Depp was often stalked by unusual characters, among them a man claiming to be Edward Scissorhands and a transvestite claiming to be his wife. "I just attract a lot of oddness," Depp declared. Go figure.

Being an Uncle
"My sister Christi had a baby when I was 17, and I had just heard about crib death. The horrible thing was that it wasn't understood. For some unknown reason the baby would stop breathing. So I would sneak into where the baby was sleeping and put my hand in her crib, hold her little finger, and I'd sleep on the floor like that. It was stupid, I'm sure. But I thought the warmth of my hand might help, that maybe if she felt my pulse it would remind her to breathe."

Madonna and the Pope
"I read that I was in bed with her, which is a ton of shit. I have met her and it went like this: 'How do you do?' 'Hello, how are you?' Now when anyone asks about my affair with Madonna I say no, wrong - it was the Pope. He swept me off my feet."
 

"It became such a public thing," he recalled. "You're taking a squirt and some guy walks up to you and says, 'Hey! how's Winona?' I mean, huh? You're there with your Johnson in your hand. It takes everything, every inch of strength not to turn around and pee on him!"

Publicity
This is a rumor-filled society and if people want to sit around and talk about whom I've dated, then I'd say they have a lot of spare time and should consider other topics...or masturbation.-

Toddlers
"'When kids hit 1 year old, it's like hanging out with a miniature drunk. You have to hold onto them. They bump into things. They laugh and cry. They urinate. They vomit.'
 

"One of the most incredible moments I've ever had was sitting in Vincent [Price]'s trailer...I was showing him this first-edition book I have of the complete works of Poe--with really amazing illustrations. Vincent was going nuts over the drawings, and he started talking about The Tomb of Ligeia. Then he closed the book and began to recite it to me in this beautiful voice, filling the room with huge sounds. Such passion! I looked in the book later, and it was verbatim. Word perfect. It was a great moment. I'll never forget that." Johnny Depp -- Movieline, October 1994

Living in France or LA
"LA is too fast, too pacy.  There is too much of everything, just too much. In France, I can have distance and sort of see the game for what it is, rather than trying to understand it from the inside. I'm not swimming in the soup bowl. I'm not getting overcooked in that big stewpot."

"Fame, celebrity--it's not such a big deal in Europe. People seem to understand that you just have a weird job. They're not running after you, trying to carve chunks out of you. It's strange in the states. Most fans here are great, but there's a handful who have seen the movies and feel they know you. They think it's alright to touch you and ask personal questions."
 

Pirates
'Life's pretty good, and why wouldnt it be? I'm a pirate, after all.'

“I have a funny relationship with my body...Ah, it sounds so stupid, but for me there shouldn't be any half way."

His Answering Machine - 1988 from Rolling Stone
His answering machine message recently was a hung-over-sounding voice mumbling, "I'm out out out out out out out out."
 

Acting

More on Acting
"I guess I'm attracted to these off beat roles because my life has been a bit abnormal. The only thing I have a problem with is being labeled."

Theme in Johnny’s work

"There seems to be a constant theme in things I do which deal with people who are considered "freaks" by so-called "normal" people. It's not my goal to become the biggest box office star in the world."

Johnny’s Journal

Life before Lily Rose

Defensive of family

About playing the world’s greatest lover

Filming the Pirate movie
"There were moments when Orlando and I would look at each other and say, 'Do you believe we're getting to do this?' I don't think it gets much better than being Capt. Jack. I loved the character. I'm not one of those guys who becomes the character, but when we wrapped, I got depressed. I'm going to miss him."

Who Johnny is

What Interests Johnny

Fame and Celebrity
"Fame, celebrity--it's not such a big deal in Europe. People seem to understand that you just have a weird job. They're not running after you, trying to carve chunks out of you. It's strange in the states. Most fans here are great, but there's a handful who have seen the movies and feel they know you. They think it's alright to touch you and ask personal questions."

On Tim Burton

Inside the Actors Studio

"Whoa!" Johnny

Deeper

When you listen,for instance, to someone talking, there is another voice beneath his words ..
Even if you hear clearly what he's saying, the real truth is much DEEPER."

Johnny's Message in his Work
"If there's any message to my work, it is ultimately that it’s OK
to be different, that it’s good to be different, that we should
question ourselves before we pass judgment on someone who
looks different, behaves different, talks different, is a different
color."

Wilde Night

Selling pens

"I only had success one time. The name I used was Edward Quartermaine, the guy from General Hospital. I said, 'This is Edward Quartermaine. How are you doin' out there today?' It was a whole script. He was from the South, and you talk about pork and stuff like that, and I hooked him. He said, 'Okay, I'm in! And the grandfather clock?' I said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' 'The trip to Greece?' I said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' And then I gave it up. I said, 'Listen, the grandfather clock is made of cardboard. It's a piece of shit, and you'll never get the trip to Greece - it won't happen. So f--- it, it was nice talking to you. And he said, 'Okay!'"

ANTEDOTES

One Hour Photo

They soon returned to collect their pics. As they pulled up to the drive-through window, the couple were met by a beaming teen: "I loved your pictures!"

Johnny Depp & the Mark Hotel
In September 1994, Johnny Depp trashed his $2,200-a-night Presidential suite at New York's exclusive Mark Hotel. Though he offered to pay for the damages, he refused to leave and was forcibly evicted. His accomodation for the night was generously provided by the NYPD: Depp was taken to three different jail cells (and was mobbed by female cops at each location).

Ironically, the guest who first complained about Depp's behavior at the Mark was... none other than The Who's Roger Daltrey, who, with Keith Moon and his other bandmates, had once taken the art of hotel vandalism to dizzying new heights.
 

From Zap2It - 2 Johnny on being bankable
"It kind of goes back to what I've experienced over the last 20 years; when you're coming up the ranks, people are watching from the sidelines laying their bets and they have high hopes for you and you veer left a little bit and they go, 'Ah, take him off the list. He's off the list now.' And then, a few months later, or a year later, you're back on the list because you have a movie coming out that might be commercial. And then it's not commercial and they take you off the list again."

