than good. Nearly all of the criminals depicted in the film (Irish mob members, the feuding Italian mob members and FBI agent John Connolly, who protected Bulger) were Catholic, even though their bloody activities directly contradicted the values taught by the Catholic Church. The title is also a play on the color-themed nickname of its main character and a nod to the corruption specific to the city and state where the story takes place (since Mass. is an old-style postal abbreviation for Massachusetts).
- #023
Kevin Bacon's character, supervising FBI agent Charles McGuire, is a fictional composite of the many supervising agents who served in the Boston field office, on rotation, during the time former FBI agent John Connolly worked there.
- #024
The word "fuck" is said 254 times over the course of the film.
- #025
The beating of John McIntyre, shown in most of the promotional material, was ultimately cut from the film.
- #026
After Johnny Depp left, the project was shelved. Once Depp agreed to return, Joel Edgerton was unavailable. Edgerton eventually came back to the role.
- #027
The storefront where Mickey Maloney is executed (at 25 minutes 25 seconds) is the same store owned by main character Jimmy Markum (played by Sean Penn) in Mystic River (2003).
- #028
Margot Robbie turned down the role of Lindsey Cyr because of a scheduling conflict. Jennifer Lawrence also turned the role down due to scheduling conflicts. Anna Kendrick, Felicity Jones, Blake Lively, Scarlett Johansson and Anne Hathaway were considered for the part.
- #029
Although the film depicts the Winter Hill Gang at war with the Italian mob in North Boston (the Patriarca crime family), in reality there was infighting within the Patriarca family. The Winter Hill Gang was at war with the Patriarca family's Angiulo group, while the gang had alliances with other figures in the Italian Mafia.
- #030
Tom Hardy was considered for the role of John Connolly but dropped out of the film and was replaced by Joel Edgerton.
- #031
The Roger Wheeler murder scene was filmed at a golf club in Concord, Massachusetts, standing in for the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
- #032
In Black Mass, the Winter Hill Gang was a loose confederation of organized crime figures and gangs from the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, a city north of Boston. It had criminal interests in Miami. The Winter Hill Gang's origins date to around 1955, and through the 1960s it fought other Irish-American gangs such as the Charlestown Gang. Several other Irish gangs merged to form the Winter Hill Gang. Although the leadership was mostly Irish-American, it also had Italian-American members. Over more than forty years there were four leaders, and James "Whitey" Bulger was the third. After Bulger fled justice in 1994, his lieutenant Kevin Weeks became the fourth and last leader until he was arrested and turned informant on November 17, 1999. The name "Winter Hill" gang was used by journalists at the Boston Globe and was never used by the members to refer to themselves openly. Today the Winter Hill Gang is defunct.
- #033
Johnny Depp drew praise from both critics and audiences. Some saw it as a return to form and, in many ways, a return to his roots, especially after he had appeared in a string of big-budget blockbusters, leaving some to wonder whether he would make another film reminiscent of his days before blockbusters. Because of his menacing performance, many believed Depp deserved an Oscar nomination, along with other award nominations, for his role as Bulger, and were surprised when his name was left off the list of nominees. Some believe this stemmed from Depp saying he did not want to win an Oscar if it meant being nominated. Depp was nominated for the SAG Award for Best Actor and won the Desert Palm Achievement Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Up to the 2015 awards season, the latter award had been an indicator of who would go on to win the Oscar for Best Actor. In the years after Depp won the Desert Palm, it went to actors who would later win the Oscar for Best Actor.
- #034
Body count: eleven.
- #035
Johnny Depp and Rory Cochrane both appeared in Public Enemies (2009). Depp played another famous gangster, John Dillinger.
- #036
This is the fourth Boston film in which Kevin Bacon plays a law enforcement officer. The others are Mystic River (2003), R.I.P.D. (2013) and Patriots Day (2016).
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