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People Magazine 12/1/03 - The Sexiest Man Alive 2003
JOHNNY DEPP
Hollywood's quirky charmer balances stardom with the family that gave him 'a
reason to learn, a reason to breathe, a reason to care'
There he was in Disneyland last summer, strolling through the park with his
girlfriend and their two children. They were any family: the 4-year-old
girl with her face buried in a cloud of cotton candy, the 20-month-old boy
asleep in a stroller. But onlookers who caught a glimpse of the drop-dead
features beneath the slouchy hat and dark glasses probably did a double
take. The family guy was Johnny Depp, out introducing his kids to Pirates
of the Caribbean, the theme-park ride that inspired the year's biggest
nonanimated blockbuster and catapulted his art-house career into the bright,
shiny mainstream. After spending a lifetime rebelling against the Man, Depp
has been tamed, at 40, by the Mouse.
Say hello to the new Johnny Depp, this year's Sexiest Man Alive. Once
infamous for his brooding eccentricities, he has mellowed. Prior to
parenthood, "I just waste a whole bunch of time," he declared recently. And
because he arrived at his new, happy place without selling out, without
becoming slick or packaged or politically correct, he is a hero to his fans
and an idol to his young costars. "Lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely,"
says Keira Knightley, his castmate in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of
the Black Pearl. "He's very cool. He's a gorgeous guy. Eye candy."
Settled in a medieval-style house in L.A. and a second home on the French
Riviera with his girlfriend of five years, French actress and pop singer
Vanessa Paradis, 30, and little Lily-Rose and Jack, Depp remains a man of
contradictions. "He's a real trash-food guy, he likes Big Macs- but he also
knows a good bottle of wine," says his longtime friend, directer Jim
Jarmusch, who adds that this A-list movie star "gravitates to outsiders and
people that are down-and-out." And of course, Depp is famous for being the
best-looking actor to hide under layers of hats and blankets in his private
life and behind oddball characters in his films.
But he is finally coming to terms with his own charisma - the kind of
rocket-force magnetism that once inspired someon to approach Columbia
Pictures exec Amy Pascal and confess, "All I want to be is Johnny Depp's
pants." Depp "is more comfortable about being a leading man," says Lasse
Hallstrom, who directed him in 1993's What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and
2000's Chocolat. Pirates costar Orlando Bloom concurs: "You get the feeling
Johnny has been through the sausage machine of Hollywood and comes out the
other side still standing."
Hardly news to the many who have long considered the sloe-eyed iconoclast
the hottest thing to never catch commerical fire. "He's a little dangerous,
he has a secret, he has great warmth - all those things you can see in his
eyes," says Hallstrom. "That's the key to his appeal."
"He's always been a bit of a rebel and done whatever he wants to. That's
very sexy," notes Christina Ricci, who found out while making 1999's Sleepy
Hollow. "I'm sure he's even going to be sexy as Willy Wonka." Tim Burton,
slated to direct that remake next year, calls Depp "a mixture of everything,
which is what life is all about. He has a good radar about what's important
and what isn't."
He didn't always have that awareness. His life at times seemed destined to
end as badly as that of his buddy River Phoenix, whom Depp watched die of a
drug overdose outside the Viper Room, the L.A. club he still co-owns. "I
was doing a pretty good job of destroying myself," Depp told Details. "It
was just ignorance."
Enter Paradis, already a pop star in her native France when she met Depp in
1994. When they reconnected four years later, Depp never looked back.
Daughter Lily-Rose arrived in 1999, son Jack in 2002. Their births, he
said, "gave me everything. A reason to live. A reason to not be a dumbass.
A reason to learn, a reason to breathe, a reason to care."
They are also the reason he rarely ventures far from family life, which he
is living very much on his own terms. When in France, he frequently
ventures into the village of Plan de la Tour for a late-afternoon glass of
wine or a game of petanque with the locals. As for Man Ray, the nightspot
he co-owns in Paris, "I haven't seen him in here in six months," says
partner Thierry Klemeniuk. "Vanessa and the kids are his reality now."
But Ward Cleaver, thankfully, he is not. Sure, he plays Barbies with
Lily-Rose and races HotWheels with Jack, but 12 tattoos (most recently his
daughter's name above his heart and his son's on his forearm) and an endless
supply of cigarettes (hand-rolled with Bali Shag tobacco) ensure that the
mystique endures. "Life's pretty good, and why wouldn't it be?" Depp said
recently. "I'm a pirate, after all."
(Also included as an aside, pictures of Johnny and Vanessa at a premiere and
the picnic outing from last year)
HIS TRUE LOVE...
Last winter Vanessa Paradis professed her lover for her significant other in
a tribute in French Elle called "Johnny Depp, My Lover." Here's how she
described their relationship:
"All that I dreamed of, wanted, need. Our story is love and friendship
united. I have the impression that no one could love the way we love....
For us the important thing is our family, our couple and our children, and
when we talk about work, it's not too much and never during a romantic
dinner."
[Other asides discuss Johnny's romantic past (showing Sherilyn Fenn,
Jennifer Grey, Winona Ryder, and Kate Moss) and his jewelry (two silver
skulls and a gold Cherokee head that reflects his mom's heritage; a leather
cuff modeled after one worn in Platoon; a plastic chain of hearts made by
Lily-Rose; and commentary on Johnny being "a repeater" who "favors well-worn
clothes."]
AN AMERICAN BOY...
'I am an American. I love my country and have great hopes for it. It is
for this reason that I speak candidly and sometimes critically about it. I
have benefited greatly from the freedom that exists in my country and for
this I am eternally grateful'
- From a statement issued by Depp in September after a German magazine
printed controversial comments he had made about the U.S.
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