"I'm convinced that the timing has been perfect on all fronts," he says. "Had this kind of thing happened to me 10 years ago, I wouldn't have had enough experience or distance or savvy to be able to appreciate it or understand it. Raising a couple kids has given me a great strong, stable ground to stand on for life so when these sort of things come up, you're can identify what's actually happening. Whereas before, for many, many years I walked around in confusion; I didn't understand what any of it was for -- know what I was acting for, making movies for, until I started having kids. And then I suddenly realized: Oh, it's for them. It's for them."

In fact, since "Pirates," Depp's name is so hot that some films, such as "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," have cashed in on his success, putting the actor on the forefront of the marketing campaign for the film, despite the fact that he only played a small role in the film.

"That was very strange and very uncomfortable," he says, shaking his head.

But the success of the film, based on a Disney ride, seems to have suddenly proved that the actor is bankable, the one golden standard that Hollywood caters to. The result is that some are saying he can now greenlight any project he wants.

"I don't know, it would be great. I'll have to check into that," he laughs. "It's difficult for me to approach it from the angle of a businessman. I just try to do what I'm hired to do, what I feel is right for the character."

Although he does say that he has "a whole slew of pet projects" that he hopes to get made one day.

"Yeah, maybe this is the time to submit those projects," he laughs. "There's a lot of stuff that I would love to get made that I'm not even right for as an actor. Just stuff that I would like to see made, just movies or stories that I think would be great to get made that don't need me in them, I would hope to get stuff like that done -- we'll see."

If anything, Depp comes across as very aware of how fickle the film business can be and it doesn't seem likely that success will change him.

"One week you're on the list, the other you're not. For me at this time in my life at the age of 40 with two kids, it's like, the nomination itself is fine for me. It's a great thing for my kiddies in 25 years, or 50 years, if it means anything for them to say, hey my pop made these movies and got this acknowledgement, that's the award he got, that's the nomination he got -- it's just something that they can mull over in their lifetime."
 

From Zap2It - 1 Johnny's response to winning the SAG award
"Not being well-versed in that arena myself, it's a little bit frightening because I'm not very good in those situations with lots of people and lots of famous people and cameras and all of that. It's not my specialty," Depp tells Zap2it.com.

While the actor says it's the nomination, along with the SAG Award for best actor that he won Sunday (Feb. 22) is a "real honor," he admits to still being shocked that his name is in the best actor hat.

"At the SAG, them giving me the thing, it's just amazing. I still can't believe it -- I'm sure there must have been, maybe a weird misspelling or a strange computer error that my name was in the envelope -- or maybe it wasn't in the envelope, who knows? Maybe Renee Zellweger just said, 'Well, let's just shake things up a little bit,'" he laughs.

"Leave it to a bunch of actors to throw you a curve ball to that degree."

Depp finds the accolades from his peers especially surprising considering the performance for which he is nominated, the film's pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, who Depp previously was inspired by Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards and the cartoon character Pepe Le Pew.

"It took me a back a little bit because it's a pretty outside choice for the Academy. It's a risky vote for them; it's not something they vote for every time, you know? So I was really amazed by that, the same thing for the SAG Awards. It's a real rickety branch for them to climb on for them, so I have to salute them for that; they really went out on a limb for me, so that's really touching," he says.

While Depp was not able to attend the SAG Awards, he will be on hand for the Oscars, but that doesn't mean that he's expecting to take home an award.

"As far as I'm concerned, I would never walk into one of those things -- the SAG Awards or the Academy Awards or anything -- expecting to walk out with anything," he says. "I'm not expecting to win anything and I don't need to win anything. The mere fact that they nominated me and acknowledged the work is plenty, that's just plenty. "
 

Charlie Rose Show, November 1999
Charlie: "You live pretty much full-time in France. Doesn't that make the Hollywood list that much harder to make?"

Johnny:"Yes."

Charlie: "Do you care?"

Johnny: "No."

Charlie Rose: "So her name is Lily-Rose Melody..."

Johnny: "Depp. She's something!"

Charlie: "Man, you really look happy!"

Johnny: "I'm floating... I've never, ever in my life - I haven't lived before that day. I was not alive. I existed. I imagine that I drew breath and exhaled and all that stuff, but I don't have any particularly fond memories of it. I mean, I don't think I took a real breath until my daughter was born."

Early Influences of the Vampire kind
"I can remember being totally fascinated with Bela Lugosi and the Dracula films when I was five years old, and I can remember sitting in class in first grade and drawing pictures of Dracula and Frankenstein. I remember it like it was yesterday. And when I was a kid, in about 1968, I was completely, utterly obsessed with a television show called Dark Shadows."

That gothic soap opera featured ghosts and werewolves. Its central character was a vampire named Barnabas Collins.

"I wanted to be Barnabas Collins and I wanted the cane with the wolf's head on it. For my parents, that must have been a very scary thing. 'Where did we go wrong?' "
 

His relationship with Hollywood
The five years that I’ve been living in France and in the States to some degree a little bit, because I’m not a resident of France, has done wonders for my relationship with Hollywood. And also having kids, I’m so removed from it that I don’t know anything. I mean, I don't know who anybody is. I don't know who’s famous. I don't know who’s not famous. I don't know who’s rich, who’s poor, who’s successful, who’s a drag. I don't know anybody. I don't know what made money and what didn’t make money. And it’s great. So, I come in just completely ignorant of all of it and it feels really good. Because then, I don’t have to think about anything but my work and I don’t have to worry about what anybody else is doing or anything. I just think about my work.

How  it feels to be a high school dropout who’s done well
Isn’t that something? Well, I can only say it worked for me. It’s not for everybody. I wouldn’t recommend it to most kids, but the situation that I was in, it was inevitable. I had to leave. School’s a weird thing. I’m not sure it works. It’s debatable, but I think that the way school is now, I’m not sure teachers- - certainly there are some who are very, very good but there’s a lot of teachers who I don’t think care about teaching. Therefore, it’s not inspirational for kids to learn when they’ve got a teacher who basically is just taking a paycheck. And there’s also you’ve got to deal with some kind of weird cop syndrome and the abuse of authority and all that stuff. I just couldn’t take it anymore.

The greatest piece of advice he's ever received?
Don’t ever take any sh*t off anybody. It think that’s probably the best advice I’ve ever gotten.

Privacy
"You use your money to buy privacy because during most of your life you aren't allowed to be normal."

