This actor is a chameleon and a
recognized Hollywood sex symbol. Films with his participation are non-standard
and eccentric, and his roles became cult.
He is textured, but at the same
time plastic in his images. This is Johnny Depp.
What role did drugs play in his life?
Which woman made him trash a
hotel room after their breakup?
And what annoyed him about Leonardo DiCaprio?
Today on the Biographer channel we will talk about the childhood and the formation of the
personality of the talented actor, what traumas he went through and why he was under arrest.
First, click on the subscribe button and the bell to find out secret facts from the biographies of
your favorite celebrities. Subscribe, sit back, and let’s start.
CHILDHOOD
John Christopher Depp II, better known
to us as Johnny Depp, was born on June 9, 1963 in Owensboro, Kentucky.
He was the youngest child in the family: Depp had two older sisters, Debbie and
Christy, and an older brother, Daniel.
Johnny's childhood can hardly be called cloudless.
His father, the full namesake of his son, was a civil engineer. He worked hard, drank
frequently, and had the pleasure of beating his wife and children. His Mom - Elizabeth Sue
Wells, worked as a waitress from the age of 14, mostly in a roadside cafe. The profession
and early growing up left their mark.
In the interview with Rolling Stone, Depp talked
about his mother's abusive and eccentric behavior, as well as their broken
relationship in adulthood.
“Yeah, there were irrational beatings …
Maybe it’s an ashtray coming your way. Maybe you’re gonna get clunked with the phone.”
Depp mostly remembers his mother returning home after working two shifts; he rubbed her
legs while she counted coins from the tip. Although he idolized his mother, he was not
blind to her erratic behavior and meanness. He told Rolling Stone magazine
what he said at her funeral:
“My mom was maybe the meanest human
being I have ever met in my life.”
It’s clear that all conditions in which Johnny
grew up influenced him and his future path. The only person with whom the future actor
had a close relationship was his paternal grandfather Jim. He affectionately called
him "Paw Paw". While he was still very young, Johnny remembered picking tobacco in the fields
with him and listening to his stories.
He spent all his childhood
with him, and when he died, the 9-year-old boy went through a real crisis,
which was reflected in his behavior.
Another factor was the constant change of
residence. The family often moved, because, according to the actor, his parents did not
like to fix up and clean up their apartments. It got to the point that one day the family
moved to a new house at the end of the street.
By the age of 15, young Depp had changed
several cities and even houses in the same city, moving in total, according to his words, about 40
times. When his father was offered a higher salary in Florida, their family moved there, leaving
all of Johnny's childhood friends in Kentucky.
The lack of constancy and stability, the loss
of a loved one led to the fact that he began to constantly swear with his parents, at the age of
12 he began to smoke and get involved in alcohol. And a year later he started a sexual relationship
with a girl a few years older than him.
When Johnny celebrated his 15th birthday, his
parents divorced. This completely unsettled him, despite the fact that, as he said, he
hated both parents. He started to take "every drug known to man". Among them, according
to the actor himself, were cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, psychedelic mushrooms and pot.
“Mom asked me to give her psychotropic drugs. I tried one pill furtively and realized
that this is the only way to soothe the pain, ”the actor later admitted.
The result was logical: school absenteeism and the use of prohibited
substances led to expulsion from school.
Although later Johnny said that he
tried to change the situation:
It's interesting that Johnny gave his daughter
Lily-Rose Depp a try of the drug when she was 13. The actor considers such an act a
manifestation of a responsible parent, since many children in the high school
where his daughter studied began to take alcohol and psychotropic substances
from the age of 12-13 at parties.
“She was just 12, and she said
she didn't know what to do,”... “I said, 'Listen, sweetheart, if you are
at a party and someone hands you the joint, take the joint from the person , and pass it
to the next person. Please don't experiment with drugs with people you don't know.'”
Johnny's first steps in music and cinema
A significant event in the life of the
future Jack Sparrow was a gift from his mother - a cheap $ 25 electric guitar,
which he received for his 12th birthday. Watching his cousins play in his
Uncles gospel group, he became obsessed with both guitar and music. It became an
incentive and creative outlet for Johnny: he independently mastered a musical instrument,
and when his parents divorced and decided to live an independent life, he left home and
moved into a trailer with his friend Sal.
