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Source:  Tribute, sept. 2005



In Deppth


By Jim Slotek

If your last sight of Johnny Depp was as the thin, pale Willie Wonka in this year's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, you'd be in for a shock if you saw him now.

When we talked to him this summer in Nassau, Bahamas, he was already into his fourth month of the more than nine he'll be spending filming two Pirates Of The Caribbean sequels back-to-back.

A glutton for punishment, Depp also pulled double duty last year -- starring in Charlie for director/best-friend Tim Burton, and voicing Burton's other movie, the stop-motion animated dark comedy Corpse Bride.

That's quite the tan. I hope you're using sunblock.

Thanks, what can I say? Three months on a boat. I'm not using sunblock at this point, but I did. You gotta watch the sun out here because it'll really take a bite out of you. But now it's sort of leveled off. I don't think I will get any darker than this.

You're not known for doing sequels and now you're doing two at once.

Some people say "Ha! Depp sold out!" But I don't believe I have. At least that wasn't my intention. I wanted to play Captain Jack again because he's so much fun to play. I mean, if they wanted to do Pirates 7, why not? In Pirates 2 and 3 you get to see a couple of newer layers of Captain Jack.

Tell me about doing two movies at once for Tim Burton.

We were just about to start Wonka, and Tim came and said, "You know, I've got this other thing I'm thinking about. This stop-motion thing. And I'd like to give you the script and tell me what you think." [I said,] "Sure." So I read the script [and] felt, "God, it's amazing. It's brilliant." But I had no idea he was going to be doing them simultaneously. I mean, he was literally leaving the set of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and going into Corpse Bride... recordings and animation. It's an incredible energy he has. I would literally leave the stage playing Wonka and then have to find this other character (Victor, the unintended betrothed of a haunted, undead bride) on the walk to the studio. Anything with Tim is always just a blast, you know?

Are you and Burton just on the same wavelength?

In terms of our relationship, Tim was the guy [supporting] me back

in 1990 (when Depp was a TV star on 21 Jump Street). The only other guy who's gone out on a limb like that was John Waters with Cry-Baby. But Tim's risk was quite a bit heftier. For him to cast me in Edward Scissorhands, that's something I will never forget.

How does it feel to have all this clout all of a sudden?

I hear you're getting $37 million for the two Pirates movies.

How much? Can someone call my business manager? I have a series of questions for him. You know, I haven't really thought about it much. Somebody mentioned something about some Forbes list (of highest-paid entertainers) and it just made me laugh.

But I've been doing things I've chosen to do for quite a good stretch now. And that small group of people -- and I hate to use the word, and I won't use the word, fans-but, you know, that small core of people who've stuck with me all these years, I feel good for them, because after great masses of people decided to watch Pirates

Of The Caribbean, they don't have to hang their heads in shame. At least not so much.


Jim Slotek for Tribute, sept. 2005