Gossip
The only gossip I'm interested in is things from the Weekly World News - 'Woman's bra bursts, 11 injured'. That kind of thing.

Mankind
"I never had the brightest view of human nature. I think humanity - society, at least --is violent. It's not getting any better. I don't think I'm cynical, but I do think maybe the world is more... sinful than ever before."

MTV Interview
MTV's Ryan J. Downey caught up with Depp to talk about his impending reunion with the similarly eccentric Tim Burton, his new tattoo and what turns him off when someone hands him a screenplay.

MTV: When it comes to Stephen King movies — there are really good ones and really bad ones. When you heard they had a Stephen King movie they wanted you to check out, what were you looking for to make sure that you did a good one?

Johnny Depp: Well, it was weird, because my mind was sort of made up about four or five pages into the screenplay. It was that well done, that well written. David Koepp did an amazing job of adapting the novella. And by about page five, six, I had a huge emotional investment into the character, into the story and into the plot, and I allowed it to take me on this journey where I was sure it was going to end up one way and it went the complete opposite. I was so shocked and surprised by the story that there was no way around it. I had to do it.

MTV: You have a reputation for being choosy with your roles. What are some of the things that a Johnny Depp movie cannot have — what are some red flags that when you see them in a script, you immediately say, "I'm not doing that"?

Johnny: That's a good question. ... I guess you know you're in bad shape when you're like on about page three and the guy's gonna rip his shirt off or something. Anytime they start necking with several women, you're in trouble. I don't know, for me, I like to be surprised. It's nice to be surprised and it's rare that you are surprised.

MTV: You've still got the tattoo of a sparrow on your arm that we saw in "Pirates of the Caribbean." That wasn't just a fake tattoo for the movie?

Depp: This guy here? That's my tattoo I got for my boy, for my son, Jack. This was the tattoo that I wore in "Pirates of the Caribbean" for Captain Jack Sparrow, except in the film he was flying the opposite way. He was flying away from me, so I turned him around [when I made it permanent]. You have to have it flying towards you. He's gotta always fly back to you.

MTV: He'll probably like your next movie, Tim Burton's remake of "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory."

Depp: Yeah, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." It's Tim's version of Roald Dahl's classic book and it's gonna be a wild ride. Tim and I have had a couple of meetings, sat down and had some talks about where he wants to go, where we need to go. And I think it's gonna be great, you know? Big shoes [to fill], though. Gene Wilder did such an awesome job in that film in the early '70s, so I mean, taking that character of Willy Wonka and going somewhere completely different is ... he sort of made the job infinitely more difficult for me.
 

Insanity
"I think everybody's nuts, to tell you the truth. I think everybody is absolutely out of their heads all the time. Watch people sometimes. Just watch people. People are absolutely insane. They just are. Look at us!"

On having children
"You can't plan the kind of deep love that results in children. Fatherhood was not a conscious decision. It was part of the wonderful ride I was on. It was destiny; kismet. All the math finally worked."

Thanks to DEPP-aholic
Depp Acted Odd to Gain Control of Career

Johnny Depp arrives for the 76th annual Academy Awards Sunday, Feb. 29, ...More...
NEW YORK - Johnny Depp isn't adverse to acting a little weird _ even off camera.

The actor, whose role in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" earned him a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination, said he has disliked conformity since his career began.

Depp told the latest edition of Time magazine that in the 1980s he was so desperate to get out of playing heartthrob detective Tom Hanson on Fox's "21 Jump Street" that he purposely wore odd clothes and spoke in tongues on the set.

The producers, though, didn't buy the nutty routine.

"It was a weird thing not to be in control of your own image," he said. "I remember saying to myself, Man, when I'm free of this, I'm going to do only the things that I want to do. I'm going to go down whatever road I decide."

Depp, 40, whose credits include "Sleepy Hollow," "Ed Wood," "Edward Scissorhands" and "Blow," said he picks scripts to keep himself and the audience off-kilter.

"All the amazing people that I've worked with _ Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman have told me consistently: Don't compromise. Do your work, and if what you're giving is not what they want, you have to be prepared to walk away."

Inspiration for his portrayal of Mort Rainey
Brian Wilson. I remember hearing those famous stories, or maybe myths, about him in this very reclusive period where he didn't leave his house and had sand brought in to cover his living-room floor. Then he dropped the baby grand on top of that and wrote these great beach classics. That was the level of reclusiveness I was looking for.

Asked if it wasn't irresponsible to portray pirates as likeable
Well, how do we know they weren't? [Laughs.] Irresponsible? Hmmm...maybe. It might very well be. But who wouldn't want to take to the high seas and wave a sword? What a ball that would be. That's why I'd love to play [Jack Sparrow] again. It'd be purely for selfish reasons; he's such a fun guy.

Asked about Keith Richard's response to Jack Sparrow
I ran into him in New York a couple of months after Pirates was released. He was great about it. We've known each other for a long time...he is a pirate. Apparently, he's even on the DVD. That's really sweet of him. And how cool is it that Keith Richards is on a Disney DVD? That's a coup in itself.

Mexican food in Paris?
You know what? It's at my house. Yeah. My girl's a good cook; she can make burritos, tacos, whatever you want. Otherwise, you can't find good Mexican food in France. No Mexican food and no doughnuts in Paris. Not that I'm a big doughnut fan. Anyway, there's other stuff there that's just as bad for you.

Speaking of food - Johnny was asked What's tastier, Mr. Wonka: Scrumdidilyumptious Bars or Everlasting Gobstoppers?
Scrumdidilyumptious Bars. But there's one even better, the Willy Wonka Scrunch Bar. They don't make it anymore. It was just unbelievable. If I have anything to do with it, the Scrunch Bar will be coming back--with my mug on it. Why not?

Thanking people for his Oscar nomination.
God. Being nominated was such a surprise, such a shock. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. Being nominated is plenty, actually. I'd just thank the people out there who have been with my up-and-down, weird-road, strange career and supported me and stuck with me all these years. I mean, they're my boss. That's what keeps me working.

His favorite painting in the Louvre
Does it have to be the Louvre? Oh...there's too many. The painting I'm unbelievably fascinated with at the moment is Picasso's Guernica. I think it's in Madrid. In the Louvre...well, of course, the Mona Lisa. You look at it and go,"Yes. It's great, especially for its time." But when you read about it, the thing really starts to take shape and come alive. It still fascinates me.

