PROFILE JOHNNY DEPP:He could have been a teen idol, with a string of romcom roles. But thankfully, he and director Tim Burton got together to make weird and wonderful characters - and hairstyles, writes
SHANE HEGARTY
A RECENT ISSUE of GQ magazine features Johnny Depp on the cover. A Che Guevara pendant hangs from his neck; tattoos line his arms, his hair tumbles nonchalantly over his eyes. And he is topless. He is admirably doughy, but topless nonetheless. It jars, not just because it is a pose worthy of a teen magazine rather than a men's monthly, but because it is not what we have come to expect of Johnny Depp. This is an image from an alternate career in which Depp went on to make inconsequential romcoms starring opposite Sandra Bullock in one movie and Jennifer Aniston in the next. This is the Depp we would have known if his first role - on 1980s cop show 21 Jump Street- had been the template for everything that followed. It's the Johnny Depp we did not get. And do not want.
Depp instead became a strange kind of star; a purveyor of misfits and cranks and the sort of kids' movies anti-hero that you wouldn't leave your kids with. If you were to be uncharitable, you could say he has become Hollywood's greatest hair actor. When the public thinks of him, they don't visualise more conventional roles in Donnie Brascoor as John Dillinger in Public Enemies. What comes to mind instead is Edward Scissorhands(Curehead), Willy Wonka(creepy bob) and, at a push, Sweeney Todd(a post-coital Cruella De Ville). And now, there is Depp as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland- for which much of the publicity focuses on Depp, with a gap cleaving through his teeth and plumes of red hair jetting out from under the brim of his hat.
He is undoubtedly the star of Alice in Wonderland, gaining top billing even when his is a supporting role and he is out-acted by Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen. And he is undoubtedly a global star in an era of dimming wattage, thanks to the ridiculous success of the Pirates of the Caribbeanseries in which, as Jack Sparrow, he is the solid centre of an increasingly shambolic plot. Not that it mattered at the box office, where the three films have grossed a combined $2.7 billion (€1.9 billion) and a fourth is planned.
He previously walked an interesting career path that had avoided sequels and, often, convention; so a role in a cash-printing Disney franchise was perhaps unexpected, even if it is an unconventional franchise.
Nevertheless, as Sparrow he has been allowed to unpack his full box of tics and practised bemusement, to get the English accent out and enjoy his role as a pirate Rolling Stone (acknowledged by Keith Richards popping up in the third film).
AS AN ACTOR, he has become known for layering quirk onto eccentricity and then topping it with idiosyncrasy. The characters, he insists, are his imaginative creations and at 46, although he has three Oscar nominations and no statuette, there are few movie stars who so regularly appear to be having so much all-out fun on screen (or so gleefully chewing the scenery, depending on your tastes). Much of that comes through his collaboration with Tim Burton - seven movies in all - and it is to Burton that we can credit Depp's attraction to gothic fairytales and Victorian nightmares. With each passing year, it becomes clear that the defining role of Depp's career may always remain the first he made with Burton: Edward Scissorhands.
Depp was born in Kentucky to parents who were practically itinerant but whose eventual split left Depp psychologically disturbed enough to result in self-harm and permanent scars. His acting career began in his early 20s, during his first marriage and following a succession of odd jobs and a spell trying to make a rock band work. Nicholas Cage is credited with encouraging him to take up acting, and his first part came with 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street, before he later showed up as a bit player in Oliver Stone's Platoon.
He became noticed with 21 Jump Street, but veered away from the business of being a teen idol and broke through with Edward Scissorhands, in which he played a hedge-trimming, haircutting variant of Frankenstein's monster. It began a run of otherworldly characters that has become an ongoing project.
Early on, Depp's private life once brought a certain notoriety.
Following his first marriage, he partnered with actors Sherilyn Fenn and then Winona Ryder - that coupling being a kind of indie ideal at the time. He has a tattoo on his chest that reads "Wino Forever" - an edited version of the "Winona Forever" that unwisely made it on there first.
After that he became an early addition to Kate Moss's list of boyfriends.
In 1994 he was arrested and questioned about a hotel room thrashing, and has since spoken about his alcohol dependence at the time - although not enough that he has quit since. That part of his story came back a little this week when he spoke about how settled his life has become in recent years. He credits this to his partner of over a decade, French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis, and the arrival of their two children.
Although, that settled life is hardly the norm: he owns a 45-acre island, a vineyard in France and part-owns (with Mick Hucknall, John Malkovich and Sean Penn) a restaurant in Paris.
Actually, his clear affinity with European culture - through his movie choices as much as his lifestyles - has at times fostered suspicion among Fox News watchers, although he is fond of asking just why anyone should care about what an actor thinks. When a mildly political interview appeared in a German magazine, Stern, and hate mail followed from some who didn't like his questioning of his government's foreign policy (he says he was misquoted anyway) he tracked down and phoned the handful of people who sent the hate mail so that he could explain himself.
HOWEVER, UNLIKE OTHER stars - John Travolta, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise - who come laden with personal distractions, Depp has become a pure enough presence in Hollywood, known through his roles rather than his religion or a soap opera marriage.
Having previously played a version of Hunter S Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, he goes back to that writer's work to play a drink-sodden journalist in The Rum Diary and then plays opposite Angelina Jolie in thriller The Tourist.
Then there will be the return of Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean 4: Search for the Lost Plot(or some such subtitle), a job that will no doubt be lucrative enough to allow him to buy another island and tow it alongside the one he already owns. And then, there is a host of rumoured projects. There is a Dark Shadows- a half-forgotten gothic TV series that may be resurrected by Tim Burton - and there is a possible role in Sin City 3. He would play the lead. And have very impressive hair.
CV
Who is heActor, pretty boy, star
Why is he in the newsHe plays the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's latest film, Alice in Wonderland
Most likely to say"I need more white powder for my face! And crazier hair."
Least likely to say"Tim Burton? Over-rated."