At first, Johnny played with small garage
bands, then he formed his first band, which he called Flame. At that time, it seemed
to him that he had found his place in life, his professional vocation.
Soon he joined the musical rock band "Kids" and performed in nightclubs as part of
them. Once their performance was heard by Iggy Pop, after which he invited the guys to perform
"as an opening act" for one of his concerts.
The future star was also impressed by the
visual component of rock and roll life. You will hardly be surprised, knowing his style
of dressing. But the fact is that in order to stand out not only in behavior, but also in style,
Johnny stole things from his mother's closet.
Then I used to steal my mom's clothing. She had
all these crushed-velvet shirts with French-cut sleeves. And, like, seersucker bell-bottoms.
In one of the interviews, he admitted that he wanted to wear platform shoes,
but "just couldn't find any."
But the first fees were not comparable
with what a young man needed to survive. Because Johnny was forced to get by with
part-time jobs: he worked at a construction site, worked as a courier and soon found a “stable” job
selling ball pens. But the guy gave all his free time to music. In just 4 years, Johnny
changed 14 different musical bands.
At the age of 20, the guy first married the
girl Lori Ann Allison, who was 5 years older than Johnny and worked as a make-up artist.
Happiness did not last long. Two years later, the couple broke up due to the fact that the girl
didn’t like the constant lack of money. But their marriage was the second significant event in
the life of our future star. Knowing about her husband's plans to become an actor, Laurie
introduced him to Nicolas Cage. By the time they met, he had already managed to gain experience in
the cinema: he starred in Francis Ford Coppola's “Rumble Fish” and a number of other films.
From that moment, a new stage in the life of a young man began, which in the future would
be quoted by both children and adolescents, imitating the habits of Jack Sparrow.
In the meantime, he got the first role in the horror film that later would become a cult
- "A Nightmare on Elm Street". It was released in 1984. Johnny claimed that he counted on an
episodic role, considering participation in the film as a springboard for his musical career.
But the directors were touched by his naturalness and charisma, and they offered the guy the role
of Glen, one of the main characters in the plot. Thanks to this role, other Hollywood
figures drew attention to Johnny and began to invite the young man to shoot.
And Johnny himself literally “fired up” with acting. Without hesitation, he accepted an
invitation to shoot in the teen comedy "Private Resort", which was released in 1985. This was the
first role of a young actor, where he had to make professional “sacrifices”, namely, to act naked.
But musical dreams didn’t leave him. Wanting to save up for a new album, he took part in the
filming of such television series as "Hotel" and "The Lady in Blue", as well as the supporting
role of Doni Fisher in the film "Slow burn", along with Eric Roberts. But it didn't work
out as planned. Instead of a new album, Johnny chose to spend money on acting classes
(and not in vain, as time has shown).
Pumping professional skills turned out to be very
useful. It led to the fact that we met a young man in the cast of Oliver Stone's military drama
"Platoon", where he received the supporting role of Private Lerner. Filming took place in difficult
conditions. The whole process of shooting took 54 days in the Philippines. Actors were “trained”
like real soldiers: they had to learn how to move with equipment through forests, swamps and
rocks, eat army food, and sleep in trenches.
It was here that Johnny was able
to play side by side with actors such as Charlie Shinn, Willem Dafoe, John
McGinley, Forest Whitaker and others.
The film was released in 1986 and almost
immediately received eight Oscar nominations. According to the law of meanness,
almost the entire performance of Johnny fell victim to Oliver Stone's editing,
it was cut from the final version of the film. The actor appeared only in a few frames in the
background and in the central role of only one scene, where he worked as an interpreter.
Without losing hope, upon returning from the Philippines, he continued to go through
auditions. In some of them he was successful.
So, in 1987, Johnny played in the
popular television series 21 Jump Street, getting the role of a policeman
investigating the crimes of schoolchildren. By the way, another popular actor played along
with John. Brad Pitt also participated in this movie, although it wasn’t the title role.
"21 Jump Street" made the guy very popular among young people. Nevertheless, the actor himself
felt that the show was "stifling" his potential. He didn't want to be seen as just a "teenage
idol"; playing the same "one-dimensional" character became tiresome for him. Johnny claimed
more eccentric and meaningful roles, having not only creative talent, but great ambitions.