Did you ever seen the porn flick Edward Penishands?
I certainly did. I absolutely did. And there was a sequel as well--Edward Penishands 2. I think it was either Tim [Burton] or John Waters who sent it to me. It might have been both. Tim and I were both quite proud they decided to do that. It was low budget and cheesy, but it was hilarious to watch. Those hands...they served him well.
 
 

Do you like everybody?
I've always liked everybody. [Laughs.] I'm not sure everybody likes me. Everybody thinks that I don't live in the United States anymore, that I live in France, which is not true. I just happen to have a home in France, as well, because my kids are half French. And that interview where suddenly I'm anti-American? It was untrue. It blew over quick, but it was an ugly moment. You don't want people believing that stuff. If I had said it, I'd take full responsibility. But it wasn't what I meant.
 

Asked if he ever plagerized in school
Never papers. You know what I used to do? It's horrible. When I was a little kid, and I guess all kids do it, I copied other people's test answers. It was a question of survival. You do what you've got to do. At least, that's what it felt like to me. I couldn't take another failing grade.
 

Playing Captain Jack Sparrow Again
"I went through a decompression period after the first film," he said. "If you're really connected with a character, you always do to some degree. You miss the guy. You miss being that person. The only thing that was in the back of my mind was the hope that there would be a sequel some day, so that I could meet him again."

From Emma - Time Magazine March 15, 2004
Doing It Depp's Way

by Josh Tyrangiel

By taking on weird roles for even weirder reasons, he has become Hollywood's most unusual star

Hollywood agents don't get pity. They get 10%. But spare a kind thought for Johnny Depp's agent, Tracy Jacobs. For more than a decade, her client--one of the world's best actors and best-looking human beings--has consistently turned down glamorous leading-man roles in large, profitable movies so that he could play a chorus of memorable (to those who saw them) character parts, like Cesar, the Gypsy horseman in The Man Who Cried, or Bon Bon, the Cuban transvestite prostitute who smuggles prison contraband in his rectum in Before Night Falls. Only Crispin Glover's representatives have suffered more for their percentage.

"Tracy's taken a lot of heat over the years," says Depp. "She has bosses and higher-ups, and every time I take on another strange project, they're going, 'Jesus Christ! When does he do a movie where he kisses the girl? When does he get to pull a gun out and shoot somebody? When does he get to be a f______ man for a change? When is he finally going to do a blockbuster?'"

In 2003 Depp did his blockbuster, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and earned Disney $ 305 million. His Captain Jack Sparrow didn't kiss or shoot anybody, and he kind of sashayed through most of the film, but Pirates proved that with the right material, Depp can be a huge multiplex draw. His long-suffering agent didn't want him to take the part. "He was pitched the movie without a script," recalls Jacobs. "They basically said, 'We're going to make a movie out of this theme-park ride. Want to do it?' And he said, 'Great! I'm in. I believe in the idea.' I just thought, What idea, you lunatic?"

Now that he has blockbuster status and a surprise Screen Actors Guild award, prestige scripts are piling up on Depp's doorstep. He reads them--"You kind of owe it to the writer, I think," he says--but he has no plans to try to fashion them into any kind of sensible mainstream career. Why start now? "Nothing changes," says Depp, who is in Wales shooting The Libertine, in which he plays the Earl of Rochester, a 17th century poet and pornographer who reportedly died of syphilis. "The challenge for me is still to do something that hasn't been beaten into the moviegoing consciousness. Otherwise what am I in it for?

The dough? Well, the dough is cool, but I don't want to be 85 years old and have my grandkids go, 'Ewwww. Grandpa did some dumb s___.' I'd rather have them say, 'Wow, man, you're nuts!'"

As proof of his willingness to be thought insane, Depp's first post-Pirates movie is Secret Window, in theaters this Friday. He plays Mort Rainey, a successful writer being stalked by a psychotic dairy farmer. Before the movie ends, for reasons too crucial to the plot to fully explain, Mort manically consumes the equivalent of Iowa's annual corn harvest. But that's not the crazy part. "Much of the first half of the movie is just Mort in a cabin by himself not doing things," says Secret Window's writer-director, David Koepp, a man you would expect to have a vested interest in making the movie sound a bit more dynamic.

Depp claims he was riveted by Koepp's adaptation of Stephen King's novella--and the movie does pick up to become a Misery--meets--The Shining kind of thriller. But it was the character's inactivity that really hooked him. "It's always great to get in the ring with actors you respect," Depp says. "But when you're in there by yourself, it's quite challenging. You're not reacting, which is mostly what acting is. Instead, you just have to be. There are scenes where it's like two minutes of just scratching the tablecloth. That interests me." He took the movie to scratch a tablecloth? "I'm not really sure why he wanted to do it," says Koepp. "I'm grateful, but it's hard to be certain of what motivates Johnny. It's possible he just wanted to play a character named Mort."

The whimsy that drives Depp's career springs from his early days as an actor. It is easy to forget that he was the Ashton Kutcher of his era, the hot young star of a mediocre show on Fox. "I wouldn't say [21 Jump Street] was misery because it was a privileged opportunity. But it was very, uh ... uncomfortable," says Depp. So desperate was he to get out of playing Officer Tom Hanson, a dreamy high school narc, that Depp says he made like MASH's Corporal Klinger, dressing up in odd clothes and speaking in tongues on the set in hopes of getting out of his contract. The producers didn't bite. "It was a weird thing not to be in control of your own image," he says. "I remember saying to myself, Man, when I'm free of this, I'm going to do only the things that I want to do. I'm going to go down whatever road I decide."

In addition to choosing scripts based on his own internal logic, Depp decided that once he got jobs, he wouldn't worry too much about keeping them. "All the amazing people that I've worked with--Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman," he says, "have told me consistently: Don't compromise. Do your work, and if what you're giving is not what they want, you have to be prepared to walk away." Or get canned. Depp came perilously close to being fired from Pirates of the Caribbean when his melding of Keith Richards and Pepe Le Pew freaked out a few senior Disney executives. "It has actually happened a number of times," Depp says. "At the end of the first take on the first day they say 'Cut,' and then ... silence. I mean silence that's deafening. And you're constantly waiting for the knock on the door--'Uh, Johnny? It's not gonna work, man.' But what are you going to do? It's only a movie."

