The
Johnny Depp Zone
Interview
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People of the Year: Johnny Depp
by Gavin
Edwards
Photograph by Nigel Parry
Rolling Stone Magazine
December 25, 2003
The
Grooviest
Pirate In The Caribbean Wouldn’t Mind Another Chance To Step
Back Into Captain
Jack’s Shoes.
JOHNNY
DEPP,
AFTER YEARS of
following his own
eccentric hunchback muse, became a big moneymaking Hollywood star in
2003. And,
fittingly, he did it in the most improbable way anyone could imagine:
Playing
an affected, fey pirate captain. Depp gave Pirates
of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl a jolt of
imaginative energy
every time he was onscreen, helping make it one of the year’s
most entertaining
movies – and he did the same as a conniving
Everyone
loves that the inspiration for
Captain Jack Sparrow was Keith Richards and Pepe Le Pew. What was
behind Agent
Sands in Once Upon a Time in Mexico?
The
idea behind him is there was a guy I used to know in Hollywood, in the
business, who on the outside was very charming—soft-spoken
and almost hypnotic
in the rhythm he used to speak. He refused to call me Johnny
– always called me
John. You knew this guy was aiming to fuck you over, but somehow you
stuck
around because he was just so fascinating to watch.
What’s
your favorite movie this year?
Not
a new one, but In a Lonely Place,
with Humphrey Bogart – that’s an amazing film. And
I thought Finding Nemo was
brilliant. I still
quote the seagulls every day: “Mine, mine, mine.”
That was one of my favorite
moments in any movie ever.
What
was the best place you visited this
year?
One
place would be Disneyland. I have two kids, so it’s a ball.
Walking around
Disneyland, my daughter, who’s four now, gets so excited and
so happy. She
likes the princesses and the roller coasters. And then eight
o’clock at night
rolls around, and the kids are walleyed. You’re carrying them
home.
Had you
been excited like that when you
were a kid?
Yeah,
when I was a little kid, I went to Disney World in Florida and loved
it. I was
obsessed with the Haunted Mansion and the Pirates of the Caribbean
– the darker
rides.
Little
did you know --
Yeah,
who could have ever thunk.
Four
seems young to be loving roller
coasters.
That’s
what I thought, too. But I think it’s the absolute freedom,
like flying. I
remember when I was a little kid, I used to dream of flying a lot. I
guess most
kids do. You grow up, and all kinds of hardship gets thrown on your
shoulders,
you don’t dream of flying anymore.
Do you
still remember your dreams?
Now
and again. There’s a dream I still remember very well, from
years ago. I was
being chased by Alan Hale, the Skipper from Gilligan’s
Island, all over the place. I ran, and I jumped bushes, and
he came around
the corner with that Skipper laugh, and I ran into—I was in
East L.A.—some
woman’s apartment, and I turned and looked in the kitchen and
there was sort of
an older Hispanic woman who was squatting on the kitchen floor, peeing.
And
then the Skipper burst in and he chased me all over the place. It was
one of
those dreams that seemed to last six hours. But I’m over that
now.
What
are your hopes for the year ahead?
Boy,
just to keep moving forward. Happiness for my family. And I hope that
things
get better all over and the weirdness in Iraq stops, all that stuff. I
think
sometimes it would be amazing to be able to go back in time to when
innocence
was a possibility. But the last time like that was the Fifties, early
Sixties.
We’re overwhelmed by information, technology, everything at
this point – but,
you know, maybe it’s just a transitional period.
Do you
think you made any mistakes this
year?
I
make mistakes every day. Yeah, I think I did, by talking politics with
a German
journalist whose command of the English language is probably not up to
snuff,
and having the intent of something I said misinterpreted. [Depp
was quoted as comparing the United States to
“a dumb puppy with
big teeth.”] And then having that thing sneak
around and bite me on the
ass. That was a nasty moment, but it’s all cleared up now. I
got to say what I
needed to say.
What
was your most extravagant purchase?
I
bought myself a Mont Blanc pen. There’s something about an
amazing old, heavy,
thick fountain pen with a broad nib that just makes you want to write
more.
What
kind of writing do you do?
Journal
form, thoughts and notes. I remind myself of a book that I want to read
or an
old movie I want to see. Or when I’m making notes before I do
a film, when I’m
working on the guy, the character.
What
music have you been enjoying
lately?
Well,
I’ve been listening to a lot of gypsy music.
There’s a band I really love
called Taraf de Haidouks. There’s a British artist called
Baby Bird who’s
really gifted. Old blues stuff: a lot of Robert Johnson, Son House,
Howlin’
Wolf.
So what
else are you looking forward to
in the year ahead?
Well,
there is talk of a Pirates sequel,
which would be fun. It’d be nice to step back into Captain
Jack’s shoes for a
spell. And hopefully, in the middle of next year, Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory, with Tim [Burton]. I may have to
do that. It’d be insane not to. You know, it’s an
amazing character that Roald
Dahl created – all the characters, but certainly Willy Wonka
– and the
challenge is to find another avenue that Gene Wilder didn’t
take. Because Gene
Wilder was so brilliant. I don’t want to let anybody down.
Any
chance of getting the aborted Don
Quixote movie back off the ground?
I hope so. That’s the dream. Terry [Gilliam] and I, we started talking about Quixote years ago, and then we tried to do it and it took a giant dump on us, more on him than on me. The last time I talked to him, he seemed very optimistic that we could get it back on the road. Terry came to visit me one day on the set of Pirates. He was looking at everything, all the giant sets, and he said, “This is just great. I’m so pleased that you’re selling out. [laughs] This can be a giant hit, and we can get Quixote back and running.”