In an interview about 21 Jump Street, the actor spoke unkindly about the series.
“In the first two seasons I thought there was a lot of good stuff going on,” … “There
were good, important messages. But I think around the third season, it started to get
a little show-boaty, you know what I mean? It just started to become false. It started to
become this action-packed can of soup, you know? You just market it, and send it out.”
It got to the point that the actor began to commit provocative antics in order to be fired
from the show. One day, he trashed a trailer.
“After being confined to a television
series when you can’t play anything but one particular character for, you know,
nine months… that’ll make you insane.”
Trying to get rid of the sugary role,
Johnny happily accepted the invitation of the infamous director John Waters to play the
lead role in the grotesque musical Cry-Baby. There John was a rebel, handsome,
impudent and imprudent bully.
The musical film was released in 1990 and received
a lot of positive feedback from the audience. Such a step broke the stereotyped idea
of Johnny as an actor of one role and became a springboard to the next role
which became significant in his life.
You probably immediately guessed which one.
And while I haven’t spoiled the movie yet, pause and write your guess in the
comments (yep, I’m waiting)
In 1989, Johnny was lucky. He was invited to the
lead role in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, despite the fact that there were
decent competitors for the role. And all of them were no less talented than Johnny:
Brad Pitt, Robert Downey Jr., Jim Carrey...
It’s for this role that we remember Johnny
Depp when we talk about his career achievements (“Pirates” are not taken into account),
and exactly this role brought the actor three important things: it raised
him to the acting Olympus,
and also - brought him the Golden Globe nomination
and introduced him to Winona Ryder, with whom he connected his life for four years.
It’s interesting that the main character - a cyborg, played by Johnny, speaks only 169 words
for the entire film. However, this does not prevent the actor from showing us the whole range
of feelings and emotions that Johnny experiences, using only one thing - his eyes.
Well, there is one more important thing. This role helped Johnny make a long and strong
friendship with Tim Burton, which gave the world such films as Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd, Dark Shadows and other cool works of the tandem.
They were two brilliant minds and at the same time - two men experiencing difficulties with
communication. But with a similar outlook.
Johnny recalled their first meeting this way:
“After sharing three of four pots of coffee, stumbling our was through each other’s
unfinished sentences but somehow still understanding each other, we ended the meeting
with a hand shake and a ‘nice to meet you’.”
In turn, Tim said:
“Johnny is very much known as a teen idol and he’s perceived as difficult and aloof. As a person
he's funny and warm, a great guy. He's a normal guy-at least my interpretation of normal-but he's
completely the opposite of this perception.
The strong cast: Vincent Price, Alan Arkin, Dianne
Wiest, gave the young actor a new experience. With particular warmth, he recalled working with
Vincent Price. They became very close during filming and communicated until Price's death.
But it was not without curiosities. It took some time for Johnny to get used to his costume. This
fact led to several blade incidents. For example, once in a scene where Anthony Michael Hall's
character had to confront the main character, he accidentally stabbed Hall's hand.
But back to matters of the heart.
Winona charmed our hero. Innocent face,
big eyes…She even wore an engagement ring, and Johnny got a "Winona Forever"
tattoo in honor of her. When they met, Winona was 16 and Johnny was 26.
“It was a classic glance like in West Side Story where everything else went foggy,”
…“When I met Winona and we fell in love it was absolutely like nothing ever before-ever”
They soon became one of the most frequently discussed and adored couples in Hollywood. They
were inseparable, spending whole days together: reading beat poetry, going to bookstores
and listening to their favorite records. They even had "their own" song -
"Crazy For You" by Madonna.
Five months later, Johnny proposed to Winona. She
also admitted that Depp was her first love.
“When I met Johnny, I was pure virgin. He
changed that. He was my first everything. My first real kiss. My first real boyfriend.
My first fiancé. The first guy I had sex with. So he'll always be in my heart.
forever. Kind of funny, that word.”
But love didn't last forever.
Gradually they began to move away from each other. There were several reasons for this. The first
was the workload of the schedules of both stars, since at that time they were at the peak of fame
Constant filming, schedules that didn't match - somehow they started to spend less time.
The second reason was the paparazzi, as well as rumors and gossip about young actors.