This nonchalance is no act. Depp enjoys being in movies, and he says he enjoyed attending the Oscars, but he saw none of his fellow nominees' performances and guesses the last movie he saw was Pirates--and only because he had to. "I like not knowing what's happening out there--who's doing what, how they were, what the box office was," he says. "Even when I'm in the soup bowl of Hollywood, I just play Barbies and hang out with the kiddies."

Depp; his longtime girlfriend, French actress Vanessa Paradis; and their children Lily-Rose, 4, and Jack, 1, spend about half their time in Los Angeles and half in the south of France. Depp still owns the L.A. club the Viper Room, but at 40, he's no longer a regular. "I swing by every now and again. But being a dad, waking up at 5:30 in the morning to make the bottle for the baby, you start thinking about being in a nightclub until 2 in the morning, and you go, Nah. I've done it. No point in repeating yourself."

In violation of the no-repeat principle, Depp has signed on for a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel. Otherwise, his choices remain abidingly idiosyncratic. He'll play J.M. Barrie in Neverland, which traces Barrie's inspiration for the Peter Pan story; he has a small part in a French-language film, Ils Se Marierent et Eurent Beaucoup d'Enfants, and in June he teams for the fourth time with director Tim Burton to begin work on a long-discussed remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. "I hope it's going to be quite weird," says Depp. "Weird and wonderful."

Acting
"With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise it's just not acting. It's lying."

When asked about Oscar chances
Johnny Depp to the Sun-Times summer of 2003, two weeks before Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl opened: "What did you say? An Oscar nomination. Yeah, right... But if you want to write that, it would be OK with me. But a nomination? Come on."

Johnny speaks about his drug past
'I went through a stage of smoking opium. When you smoke opium you just want to lie still.  It makes you completely relaxed.  I'm through with it now - it was so nice it was dangerous.  'I hated cocaine but I used to like absinthe but it's like marijuana - drink too much and you suddenly realise why Van Gogh cut off his ear.  'These days I just drink a little red wine.  I'm boring."

What would he do if he won the Oscar?
"I'll probably be a very, very old man.  I'll take some Geritol and head off to bed."

Who he is
"I'm 30 different people sometimes. One day you wake up and you're somebody else, nowhere near who you were when you went to sleep. Unfortunately, I feel more comfortable in front of the movie camera than I do in real life." -

On the Red Carpet Oscars 2004 (and on Ryan Seacrest Show)
"This is a horse of a different color, absolutely. It's not a bad way to spend the afternoon."  "I was shocked and I am still shocked. I'll probably always be shocked."

Playboy Interview May 2004
Typed and found by Donna B.
Playboy Interview: Johnny Depp
Traveler scanned the photos from the Playboy Interview below are Thumbnails, click to see full size

By Bernard Weinraub
May 2004

A candid conversation with the brooding actor about growing up, getting sober, being a middle-aged sex symbol and smacking the hell out of the paparazzi

Johnny Depp has one of the quirkiest resumes in Hollywood. After starting his career as a TV heartthrob, he reinvented himself as a serious actor in offbeat and usually brutally uncommerical movies: He was critically acclaimed box office poison. But now, thanks to his role in last year’s $300 million-grossing smash Pirates of the Caribbean – a big, goofy Disney family film that is the antithesis of Depp’s indie work - he has at last emerged as a mainstream star. He notched his first Oscar nomination. People magazine dubbed him the sexiest man alive for 2003, even as he turned 40. And the actor with a penchant for getting in trouble – and landing in jail – has been replaced by a kinder, mellower Depp, a family man who has given up drinking and drugging in favor of days in the park with his kids. Who the hell is this guy anyway?

Depp’s early days are well documented. As an undercover cop on 21 Jump Street, he emerged as an instant teen idol in 1987. But a future as a lunch box icon scared him, and he quickly fled to movies. He turned down star-making parts that later went to Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves and Brad Pitt, but he found a niche playing idiosyncratic misfits. He became a muse for director Tim Burton, who first cast him in the title role of Edward Scissorhands and later in Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow. He played a tormented introvert in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape a drug-addled Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and a conflicted undercover FBI agent in Donnie Brasco. There’s barely a normal guy in his repertoire.

Born in Owensboro, Kentucky, Depp was an indifferent student. At the age of 16 he dropped out of high school, began pumping gas and joined a band that opened for Iggy Pop and the Ramones. In 1983 the band moved to Los Angeles but struggled to find gigs. For a while Depp sold ballpoint pens by phone. His then wife, Lori Allison, introduced Depp to Nicolas Cage, who arranged a meeting with an agent. The rest is history.

Flash-forward a couple of decades, and Depp is the hottest actor in town. His latest film is Secret Window, and future projects include J.M. Barrie’s Neverland, in which he plays the author of Peter Pan; The Rum Diary, based on a Hunter S. Thompson novel; and The Libertine, in which he will play a debauched 17th century poet. More is on the horizon, including a Burton-helmed version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the inevitable gazillion-dollar sequel to Pirates.

Depp’s run-ins with paparazzi are tabloid fodder, as are his bad-boy exploits involving drink, drugs and a long list of beautiful women, including Sherilyn Fenn, Jennifer Grey and Winona Ryder. He and Ryder were serious enough that he emblazoned himself with a Winona Forever tattoo. (When they broke up he had it laser-altered to Wino Forever.) He was dating model Kate Moss when he famously trashed a New York hotel room and was arrested. Depp co-owned a popular Hollywood club called the Viper Room. It was there on Halloween night 1993 that rising star River Phoenix died of a drug overdose. The tragedy contributed to Depp’s image as an actor teetering on the edge.

 

Depp has since settled down with his girlfriend of six years, Vanessa Paradis, the French actress and pop singer. They have two children, Lily-Rose, four, and Jack, two. The couple divide their time between Los Angeles and St. Tropez, France.

Playboy sent journalist Bernard Weinraub to meet with Depp in a suite at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles. Depp arrived decked out in a cowboy hat, with a Che Guevara charm, an amulet and a tiger’s tooth around his neck. He promptly opened a bottle of water and rolled a cigarette.

