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THE FARTING OF THE CORPSES

He is the Tom Cruise of the catacomb dwellers: SLEEPY HOLLOW star Johnny Depp mostly plays unbalanced, dark-romatik maniacs on screen, but in this interwiew he tells us why he is increasingly scared of the madmans in this world.

Attention, this is an attack to your health Johnny Depp whispers and waves with a selfmade brown cigarette when he soundless enters the non-smoking suite of a New York hotel. The 36-year-old tries to look as badly as possible like he always does: greasy hair, crumpled shirt in stone grey, washed out black Levi's - and like every time he tries this it doesn't work. He looks breathtaking, his tall build and his cheekbones, which others would have pulled out all their back teeth for. He is an artist captured in the body of a poster boy, Roman Polanski says. Depp is veiled in the dreamy aura of a moonstruck - he speaks with a soft voice like someone in a trance, he ends in the middle of carefully elaborated sentences to surprisedly repeat the question and start again. That's not a ploy, it is what Tim Burton saw in the eyes of the 21-JUMP-STREET teenie idol: A sadness, a depth as if he had already lived very much longer. Since a time when people still knew why they are afraid of darkness and of windmills, that creaky sound in the wind at night. Currently the dark knight is filming Ted Demme's BLOW together with Franka Potente.

Q: Mr. Depp, did Tim Burton create a new dream couple on screen out of you and Christina Ricci?

A: You are talking about a nightmare couple I think (laughs). I don't hope so. It is all an accident that Christina and me are filming together again after SLEEPY HOLLOW (THE MAN WHO CRIES).

Q: You seem born for one another though: the shadow man and the moonlight princess.

A: Well, both of us and Tim Burton share the same fascination for the unbalanced individual opposite the real world. I mean all my characters in Tim's films were deeply unbalanced.

Q: What's wrong with your inspector Ichabod Crane in SLEEPY HOLLOW?

A: I think he always is on the verge of explosion. He's a completely nervous wreck. I can understand that very much. I think people that seem to be stable actually are the most emotional ones.

Q: Burton said the idea of a headless horseman on the one side and a real headman on the other fascinated him.

A: That's Tim's way of thinking I appreciate so much. I know this sounds like PR drivel but: It is a joy to step into the ring with him, to try everything without having any fear. You can make an ass out of yourself and it's okay. Because the most exciting aspect is the possibility of failing.

Q: Did the possibility of an American actor working with an emsemble of highly appreciated British theatre actors cause you a lot of fear?

A: God, listen: When I came in on the first day of shooting there were: Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson (sighs), Richard Griffiths, Ian McDiarmid, Jeffrey Jones... I was deeply horrified. But there is something good about that too.

Q: Michael Gambon said he learned a lot from you.

A: That honours me. I know what he means. As a stage actor this man is used to acting with his whole body. My method wouldn't work on stage.

Q: What's your method?

A: I just help myself where the camera isn't looking. If I have an especially relaxed face on a closeup but actually am under high pressure, I just put a feather duster into my pants. It tickles. Actually a very lousy trick. Anyway I didn't expect having that much fun with these venerable gentlemen. I never laughed that much before.

Q: To be honest you can tell it by your face. In the dark set, all of you seem that you can't help constantly laughing.

A: Well, that's what it was like. Tim Burton planned SLEEPY HOLLOW as sort of a silent movie with sound in the tradition of the old Hammer-Movies. Highly dramatic but not at all serious. Thus I brought my little fart machine to the set, it always helps relax the atmosphere. But Michael Gambon, I mean could you imagine: The great Shakespeare actor Michael Gambon had one too - with remote control!?! He used to hide it in the corpses and I always fell for it. I love flatulenz humor. As you might know I dreamt for a long time about a fart-operetta with me in the title role.

Q: Is it this kind of humor that drags you towards Europe?

A: I don't know... Actually I feel a stranger everywhere. Certainly the most in America. I still own a house in Los Angeles but I haven't been living there for two years.

Q: Meanwhile you live in France together with Vanessa Paradis and your mutual daughter Lily-Rose.

A: France has always had a special magic for me...I don't know why. Maybe...because people there know how to live? I can't put it in words. I just didn't move there earlier because I was afraid that this magic would disappear when I'm there at last. But then...You know, I filmed in Paris, met a girl - had a baby. Voila! (happily grins)

Q: Gonzo-journalist Hunter S. Thompson whom you portrait recently in FEAR AND LOTHING IN LAS VEGAS said about you that you were much too smart to be really happy.

A: Hunter is a bug. I love that guy. He is so fantastically crazy. Maybe luck actually lets you turn stupid, to me it causes fear. Since I have Lily-Rose I fear the madmen of the world more than ever.

Q: How do you mean this?

A: I like America, the country and it's people. But when I'm in Los Angeles now and again and turn on the TV what do I see? A guy marching into the North-Hollywood Jewish community center and shooting children. Or small boys slaughtering their schoolmates at Columbine Highschool. I don't want my child to grow up in such an environment. America has gone mad. Some day it will implode with violence and that makes me scared.

Q: What is the most frightening thing about your new state as a father?

A: That I am a father. I find it incredible. I witnessed my siblings becoming parents, one of my sisters has four kids, the other one two, and my brother has a son, and suddenly many years later it is me! Fascinating.

Q: Do you feel more adult now?

A: I don't know if I will always feel like an adult. Must I? It just was...secretly I always hoped it would happen, but I had my doubts you know? And then...boom it happens and now I'm a living daddy cliche. I'm totally in love with Lily-Rose. She is my reason to live, before I merely existed. And if we don't change the subject immediately I will bore you terribly. Lily-Rose has a rash on her bum you know and...

Q: Okay. Let's talk about your other obsessions. Exotic beetles, absinth..

A: ...and lamps. Don't forget the lamps. I'm obsessed with lamps. All my houses are stuffed with lamps- valuable antique ones, Tiffany lamps. But... and that's really bizarre: There's no light! None of them has a bulb.

Q: How many Johnny Depps do you need then to screw a bulb in?

A: All of them.

Interwiew by Brigitte Steinmetz