Winona was credited with romances with Gary Oldman, then with Daniel Day-Lewis
on the set of The Age of Innocence. Gradually, conversations around the couple
about betrayals, partings, engagements and disagreements in their couple began to grow.
They experienced the breakup in different ways. According to rumors, Winona said that it would be
better for both of them. Depp, on the other hand, experienced their breakup very painfully. Tim
Burton, who watched Ryder and Depp's relationship, noted that the latter was "never the same"
after their relationship with Winona.
In the interview with the Los
Angeles Times, the actor said:
“It’s very hard to have a personal life
in this town. My relationship with Winona, it was my mistake to be as open as we were. But
I thought if we were honest it would destroy that curiosity monster. Instead, it fed it, gave people
a license to feel they were part of it.”
After a while, Johnny changed the tattoo from
"Winona forever" to "Wine forever", arguing that the complete removal of the tattoo would mean the
removal of this part of his life with this girl. And he didn't want that.
Career takeoff
After "Edward" the career of the future
captain Jack Sparrow rapidly went up.
He was noticed by eminent directors, and one of
them was Emir Kusturica - a symbol of the Balkan cinema. He offered Johnny a role in one of his
films, Arizona Dream, which was released in 1993. Like all of Kusturica's films, "Arizona
Dream" became a very unusual, surreal movie, where Depp played a romantic guy who followed
his dream, learned to love and went through the metamorphosis of growing up. Although the
dream, like the film, came out quite unusual: it featured Alaska and a flying halibut.
Despite the eccentricity, the movie found its fans, becoming very popular in France and
receiving a prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
Then there was a tandem with Mary
Masterson in the touching comedy "Benny and Joon" directed by Jeremiah
S. Chechik, which was released in 1993. The next work was the participation
in the filming of the film "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" of the same year,
together with the young Leonardo DiCaprio. It was one of Johnny's first bright dramatic
roles, where he revealed the image of a young guy, tired of life, who didn’t see any prospects.
Of course, until he met love and went on a trip with his younger mentally retarded
brother, who was played by DiCaprio.
Recalling the shooting, Depp admitted that
he was going through hard times at that time and Leonardo annoyed him a little.
“I tortured him…I really did. He was always talking about these video games, you know? I
told you it was kind of a dark period. ‘No, I will not give you a drag of my cigarette while
you hide from your mother again, Leo.’”
Gradually, Johnny became addicted to public life.
In 1993, he opened a club called the Viper Room, which was meant to be a rock concert venue.
The club quickly gained popularity not only among musicians, but also among celebrities. Everyone
played there: from Guns N’ Roses to Johnny Cash. Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston and
Uma Thurman became frequent guests. The haven of fun and revelry was
overshadowed by the death of Johnny's friend River Phoenix. He died from a drug overdose.
There was information in the press that some time later, Johnny blamed himself for this, allegedly
he personally gave Phoenix the same dose. As an argument, they gave his phrase:
“Imagine living with that…”
Friendship with Tim Burton brought the
actor another role in 1994. It was the comedy-drama Ed Wood, where he showed the fate of
the worst director in Hollywood, Edward Wood. The picture was shot in black and white, which
made it very stylish and atmospheric.
The biopic also impresses with its cast.
In addition to our hero, you can see Sarah Jessica Parker, Martin Landau, Bill Murray,
Patricia Arquette and Vincent D'Onofrio.Tired of serious roles, Johnny gladly set to work,
where he could have a lot of fun: for the sake of Wood's famous “cat” smile, special dentures
were inserted into him, he changed into a woman
...and freely felt in a working
tandem with a brilliant director.
Despite the film's box office failure, many
critics received the movie positively. So, according to Rotten Tomatoes, "Ed Wood" has a
rating of 8/10, based on 59 reviews from critics, 92% of whom liked the film. The National Board
of Film Critics of the United States included "Ed Wood" in the list of 10 best films of 1994.
In addition to the unusual role that brought our hero a lot of fans, this year gave Johnny a
meeting with the famous model - Kate Moss. This romance was stormy and dizzying. It was
of those that could be called “on the verge”, it’s not for nothing that journalists
dubbed their relationship “cocaine”.
They met in 1994 at the New York Cafe Table
and immediately noticed each other.