Playboy: You’ve been through quite a few changes lately, not the least of which is that Pirates of the Caribbean has made you one of the hottest stars in town. You were even nominated for best actor.

Depp: It’s really weird. [laughs]

Playboy: What impact did Pirates have on your career and your life?

Depp: I’m the wrong person to answer that. For one thing, four- and five-year-old kids and people in their 50s, 60s and 70s – a broad spectrum – loved that movie. That hasn’t happened to me before. That was great. I just want to continue getting good jobs.

Playboy: Has Hollywood’s view of you changed?

Depp: I don’t know if Hollywood’s view of me has changed. I’m certainly getting calls from people and filmmakers who maybe didn’t know my name before. That’s all right. My next film has been planned for a while. The story takes place in Restoration England. I play John Wilmot, the Second Earl of Rochester, a debauched poet. He killed himself with drink and syphilis at the age of 33. A real piece of work.

Playboy: You’re now considered a bankable movie star.

 

Depp: I’ve always been some distance from that game. I guess there have been times when I was on the brink of being bankable. But that’s all so weird. All these weird lists – top five star, top 10, “Let’s get this guy because he’s bankable.” I don’t think about that. You’re on the list two weeks and then – poof - you’re gone. It never jarred me that I wasn’t on the list. If I’m considered bankable this week, that’s great. Next week I’ll be totally off. I’m used to that. I’ve never had an allergy to the idea of commercial success. When you put a movie out and it’s successful, that’s great. I just wanted to get there in the right way, in a way that’s not too compromising or demeaning or ugly. Whether I’m there as a bankable movie star or not, I don’t know. If I stay there, who knows?

Playboy: Do you consider yourself a star?

Depp: Well, the real movie stars were Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Spencer Tracy, Montgomery Clift. How could I put myself in the same category as Clark Gable? Tom Cruise is a great movie star. Do I consider myself a movie star? I consider myself a guy with a good job, an interesting job. 

Playboy: Maybe better than a good job. You’ve become big box office. You’re spending less time in France and more in L.A. to be closer to the action.

Depp: Well, I still live in France part-time.

Playboy: Are you as at home in France as you are here?

Depp: Now I am. It was amazing at first, because I didn’t speak the language. I loved that, because I didn’t have to talk. It was great just to be out among people and not have the responsibility to say anything. I wasn’t thrown into the spotlight to be the novelty or to entertain.

Playboy: Are you often in that position?

Depp: Yeah, and this was nice. I could sit there and drink wine. Ultimately, though, what I love about being over there is the culture, which is very old.

Playboy: What’s your life in France like?

Depp: Simplicity, really. We have a little house in the country. We wake up in the morning, the sun’s coming out, we make coffee, and then we make breakfast for the kids.

Playboy: Now that you’re back in the public eye in a big way, do you feel more exposed?

Depp: We’ve always had our run-ins with the paparazzi. That hasn’t changed. They are very ambitious. They’re looking for God knows what. You think, Why that kind of intense invasion?

Playboy: Did it cause you to question making Pirates of the Caribbean in the first place?

Depp: No, I’m not going to complain. When we’re in a public place, like at some opening or a premiere, I don’t mind the press. It’s the nature of the beast. But when you’re shopping for Christmas presents for your kids, I just don’t understand the fascination. The other day I had a lunch meeting in the San Fernando Valley. There was a literal convoy, with seven or eight vehicles, behind us. My girl took my kids to the park the other day, and the paparazzi surrounded the perimeter just to photograph her playing with our children. It’s ugly. I don’t mind so much when they do it to me, but when it’s my kids, that’s another story. It’s evil.

Playboy: Is there less harassment in France?

Depp: Not necessarily. They fly helicopters over our property, in front of the kitchen window. They have these long lenses.

Playboy: Here’s another big change: You recently turned 40. Are you surprised that you made it?

Depp: It was questionable for a while.

Playboy: Were you genuinely worried that you wouldn’t?

Depp: In your teens and your 20s, you’re immortal, you’re untouchable. It’s only later that you begin to realize you are mortal.

Playboy: You once said that everyone thinks of you as a drug-addicted, brooding, angry and rebellious mental case. How apt was that description?

Depp: Well, for many years they said I was a wild man. Now they say I’m a former wild man, former bad boy, former rebel. I guess “former” because now I’m a dad. The media tries to stuff you into a mold. It happens to everybody. He’s the new bad boy, the new James Dean, the new whatever. It’s both amusing and annoying. My mom reads that stuff. So do my nieces and nephews and all my family. At times it was flatout fiction.

Playboy: At one point your life did seem out of control. Was it drugs?

Depp: Mostly alcohol. There were drugs, too – pills - and there was a danger that I would go over the edge. I could have. I thank God I didn’t. It was darkest during the filming of Gilbert Grape.

Playboy: What were your drugs of choice?

Depp: I was never a cokehead or anything like that. I always despised that drug. I thought it was a waste of time, pointless. But I was poisoning myself with alcohol and medicating myself. I was trying to numb things.

Playboy: What things?

Depp: I was trying not to feel things, and that’s ridiculous. It’s one of the dumbest things you can do, because all you’re doing is postponing the inevitable. Someday you’ll have to look all those things in the eye rather than try to numb the pain.

Playboy: How far did it go? Were you ever an addict?

Depp: No, thank God I never hooked on anything. I never had a monkey on my back. I just wanted to self-medicate, to numb myself through liquor. It’s how I dealt with life, reality, stress, change, sadness, memories. The list goes on. I was really trying to feel nothing.

Playboy: What led you to stop?

Depp: Family and friends sat me down and said, “Listen, we love you. You’re important to us, and you’re fucking up. You’re killing yourself. You’re killing us in the process.”

Playboy: Did you listen to them?

Depp: Not right away. You don’t listen right away because you’re dumb. You’re ignorant. You’re human. Finally it seeps in. Finally the body and mind and heart and psyche just go, “Yeah, you’re doing the wrong thing.”

Playboy: Did your family and friends actually do an intervention?

