[[text is from book - - "Johnny Depp - A Modern Rebel" by Brian J. Robb]]
---Introduction---
A Modern Rebel
Johnny Depp used to be a Hollywood outsider. Once seen by some as a modern rebel in the James Dean mode, Depp has grown-up considerably over the past decade. Now in his forties, he has left behind his rable-rousing, hotel-wrecking, paparazzi-baiting tearaway image, and replaced it with that of a loving partner to French singer Vanessa Paradis and father to his two children, Lily-Rose and Jack.
It has been a most unexpected turnaround. He once avoided Hollywood blockbuster movies and pursued a relentlessly uncommercial series of roles, but having children has given Depp licence to take part in familyfare like Pirates of the Caribbean, its sequel and Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. At the same time he's still pursuing his single-minded quest to play strange characters in strange ways, as shown by his Earl of Rochester in The Libertine or his plan to play the totally paralysed Jean-Dominique Bauby in the Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
---Introduction---
A Modern Rebel
Johnny Depp used to be a Hollywood outsider. Once seen by some as a modern rebel in the James Dean mode, Depp has grown-up considerably over the past decade. Now in his forties, he has left behind his rable-rousing, hotel-wrecking, paparazzi-baiting tearaway image, and replaced it with that of a loving partner to French singer Vanessa Paradis and father to his two children, Lily-Rose and Jack.
It has been a most unexpected turnaround. He once avoided Hollywood blockbuster movies and pursued a relentlessly uncommercial series of roles, but having children has given Depp licence to take part in familyfare like Pirates of the Caribbean, its sequel and Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. At the same time he's still pursuing his single-minded quest to play strange characters in strange ways, as shown by his Earl of Rochester in The Libertine or his plan to play the totally paralysed Jean-Dominique Bauby in the Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
With two critically-acclaimed, genuine blockbusters under his belt in Sleepy Hollow and Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp has been able to carve out a new life for himself in France with Paradis and his children, away from the press and the pressures of Hollywood which had so weighed on him previously.
Willing to pick and choose his roles, from the fulfilling and arty (The Man Who Cried, Before Night Falls, Chocolate) to the bank-balance boosting mainstream (The Astronaut's Wife, Secret Window), Depp is usually the best thing about any film he appears in. He can make a bad movie worth watching and he can bring something totally unique to a good project.
In 1995, Johnny Depp was a big star, an A-list name who'd made millions of dollars without ever starring in a genuinely successful box office movie. His image adorned the bedroom walls of millions of teenage girls the world over, but he continued to rail against the commodification of his image as he had done since his days as a teen heart-throb TV star on 21 Jump Street. He turned down the lead role in countless mainstream success stories- Speed, Legends of the Fall, Thelma & Louise, Robin Hood: Price of Thieves - in favour of quirkier fare like Ed Wood, Don Juan DeMarco and Benny & Joon.
In 2003, Depp surprised many by becoming an even bigger star, seemingly enjoying a second wind in his career via his unlikely scene-stealing turn as addled pirate captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. 'I only wanted to be in a movie that my kids could see,' said Depp of the choice. 'It was mentioned that they were considering a movie based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and I said I was in. There was no screenplay, no director, nothing. For some unknown reason, I just said I was in.'
Depp found, in a movie he explicitly did for his kids, a way to combine the quirkiness of the off-kilter characters he'd played in the past (to limited commercial success) like Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sam in Benny & Joon, and even Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, with a successful mainstream movie. He'd pulled off the same trick as Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow, and as Agent Sands in Once Upon a Time In New Mexico, but it was Jack Sparrow who stayed in the minds of audiences, kids and adults alike. 'I had never experienced that before,' Depp said. 'And it's been fun to visit Hollywood and talk to studios as a bankable actor for a change.'
Depp's personal life has seen equally dramatic changes over the past ten years. As his relationship with Kate Moss crumbled in the mid-to-late-1990's- over the issue of having children - Depp took up with French singer Vanessa Paradis. 'I pretty much fell in love with Vanessa the moment I set eyes on her.' claimed Depp. 'As a person, I was pretty much a lost cause at that time in my life. She turned all that around for me with her incredible tenderness and understanding.'
The pair rapidly had a family, with two kids, Lily-Rose and Jack, and bought houses in rural France, Paris and Los Angeles. The man who'd never settle down, who rented property rather then bought, was now happily playing the role of doting father and 'husband' (Paradis and Depp are not married, but noth consider themselves to be husband-and-wife anyway).
'I love our house in the country,' said Depp of his new idyll. 'I can walk to the nearby village and have coffee and no one pays any notice. I'm just another dad with my daughter on my knee. The time I've spent in France with Vanessa has solidified my belief that I can keep a major distance from Hollywood and still keep in the game. Acting is my living, but I dont want to live it. Living in France is the first time I can honestly say I feel at home.' It's an outcome any Johnny Depp fan leaving a cinema screening of Nick of Time in 1995 would have been very surprised by.
The one common factor to all that Depp does, on screen and off, is surprise. It's as if he keeps himself interested, in himself and in his career, by constantly surprising himself by his choices, in life and in movies. 'TheThere's a drive in me that won't allow me to do certain things that are easy,' he admitted. 'I can weigh all the options, but there's always one thing that goes: "Johnny:this is the one." And it's always the most difficult - it's always the one that will cause the most trouble...'