“I knew from the first moment we talked
that we were going to be together,”... then the model told
They didn’t part until 1998, and all this time their relationship was reminiscent
of a rollercoaster: scandalous antics, naked, outrageous passion and demonstrativeness.
Kate introduced herself to journalists under the surname Depp, and Johnny mentioned to
the media about his plans to have children. Whether it was on camera or real intentions
- we won’t know. But the couple didn’t get out of their hotel rooms for weeks and
tried to spend all the time together.
"They can't keep their hands, lips, mouths,
legs off each other,"...one of Depp's friends recalled in an interview with People magazine.
At the same time, they were under the influence of alcoholic beverages and drugs almost all
the time. When, some time later, in 1994, the supermodel announced the breakup, Depp
trashed the Mark Hotel room, for which he was arrested. This was followed by an equally
eccentric situation: a loud scandal with breaking dishes in a London restaurant. The couple decided
to reconcile in the same restaurant, making love in front of obviously stunned spectators.
In 1998, Moss already distinguished herself: she trashed a room in the French hotel Hotel
du Cap, where they rested together. Because she was not allowed to walk in a common
corridor in a bikini (Nothing strange…).
Trying to keep Kate, Johnny gave her expensive
gifts. For example, a diamond necklace, which he bought for his beloved and hid between
the buttocks. (I wonder how long she searched)
The couple broke up after 4 years of relationship
quietly, without official publicity. At some point, they stopped appearing together, and later
it became known about the separation itself.
Johnny himself took the blame
for the breakup entirely.
"I'm so stupid because we had so much going for
our relationship…I was difficult to get on with, I let my work get in the way and I didn't give
her the attention I should have done…Sure , I should care about my movies, but when I get
home I should try to leave that stuff behind, …I couldn't do that and I was horrific to live
with. Trust me, I'm a total moron at times."
Kate recalls their relationship with warmth:
“I was lucky to be with Johnny...He taught me a lot about fame. He told me,
'never complain, never explain'.
Love adventures didn’t prevent our hero
from following his acting dream.
Another reincarnation was waiting for Johnny
in the film by Jim Jarmusch "Dead Man", which was released in 1995. Here he had
to play the shy accountant William Blake, who was forced to go on a mystical,
possibly posthumous, journey.
This was followed by two works with
Marlon Brando - "Don Juan de Marco" and "The Brave", released in 1995 and 1997.
Their joint work was marked by an amazing coincidence of minds. In a 2016 interview,
Depp recalled their meeting, during which they discovered that they were both big fans of
William Saroyan's play The Time of Your Life.
After that, Johnny opened his wallet and took out
a folded piece of paper - an excerpt from a book with the same play, which he always carried
with him. Surprisingly, Marlon did the same: he showed him a frame in which there
was exactly the same, folded and many times re-read excerpts of the book, which he had
carried in his purse for many years before.
Depp greatly respected and looked up to Brando.
In the same interview, speaking of Marlon, he said the following words:
“He understood me very well and I understood him…We connected on many levels, especially the
fact that no one wants to be a novelty.”
It's important to mention that The Brave was
Johnny's first directorial debut. The film was based on the novel The Brave by Gregory MacDonald,
in which the actor also played the main role.
But this debut was not easy for him. Moreover,
he was forced to invest about $ 2 million in film production, paying a
quarter of the total costs.
“I felt driven to do this movie,”...
“This was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. It's just
about ripped me to shreds."
Despite Johnny's efforts, the picture failed
and received a number of negative reviews.
Variety called the film "a turgid
and unbelievable neo-western."
Screen International were more categorical:
“Depp’s ignominious directorial debut crawls across the screen for two hours like a snail.
Narratively inept and dramatically empty. “
In parallel, a kind of “criminal
period” began in Johnny’s career. He starred in the action movie “Nick of time”
by John Badham, where he played the role of a cowardly accountant who faced a difficult moral
and ethical choice with an unexpected plot twist. In "Donnie Brasco" in 1997, Johnny worked
on the set with the famous Al Pacino.
An experienced gangster and his assistant,
who was actually an undercover FBI agent, made an excellent team not only in
the film, but also on the set.
