Johnny Depp. Just hear his name and you see those tortured brown eyes that penetrate to the depths of your soul. He’s a cross between Errol Flynn and Al Pacino — a rakish hero or an achingly sensitive character who inhabits each quirky role with breathtaking intensity. Now 41, Depp is the most ambivalent “Sexiest Man Alive” that People has ever anointed. He calls the title flattering, but mortifying and absurd. “I think I’ve also been called the scuzziest man alive,” he said.
Depp is a bohemian kind of guy who wears a poncho over a Dolce & Gabbana suit, amulets on his arms, a silver Indian-head necklace (he has Cherokee genes), and a bead bracelet made by his daughter. He collects old clothes and guns, rolls his own tobacco cigarettes, and has 10 tattoos (including the names of his daughter, Lily-Rose Melody, 5; his son, Jack, 2; and his mother, former waitress Betty Sue).
Depp’s life-long fascination with freedom and gypsies hearkens back to his nomadic childhood. Kentucky-born and Florida-raised, he moved with his parents and three older siblings 30 times in 10 years. “To this day, when I pack a bag, it triggers some kind of trauma,” he said.
Looking back on school, Depp told FHM in 1998 that he was “one of the burn-outs, a weird kid,” expelled once for mooning a teacher who belittled him in front of the class. It’s not surprising to hear him describe his chosen roles. He told Esquire: “I’ve always been drawn to those fringe types.” He confessed to Playboy, “I have an affinity for damaged people.”
Depp taught himself to play the guitar at the age of 12. At 15, when his parents divorced, he dropped out of school and moved to L.A. with his band, The Kids, which eventually opened for Iggy Pop and for the Ramones. At 20, he wed makeup artist Lori Allison; although they divorced two years later, it was she who introduced him to pal Nicholas Cage, who convinced Depp to meet his agent. He was quickly cast in Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and had a small part in Platoon (1986).
In 1987, Depp achieved teen-idol status as an undercover detective on the TV show 21 Jump Street. “I couldn’t stand being someone else’s product; a huge corporation had its hands all over me and I couldn’t escape,” he said, adding that the teen-mag covers “scared him to death; it wasn’t me.” He looked ahead and saw himself next cast in sit-coms, then with his face on a lunch box, and a few years later, a joke. His instinct was to pull back and recreate himself.
“I told him if he did Cry-Baby, we’d kill that image,” said director John Waters. So in 1990, Depp parodied himself as a teen idol. The same year, he teamed up with director Tim Burton, appearing as the edgy Edward Scissorhands, a suburban “monster” with blades instead of fingers, just trying to fit in, and earned his first of four Golden Globe nominations.
“Acting is a gypsy lifestyle,” he said, and the pressures took their toll. While filming What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? in 1993, Depp was strung out on liquor and pills. “I was trying to numb myself. I was very lucky I pulled out of it.”
The young actor who vowed never to be “assembly line” in his choices became alarmingly predictable in his downward-spiraling personal life. There were broken engagements (to Sherilyn Fenn, Winona Ryder, Jennifer Grey, and Kate Moss) and arrests for fighting with hotel security and paparazzi. He watched his friend River Phoenix die of a drug overdose in the parking lot of the Viper Room, the West Hollywood Club he still owns.
In 1994, Depp reunited with Burton as the cross-dressing, inept director in Ed Wood (1994). Using Ronald Reagan, The Tin Man, and Casey Kasem as his inspirations, he earned another Golden Globe nomination. This is no Johnny One Note. Depp has also portrayed Buster Keaton, Don Juan, FBI/Mafia undercover agent Joe Pistone, Hunter Thompson, and Ichabod Crane.
In 2003, to expand their audience, Disney cast Depp in the mainstream Pirates of the Caribbean (based on their theme park ride). He was eager to do a film both he and his children would enjoy (“A pirate, no limits; what fun!”). When reading a screenplay, Depp has said he gets “flashes and quick images.” For this role, he envisioned pirates as the rock stars of their day, and his character, Capt. Jack Sparrow, as Keith Richards — with hair beads and eyeliner. He capped several teeth in gold and added the stagger of someone too long in the sun and the swagger of the flamboyant cartoon skunk Pepe le Peu. Despite Disney’s doubts, Depp won adulation and his first Academy Award nomination.
He’s Oscar-nominated this year for his portrayal of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie in Finding Neverland, revisiting his own childhood fantasy of flying.
In 1998, Depp went to France to film The Ninth Gate with Roman Polanski. Across a crowded hotel lobby, he spotted acquaintance Vanessa Paradis, a French pop singer and Chanel model, nine years his junior. They had a drink, and “it was over,” he said. “I essentially just never left.”
The couple live with their two children in the South of France. “For all intents and purposes, we are married,” he said. “She’s the woman of my life.” For someone who hides behind hats, hair, makeup, and props, and readily admits, “I’m shy, paranoid. I hate fame. I’ve done everything to avoid it,” the location is perfect. “There is still the possibility to live a simple life.”
He’ll next play a debauched poet/earl in The Libertine, has wrapped the lead in Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and will reportedly double his salary (to $20M) for a Pirates sequel.
“I never had an allergy to commercial success,” he said. “I just wanted to get there in a way that’s not too compromising or demeaning.”