Depp: At a certain point they intervened. At the time I said I appreciated it. I went through the motions. I said I was okay, and I went for a couple of months being a dumb ass. But I could see things turning into a nasty tailspin. And then I thought, Maybe I’m slow, but this is ridiculous. Fuck it, just stop! So I stopped everything for the better part of a year. I guess I just reached a point where I said, “Jesus Christ, what am I doing? Life is fucking good. What am I doing to myself?” Now I drink a glass or two of red wine and that’s it.

Playboy: River Phoenix died of a drug overdose outside your club. What impact did that have on you?

Depp: It was devastating. I can’t imagine the depth of pain that his family and close friends felt. It was rough for me, but for them it must have been unbearable.

Playboy: How well did you know him?

Depp: We knew and were certainly respectful of each other. There was always the sort of promise, “Hey, we’ll get together and do something sometime.” I liked him. I liked his work ethic, and I liked his choices. He was a sharp guy. He had so many amazing possibilities before him. Fuck, what a waste. For what?

Playboy: Did it affect your drinking and drug use?

Depp: That was 1993, when I was doing Ed Wood. I was completely sober – no hard liquor, no wine, no nothing. Even so, all the tabloids started saying we were having drug parties. The whole thing was weird, awful, ugly and sad. The incident is seared onto my brain, onto my heart.
Playboy: Are that and the other darker times in you life reflected in your work? Tim Burton once said you had an affinity for damaged people. Do you?

Depp: I do have an affinity for damaged people, in life, in roles. I don’t know why. We’re all damaged in our own way. Nobody’s perfect. I think we are all somewhat screwy, every single one of us.

Playboy: Did you feel damaged as a child, or was yours a relatively normal childhood?

Depp: Normal? I wouldn’t go that far.

Playboy: Then how was it abnormal?

Depp: It was strange, though then again, it was normal to us. It wasn’t until I started going to other kids’ houses and hanging out, having dinner, seeing what a family is supposed to do that I saw that we weren’t normal.

Playboy: How was it different?

Depp: Even down to sitting around a dinner table together - it wasn’t an everyday occurrence in my house. At my house dinner easily could have consisted of a bologna sandwich, and then you’d split. You might come back later and grab a few peanuts, and then you’d split again. That was it. I would go to my buddy Sal’s house for dinner. I couldn’t understand what was going on with everyone sitting down together. I’ll never forget seeing romaine lettuce for the first time. I thought it was weird - I was afraid of it. There was salad and appetizers and soup. I had no idea about that. I grew up on hillbilly food.

Playboy: Apparently you were no more at ease in school. Were you a problem student?

Depp: Yeah, in high school.

Playboy: In what way?

Depp: There was this vicious woman, a teacher. If you weren’t in her little handpicked clique, you were ridiculed and picked on. She was brutal and unjust. One day she told me to do something, I can’t remember what. Her tone was nasty. She got very loud in my face in front of the rest of the class and tried to embarrass me. I saw what she was doing, that she was trying to ridicule me. I turned around and walked away. As I did, I dropped my drawers and mooned her.

Playboy: How did she react?

Depp: She went out of her mind. Then of course I was brought before the dean and suspended for a couple of weeks. At that time it was coming anyway. I knew my days were numbered.
Playboy: What in school interested you?

Depp: I was more interested in music than anything else. Music was like life. I had found a reason to live. I was 12 when my mom bought me a $25 electric guitar. I had an uncle who was a preacher, and his family had a gospel singing group. He played guitar in church, and I used to watch him. I became obsessed with the guitar. I locked myself in my bedroom for the better part of a year and taught myself chords. I’d try to learn things off records.

Playboy: Which records?

Depp: I was very lucky to have my brother, who is 10 years older than me and a real smart guy. He turned me on to Van Morrison and Bob Dylan. I remember listening to the soundtracks to A Clockwork Orange and Last Tango in Paris. I loved Aerosmith, Kiss and Alice Cooper, and when I was older the Clash, the Sex Pistols and the Ramones.

Playboy: Why didn’t your music career pan out?

Depp: At a certain point I realized that, in terms of a job, maybe I didn’t have the passion for it.

Playboy: What effect did your parents’ divorce have on you?

Depp: I was 15, I think. It had been coming for quite a long time. I’m surprised they lasted that long, bless their hearts. I think they tried to keep it together for the kids, and then they couldn’t anymore.

Playboy: How were they as parents?

Depp: They were good parents. They raised four kids. I was the youngest. They stuck it out for us all those years. But we lived in a small house, and nobody argued in a whisper. We were exposed to their violent outbursts against each other. That stuff sticks.

Playboy: What led you to acting?

Depp: Opportunity. I never really had an interest in it in the beginning. Nicolas Cage -we had some mutual friends - introduced me to his agent. She sent me to a casting director, and I auditioned for the first Nightmare on Elm Street. I got the job. I was stupefied. They paid me all that money for a week. It was luck, and accident. I did it purely to pay the rent. I was literally filling out job applications at the time, any kind of job. Nic Cage said, “ You should try being an actor. Maybe you are one and don’t know it.” I began acting, and I thought, Well, this is an interesting road; maybe I should keep traveling on it. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, so I started to read everything about acting-Stanislavsky, Uta Hagen, Michael Chekhov. I started soaking it up.

Playboy: Then you landed a starring role on 21 Jump Street. How do you look back on that experience?

Depp: It did great things for me, and I’m thankful for the experience. It was a great education, but it was very frustrating. I felt like I was filling up space between commercials.

Playboy: Yet it was very successful and launched your career.

Depp: Yeah. I’d been evicted from an apartment and had moved into a friend’s place. I was scrambling to pay the rent, waiting for residual checks from other things that I’d done to pay the bills. I went from that to making a bunch of money. I went from anonymity to going to a restaurant and having people point to me. It was a shock. But what really bothered me was that I could see the machine. I could see the wheels turning. I could see where it was all going, and it scared the shit out of me.

Playboy: Where was it going?

Depp: Fox was creating the Fox network, using 21 Jump Street to build it. They were shoving my face out there, selling me as this product. It made me crazy. I thought, After this you’ll be in a sitcom. You’ll be on a lunch box and then a thermos and a notebook. And in two years you’ll be ridiculous. It paid good money and was a good gig, but I wanted something else.

Playboy: What did you do to change your career?