Both Alfredo and Johnny confessed they admire
each other. In fact, it was Al Pacino who was first supposed to play Brasco in the movie. But
once Pacino decided to don the character of Lefty, the actor recommended Johnny Depp for the
role. This proved to be a strength of the film because as the great Roger Ebert
pointed in the review of the film,
“Donnie Brasco is essentially a movie
about friendship between two men, two tough men who hardly find anchor
in each other.” (Roger Ebert)
The film received positive reviews
from critics and commercial success, as well as about 20 awards and nominations
at American and international film festivals, including nominations for the Oscar, Best Adapted
Screenplay and the European Film Award.
And here we turn to one of the
iconic movies of Johnny Depp. Well, who did already guess it? And now?
That's right, folks!
It's about the hallucinogenic adventures of the
main characters in the film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", which was released in 1998.
The story is based on the novel of the same name by the infamous writer Hunter Thompson,
which the actor read at the age of 15. In 1994, Johnny had the opportunity to meet
the author himself. Struck by his openness and extravagance, bordering on insanity, Johnny
immediately felt that they were alike. (well, who would have doubted...)
According to Johnny himself, their meeting took place in 1994, at the Woody
Creek Tavern, which was located in Colorado. The first thing the actor remembered about his
friend was the sparks that his stun gun gave out:
…I see sparks! I realized there was …a Taser
gun, and …people were leaping and hurling themselves out of the path of the mayhem that
was approaching—and I heard the voice first say, "Out of my way, you bastards!" … He made the
Red Sea part, arrived at my table, and said, "How are you? My name is Hunter."
To prepare for the role, Depp lived with Hunter for several months at his house. And during this
period they became so close that journalists began to call them “family”. This friendship lasted
until the writer's death in 2005, after which Johnny paid for his rather expensive funeral.
Its price was associated with the writer's unusual last wish. And Hunter wanted to be shot
with ashes from a cannon (quite an appropriate funeral for such a person). In addition, he
paid off all his debts and produced the film "The Rum Diary" based on Thompson's novel of the
same name. He also played a major role in it, and this role was the beginning of a sequence of
troubles for our hero. But more on that later.
Remembering Hunter Thompson,
Johnny said the following:
He knew I worshiped him, and I know that he
loved me, so he may have been part father figure, part mentor, but I'd say the closest thing
is brothers. We were like brothers.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was nominated for
the Palme d'Or at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, but the jury, which included Depp's ex-girlfriend
Winona Ryder, awarded the prize to the work of Greek independent director Theo Angelopoulos.
The turn of the millennium was crowned with the opening of Johnny's personal star on
the Walk of Fame and wild popularity. Now he could sort through the films and choose
only those that matched his taste and vision, selecting the actors with whom he would like to
work with. But fame and success didn’t prevent our hero from critically evaluating himself and
remaining “sober” in relation to his results.
In 1999, the next cult film
starring Depp was released. It was the mystical thriller The Ninth Gate
directed by Roman Polanski. The actor was able to brilliantly embody in the film a new image for
himself - a charming, money-hungry scoundrel.
The Ninth Gate packages its scares with classy
style that the characters deliver with sexily provocative intelligence. Dean Corso may be
Johnny Depp’s greatest spiritual transformation, from odious to ultimate evil and
the audience cheers on his descent, happy to ride with him straight to hell.
The film brought the actor not only an excellent role. On the set of The
Ninth Gate, Johnny met his future wife, Vanessa Paradis, with whom he lived for 14
years and had two children. In the interview with the Daily Mail, the actor recalled:
She was wearing a dress with an exposed back and I saw that back and that neck, and then
she turned around and I saw those eyes, and — boom!... you have this feeling
— I can’t really explain what it was, but I had it when I met her. I saw her across a
room and thought: “What’s happening to me?”
A year later, their daughter was born. They called
her Lily-Rose Depp. The actor changed a lot, according to friends' words. He gave up
drinking, drugs and idle entertainment.
"When I saw my daughter being born, it was the
first really totally selfless moment I'd had"
Johnny completely immersed himself in the
family and the upbringing of his first child, while continuing to shoot in movies.
In the same year, 1999, another famous film was
released. It was a gothic horror film featuring Depp - "Sleepy Hollow" by Tim Burton. As you can
see, his friend didn’t forget about Johnny.
It was a loose adaptation of Washington Irwin's
short story, in which Johnny played the role of Constable Ichabod Crane, who investigated
murders and at the same time lost consciousness at the sight of blood. The image of Ichabod
was, as if, painted under Johnny - just look: extravagant, bright, eccentric, he quickly
gained popularity and became a cult.
