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The Johnny Depp Zone's Interview Archive is intended for mature readers. We reprint articles as published, so most contain profanity and/or adult subject matter.

Men's magazines and music magazines are usually more explicit than magazines and newspapers written for a general audience.

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~ Part-Time Poet

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The Gypsy

Describing the experience of working with Johnny Depp, Terry Gilliam, who directed Johnny in 1998’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, told an interviewer: “You don’t want to work with anyone else once you’ve worked with somebody as good as that.” Elaborating, Gilliam added, “It’s hard to put your finger on why he’s so extraordinary [. . .] . But technically he’s astonishing, he’s absolutely brilliant, with the kind of technique you’d only get if you’d spent 10 years at RADA—and it’s all self-taught.”

The years 1998-2000, during which Johnny Depp worked principally in Europe and saw seven films released, showcase his amazing versatility. Johnny is all-but-unrecognizable in Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing, as he channels Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson into his portrayal of Thompson’s alter ego, Raoul Duke. Preparing for the role, Johnny moved into Thompson’s Colorado home to study his subject and instead, says Gilliam, “stole his soul;” the two Kentuckians were to remain fast friends until the Good Doctor’s death in 2005.

1999’s Sleepy Hollow, a masterful blend of the comic and the macabre, reunited Johnny with director Tim Burton. Johnny’s interpretation of sleuth Ichabod Crane fused the mind of Sherlock Holmes with the wide-eyed timidity of a pubescent girl. The result was box-office magic: the first $100-million blockbuster of Johnny’s career. Other films of this period brought their own pleasures: in The Astronaut’s Wife (1999), Johnny displayed charming chemistry with future Oscar-winner Charlize Theron; his next role, as unscrupulous book dealer Dean Corso in the occult thriller The Ninth Gate (1999), afforded him the opportunity to work with legendary director Roman Polanski. In Julian Schnabel’s Before Night Falls (2000), Johnny portrayed both the ruthless interrogator Lt. Victor and the flirtatious transvestite Bon Bon, while as the persecuted gypsy Cesar in Sally Potter’s tragic The Man Who Cried (2000), Johnny worked with a brilliant ensemble that included Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, and three-time co-star Christina Ricci (who also appears in Fear and Loathing and as Ichabod’s love interest, Katrina Van Tassel, in Sleepy Hollow).

For Chocolat (2000), Lasse Hallstrom’s delightful fantasy of French village life in the late 1950s, Johnny accepted a rare romantic role as the footloose Roux and lit up the screen opposite a radiant Juliette Binoche. This critical and fan favorite received 5 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and 3 Screen Actors Guild award nominations, including one for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Motion Picture—Johnny’s first SAG nomination.

But acclaim for his work and screen success, however pleasant, were not, according to Johnny, the most significant developments in his life at this time: the real landmarks had nothing to do with movies. They were personal. While filming The Ninth Gate in Paris in 1998, he fell in love with the stunning French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis. They welcomed their daughter Lily-Rose Melody on May 27, 1999, and Johnny found himself blissfully transformed by love and fatherhood. “I’m a walking cliché,” he told David Eimer about his metamorphosis into doting dad. “It’s a miracle, it’s given me life, it’s given me clarity. I love waking up and seeing that little smile.”


--Part-Time Poet



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May -- Biography Magazine, Marjorie Rosen
May 30 -- Hello! Magazine
June -- Elle, Elizabeth McCracken
June -- George Magazine, Douglas Brinkley
June -- Icon, Dana Shapiro
June 11 -- Rolling Stone, Chris Heath
November 7 -- The London Times, Martyn Palmer
December -- FHM Magazine, Bridget Freer


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October -- Talk Magazine, Tom Shone
November 12 -- Combustible Celluloid, Jeffrey M. Anderson
November 12 -- Spliced Wire, Rob Blackwelder
November 14 -- Chicago Sun Times, Cindy Pearlman
November 19 -- Entertainment Weekly, Chris Nashawaty
November 19 -- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Luaine Lee
December -- Premiere Magazine, Johanna Schneller
December 12 -- Sunday Times (London), David Eimer
1999 -- Cranky Critic, Cranky Critic


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December/January -- Detour, William Georgiades
January -- Empire Magazine, Simon Braund
January -- Vogue (UK Edition), Jenny Dyson
January 11 -- The Guardian, Libby Brooks
February -- Esquire, Jessamy Calkin
December 12 -- CNN.com, Michael Okwu