While he may be bankable and a critical success, Johnny Depp has done it all on his own terms by tackling the roles he wants to play in his own unique way. 'All the amazing people that I've worked with- Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman,'Depp said, '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.'
It is that combination of surprise and uncompromising desire to fight for his own uniquely skewed vision that has brought Johnny Depp to the pinnacle of his career - complete with a Screen Actors Guild award and Oscar nomination for Pirates of the Caribbean. He shows no sign that this mainstream acclaim will in anyway deflect him from playing the Hollywood game his way. 'I've been around long enough to know that one week, you're on the exclusive list of guys who can open a movie,' said Depp, 'and then the next week, you're off the list. It's been a fun ride, and I'm enjoying it for all it's worth.'
--->This is the story of that rollercoaster ride, from Owensboro, Kentucky in 1963 to France in 2005 and beyond...
Willing to pick and choose his roles, from the fulfilling and arty (The Man Who Cried, Before Night Falls, Chocolate) to the bank-balance boosting mainstream (The Astronaut's Wife, Secret Window), Depp is usually the best thing about any film he appears in. He can make a bad movie worth watching and he can bring something totally unique to a good project.
In 1995, Johnny Depp was a big star, an A-list name who'd made millions of dollars without ever starring in a genuinely successful box office movie. His image adorned the bedroom walls of millions of teenage girls the world over, but he continued to rail against the commodification of his image as he had done since his days as a teen heart-throb TV star on 21 Jump Street. He turned down the lead role in countless mainstream success stories- Speed, Legends of the Fall, Thelma & Louise, Robin Hood: Price of Thieves - in favour of quirkier fare like Ed Wood, Don Juan DeMarco and Benny & Joon.
In 2003, Depp surprised many by becoming an even bigger star, seemingly enjoying a second wind in his career via his unlikely scene-stealing turn as addled pirate captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. 'I only wanted to be in a movie that my kids could see,' said Depp of the choice. 'It was mentioned that they were considering a movie based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and I said I was in. There was no screenplay, no director, nothing. For some unknown reason, I just said I was in.'
Depp found, in a movie he explicitly did for his kids, a way to combine the quirkiness of the off-kilter characters he'd played in the past (to limited commercial success) like Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sam in Benny & Joon, and even Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, with a successful mainstream movie. He'd pulled off the same trick as Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow, and as Agent Sands in Once Upon a Time In New Mexico, but it was Jack Sparrow who stayed in the minds of audiences, kids and adults alike. 'I had never experienced that before,' Depp said. 'And it's been fun to visit Hollywood and talk to studios as a bankable actor for a change.'
Depp's personal life has seen equally dramatic changes over the past ten years. As his relationship with Kate Moss crumbled in the mid-to-late-1990's- over the issue of having children - Depp took up with French singer Vanessa Paradis. 'I pretty much fell in love with Vanessa the moment I set eyes on her.' claimed Depp. 'As a person, I was pretty much a lost cause at that time in my life. She turned all that around for me with her incredible tenderness and understanding.'
The pair rapidly had a family, with two kids, Lily-Rose and Jack, and bought houses in rural France, Paris and Los Angeles. The man who'd never settle down, who rented property rather then bought, was now happily playing the role of doting father and 'husband' (Paradis and Depp are not married, but noth consider themselves to be husband-and-wife anyway).
'I love our house in the country,' said Depp of his new idyll. 'I can walk to the nearby village and have coffee and no one pays any notice. I'm just another dad with my daughter on my knee. The time I've spent in France with Vanessa has solidified my belief that I can keep a major distance from Hollywood and still keep in the game. Acting is my living, but I dont want to live it. Living in France is the first time I can honestly say I feel at home.' It's an outcome any Johnny Depp fan leaving a cinema screening of Nick of Time in 1995 would have been very surprised by.
The one common factor to all that Depp does, on screen and off, is surprise. It's as if he keeps himself interested, in himself and in his career, by constantly surprising himself by his choices, in life and in movies. 'TheThere's a drive in me that won't allow me to do certain things that are easy,' he admitted. 'I can weigh all the options, but there's always one thing that goes: "Johnny:this is the one." And it's always the most difficult - it's always the one that will cause the most trouble...'
While he may be bankable and a critical success, Johnny Depp has done it all on his own terms by tackling the roles he wants to play in his own unique way. 'All the amazing people that I've worked with- Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman,'Depp said, '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.'
It is that combination of surprise and uncompromising desire to fight for his own uniquely skewed vision that has brought Johnny Depp to the pinnacle of his career - complete with a Screen Actors Guild award and Oscar nomination for Pirates of the Caribbean. He shows no sign that this mainstream acclaim will in anyway deflect him from playing the Hollywood game his way. 'I've been around long enough to know that one week, you're on the exclusive list of guys who can open a movie,' said Depp, 'and then the next week, you're off the list. It's been a fun ride, and I'm enjoying it for all it's worth.'
--->This is the story of that rollercoaster ride, from Owensboro, Kentucky in 1963 to France in 2005 and beyond...
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