And, of course, it’s impossible not to mention
that such amazing actors as Miranda Richardson, Casper Van Dien, Christopher Lee, Geoffrey Jones
and others worked on the set with Johnny.
Perhaps it was thanks to the good directorial
and acting work that Sleepy Hollow collected a number of awards: the Oscar for
Best Production Design, the BAFTA for Best Costume Design, Saturn and others.
After filming, Johnny had the warmest memories of his work and a very unusual bonus - a one-eyed
horse that played Ichabod Crane in the film.
The final period of Johnny's "dark" films
was another horror film - "From Hell", where he appeared in the image
of Inspector Frederick Abberline, a brilliant drug addict detective
who was also a clairvoyant. Under an opium stupor, he saw crimes before
they happened, but couldn’t prevent them.
The work of Albert and Alain Hughes really
deserves attention (if you haven't seen it yet, check it out now). Great acting by Ian
Holm, Robbie Coltrane, Ian Richardson, and of course Depp didn't give the film a
chance to fail. Although some critics with cynical sting reacted to Johnny's approach
to the manifestation of the character.
Despite the fact that "From Hell" was not the
first historical film in Johnny's biography, he took the opportunity to participate
in the film with great enthusiasm.
"I'm a history freak and always
wanted to travel back in time, so period films give me that opportunity."...
"walking onto the Whitechapel set they built in Prague was about the closest opportunity
yet for me to step back in time."
Between horror and family life, Depp
was involved in a number of roles. So, in 2000, three films were released: “The Man Who
Cried”, “Before Night Falls” and “Chocolat”.
The role of a transvestite prisoner, as well
as a sadistic jailer in the same film - Until Night Falls by Julian Schnabel is considered one
of the most scandalous in Johnny's career.
And not only because the actor played two
opposites, opposed in one plot. The tape touches on a number of political and acute social
issues in the life of post-revolutionary Cuba, mixed with the fate of people who got out
of the regime: poets, artists, gays.
By the way, for his role Johnny didn’t
take a cent, thus confirming the idea that acting for him is, first of all, a
way to express himself and his ideas.
In 2001, one of the most controversial,
according to critics, Depp's works, Cocaine, was released, where the actor had
the opportunity to work with Penelope Cruz. Here he got the role of American smuggler
George Young. Drama directed by Ted Deme was based on real events and told about
the life path of the protagonist. While preparing for this role, Johnny even visited
George Young in prison for several days.
Here is what he later wrote
about these meetings:
'It’s very rare in life that any person opens
up their heart and soul to you with unlimited access to their most profound thoughts, dreams,
fears, regrets, intimacies,' … Even more rare when you’ve just met that person and, because
of the obvious predicament, it’s highly unlikely that you will be spending too much time with
them in the near future. So for this and more, I owe a great debt of gratitude to George.'
Cocaine did not live up to financial expectations. At an outlay of $53 million, it raised just a
little more within the US and another $30 million worldwide. The rating was also disappointing:
at 55% at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 141 reviews and Metacritic, the film has a weighted average
score of 52 out of 100, based on 34 critics.
But Johnny didn't give up. Later fate
gave him a role that became a cult. The image which became the culmination of
his career, and in which he was able to embody all his artistry and extraordinariness.
Yes, this was the role of Captain Jack Sparrow.
Initially, it wasn’t important at all in
Pirates of the Caribbean, and Jack Sparrow was supposed to be completely different. And, if
everything went according to the original idea, we might not enjoy a drunken, cheerful and slightly
vulgar pirate at all. But Johnny suggested very non-standard corrections to the image...What? Who
did Johnny copy Jack Sparrow's mannerisms from? And what antics did Depp do on set?
You will learn all this in Part 2. I’ll determine by your activity whether you want to see the
continuation. Like this video, write a comment, and if I see that you guys are really interested
in part 2, I’ll release it as soon as possible.
And while you wait for the second part, you
can click on the video on your screen and find out how the magnificent Pirates of the
Caribbean franchise has lost its greatness. Who was the cause of its collapse? What was
the secret of the success of the first parts? Follow the link and take a look.
It was Biographer, thanks for watching! See you!