Depp: I waited and waited to do a movie, because I wanted to do the right one. I wanted to go as far away from the series as I could. The first film I did after Jump Street was Cry-Baby with John Waters. That was a great experience. After that I did another season of the series, and then I did Edward Scissorhands. During that movie I got the phone call saying I was out of the show. I felt like, Ah, possibilities. I was freed up. I swore to myself that I would never again compromise to the degree that I had. I swore that I wouldn’t just follow the commercial road. I wouldn’t do what was expected of me or what was necessary to maintain whatever it is –a popular or financially rewarding career. I promised myself that I would do that.

Playboy: Has the success of Pirates changed that attitude?

Depp: Years ago I said to myself, I’ll never do television again. No way. Nothing in the world could get me to do it. And then somewhere in the back of my mind I’m thinking that it might be cool someday to do a television series, just to be in one spot for a while. You never know what’s going to happen. One minute you’re doing one thing and people are interested, and the next minute they’re not interested. It’s just an odd game. I mean, I may want to do dinner theater. Maybe it’s not so bad. I’ve always said I might end up being forced to do McDonald’s openings dressed as Edward Scissorhands. You never know.
Playboy: You’ve turned down roles later played by people such as Brad Pitt, including a part in Thelma & Louise. Was that a mistake?

Depp: I don’t regret any of the things I didn’t do, and I certainly don’t regret any of the thing I did do, down to the dumbest. Everything happened the way it should happen, even ridiculous things that I did in the beginning. I don’t regret any of it.

Playboy: You’ve starred with some impressive actors, including Al Pacino and Marlon Brando. What did you learn from them?

Depp: I watched them like a hawk. I sponged as much of an education as I could. Ultimately it solidified what I already knew from being a musician: Do what’s right for you. Whether you’re a musician, an actor, a painter or a writer, there’s some degree of compromise in what you do, but don’t compromise unless you think it’s right. Stick to your guns, no matter what. Don’t let them step on your toes, man.

Playboy: And then there was Traci Lords in Cry-baby. Is the former porn star a method actor.

Depp: I remember meeting her. I could sense she was a little bit protective of herself, wary of people. She was a little closed off in the beginning, but soon she was incredibly sweet and really professional. Kind of adorable. I loved her, man. I love her to this day.

Playboy: These days how do you choose which movies to do?

Depp: I can tell in the first 10, 15 or 20 pages of a script, sometimes in the first three pages. I can tell if it’s something that’s going to be right. I start getting images in my head, then I start writing things down.

Playboy: What are you looking for?

Depp: I just want something different. I want to be surprised. I want something that doesn’t feel formulaic or beaten to death. For Secret Window, I read the script, and I loved it. The ending is great. I didn’t see it coming. It’s based on a Stephen King novella. It’s extremely well written. Even the screen direction is entertaining: “Looks left, looks right, walks to the fridge, grabs a Cheeto and splits.” The story has a great twist.

Playboy: Is it true that you based your Pirates of the Caribbean character, Captain Jack, on Keith Richards?

Depp: And Pepe Le Pew.

Playboy: The cartoon?

Depp: Yeah. When I was a kid Pepe was one of those great Saturday morning cartoons. Pepe is a French skunk who hops along, the most happy-go-lucky guy in the world. As he’s hopping along, people are falling over from the stink, but he never notices. I always thought, What an amazing way to go through life.

Playboy: And why Keith Richards?

Depp: When I decided to do the movie I started thinking about pirates of the 17th and 18th centuries. It came to me that the modern-day equivalent is a rock-and-roll star.

Playboy: How are they like pirates?

Depp: They live dangerously. They’re wild and capable of anything, just like pirates. And once I made that connection, I thought, Who is the ultimate rock-and-roll star? Keith Richards.

Playboy: Do you know Richards?

Depp: I’ve been lucky enough to spend time with him over the years, and yes, I have gotten to know him. And he is kind of a pirate. For the movie, I didn’t want to do an imitation of Keith, but I wanted to take the spirit of Keith, the beautiful, laid-back confidence.

Playboy: Since when do pirates wear all the makeup your character wears?

Depp: Actually, for a while Keith did. Bob Dylan did too in the 1970s. He went through a period when he wore dark kohl eyeliner. I looked into the kohl thing. It comes from the nomad tribes in the desert in Africa. It’s protection for the eyes from the sun. Football players use it for that today. And I took other stuff from Keith, too - things dangling in his hair, the beads.

Playboy: Richards isn’t your only influence. Apparently you based Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow on Angela Lansbury, and Ed Wood on Ronald Reagan. They seem a strange sampling of choices.

Depp: Well, Angela Lansbury is an amazing actress. I thought of Ichabod Crane as a very nervous, ultrasensitive prepubescent girl. That’s where Angela Lansbury came in. I thought of some of the work she’s done over the years, especially in Death on the Nile. I also based Ichabod a bit on Roddy McDowall, who was a very good friend.

Playboy: And President Regan?

Depp: Ed Wood was based on Reagan, yes, but also on the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. And Casey Kasem. It was a weird little soup of those three.

Playboy: Why those three?

Depp: I remember watching Reagan make speeches. He had this kind of innocence and a naïve, blind optimism -“Everything’s going to be fine.” You’re like, “Well, it’s not! It’s not going to be fine.” Jack Haley’s performance as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz is one of the strangest I’ve ever seen. Watch that film and think about a grown man giving that performance. It’s really astounding.

Playboy: What about Casey Kasem?

Depp: [Doing a Kasem impression] What I always liked about Casey was that he had a delivery that was so upbeat.

Playboy: Are you the only actor who uses such weird inspirations?

Depp: I don’t know. Something happens to me when I’m reading a screenplay. I get these flashes, these quick images.

Playboy: You received some unfavorable press last year during the war in Iraq. You said that America is like a dumb puppy that can bite and hurt you. Were you surprised by the reaction.

Depp: I would never by disrespectful to my country, to the people, especially the kids who are over there serving in the armed forces. My uncle was wounded in Vietnam, paralyzed from the neck down. I would never say those things the way they claim I said them.

Playboy: What exactly did you say?

Depp: I essentially said the United States is a very young country compared with Europe. We’re still growing. That’s it. I wouldn’t say anything anti-American. I’m an American, and I love my country.

Playboy: What’s your view of President Bush?