CROWN POINT | When filming wrapped for the day Tuesday, Johnny Depp might not have given his fans all they wanted -- but he gave them all he had.
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The 44-year-old movie star, in Crown Point to film a portion of "Public Enemies," left the set late Tuesday and strode around fencing. He headed straight to the crowd-control gates.
There, he spent an hour or more reaching across the gates to shake hands with anyone he could reach. He thanked everyone for staying; he chatted and stopped for pictures. He moved along the barriers for at least a block.
With locals on the lookout for the handsome leading man since Sunday night, his gracious attention toward his fans released what one woman called "a crazy energy."
Girls and young women were among those leading the screams.
"I touched Johnny Depp," said Betsy Plant, 19, of Lowell. "He shook my hand. He looked me in the eyes."
All day, fans braved Tuesday's wind in blankets, their mittened hands clutching cameras, waiting to get one glimpse, one picture.
During the day, Depp was only briefly visible to the public, but he waved and made small gestures of gratitude.
Those who managed to snap a photo of the star Monday recognized they could make a buck or two and wandered through the crowd hocking photos. Depending on the seller, the photos ranged from $1 to $4.
On the steps of Main Street's Masonic Temple, Crown Point resident Linda Fulton scrounged in her coat pocket for change for her new friend Anna Mackey.
The two bonded as they made small talk waiting for filming outside to start, or at least for a glimpse of Depp. Mackey had stood her post since 11:30 a.m. and had yet to see anything but the facades of the building or members of the stage crew painting the fake cobblestone streets by late afternoon. Fulton gave Mackey $1.50 so she could at least walk away with a Depp photo.
"They're all doing nothing, too," Fulton said, gesturing across the street where a member of the crew sat on a pile of sandbags. "We're all just sitting here doing nothing watching them do nothing."
Depp portrays gangster John Dillinger, whose daring 1934 escape from the Lake County Jail -- including stealing the sheriff's car -- became both legend and a piece of Northwest Indiana history.
Jessica A. Woolf of The Times contributed to this report.
