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P Magazine 8/13/03

Johnny Depp and his smelly breath.

"I don't give a damn about what is written. That's a great feeling"

Johnny Depp is an excellent actor with a rock-'n-roll image. From this week on you can see him as a cool pirate in 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. But he's actually a family man.. So he says. Our reporter spoke to Vanessa Paradis' husband in Hollywood.

"I wanted to make a movie my children could see. I mean, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas isn't really something for toddlers. And neither is Ed Wood," says Johnny Depp with a crooked smile. By doing that you can see some of the golden teeth that he got for his role of the pirate Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, which is a bit of a strange sight. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer was frighten when he saw Depp appear with his mouth full of golden teeth, dreadlocks and jewelry in his hair, a plaited goatee and heavy make-up on his eyes. To soothe him, he got two teeth removed, on the condition that he could keep his dreads. Secretly he got another golden tooth later on. The film is done, but Depp hasn't had the time yet to get the golden teeth out. And that is, like i said, a bit of a strange sight. But actually Depp looks a bit strange al together today: more like a member of a rock band that has just started, than a successful actor and sex symbol.
While the sun is shining on the Avenue of the Stars, Depp sneaks into the suit of the Saint Regis hotel in Los Angeles with a tea-cozy on is head. A blue knitted tea-cozy. The hair underneath the unusual head-covering is peaking out, half chestnut brown and half dyed blond. While Depp's moustache and goatee are black again. He's wearing a competently teared (and undoubtedly expensive) pair of jeans and a jacket that exist out of uneven patches of leather sowed together with big stitches. The outfit says that the man wearing it is a grungy rock-'n-roll kind of man with the motto: you can all kiss my artistic a**. Strangely enough Depp is wearing a big pair of glasses with a horn frame, probably to look like learned or intelligent man. It isn't easy being a sex symbol.
Personally I think it's a bit strange that someone who is forty still dresses like a adolescent to show that he's a rebel. Especially when he constantly says in interviews how much fatherhood has changed him: Depp and the French wonder child Vanessa Paradis have two children: Lily-Rose (4) and Jack (1). Lately they pop-up in every interview: they gave meaning to Depp's life, inspired him to make the family movie Pirates of the Caribbean, he will personally beat up the paparazzi that haunt his children, and when they grow up and want to smoke pot, Depp senior will buy it for them himself so they won't come home with bad stuff. The rebel who once trashed a hotel room, led a bit of a wild life, wasn't afraid of drink, drugs and aerodynamic women, has become a good family man, although you wouldn't say that if you saw him sitting her in his expensive rags and with the ridiculous hat on his head.
The question is raised whether he has grown up now that he's forty. He smiles and shows all of his golden teeth. "Probably not. I don't think I will ever grow up." People who have studied for it, often say, in women's magazines, that men will never grow up, so Depp isn't an exception. But when he got the script for Pirates of the Caribbean, a movie inspired by the theme ride with the same name in Disneyland, he went into the sauna to think about how the pirate Jack Sparrow would have to look like. And he ended up with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. "I saw him as an 18th century rocker. It might have been more obvious to play him like the classical dare all, like we know pirates from the movies. But I think that the plundering and murdering that is part of the profession were less important than the myth, the legend, that they try to life by. Pirates have a rock-'n-roll aura, they were admired and feared as well. They were literally adventurers, they knew god nor law, they were free. They had a special way of life, that appealed to the imagination, like the rock stars of today."
So, groupies too?
That's possible. Jack Sparrow had an interesting life, I think.
Being an adventurer, living by your own rules, maintaining a rock-'n-roll image, being the subject of myths: it seems like we're talking about Johnny Depp!
Oh no! Completely not. The most things that have been written about me throughout the years are really myths. In the best case interesting fiction. I'm not like those stories say I am.
But as an actor you have indeed made a lot of strange choices and a few memorable movies?
Yes, that's true. When I got out of the tight corset of the television actor (Depp had his break through as a teen idol in the series 21 Jump Street) I tried to make movies that I hoped I could be proud of later. And that my children and even grandchildren wouldn't have to be ashamed about. That's what was important to me.

Fighting sea pocks
You have been acting for 20 years now. Do you still like it?
Absolutely. I enjoy it more than I used to. Because I now finally know what is important and what is of secondary importance. That's because I haven't been to see new movies for a while now, don't read newspapers and magazines anymore and don't watch television. So I know absolutely nothing about the movie business: I don't know which movie made a billion dollars and which one only made 5 cents. I don't know anything about the movie business and that's the way I like it. I know how to do my job, I have mastered it. and the rest doesn't really matter. So I now have a great life, that got it's meaning when my children were born.
Where did the decision come from to close your eyes for the media?
I felt more and more like a ship with a trillion sea pocks on it. The things grew on it and slowed the ship down and after a while they made the wood decay, just like the media stories get to you. I realized I didn't need those things. It's the most fantastic feeling in the world: not caring about anything that is written and that is happening in the world.
The only thing that occupies me, is my family, my work and myself. I don't lay awake at night worrying about success or failure. I remain passionate about my work. But I think it's unhealthy to worry too much about what others in your profession are doing and what they are getting for it, and things like that. I think Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse had a healthy kind of rivalry between them at the beginning of their careers they inspire themselves to get better. But at a certain moment Picasso didn't care about anyone anymore and then cubism originated. Because Picasso was only occupied in himself. And in his work. Let it be clear, i don't want to compare myself with Picasso in any way, but he's a man I really admire.
It seems that you paint as well. Are you often busy with a brush?
I paint as much as possible. When you are a bad painter like me, you want to paint as much as possible.
Will we ver get to see your work? People who know something about it, say you are good.
I'm not! I paint like a three year old. I have never considered showing my paintings to the world. I have given a few of my works to friends. For me, painting is like playing the guitar: it's a form of therapy. You sit there, put paint on a canvas or some paper and you get it all over yourself. You don't have to think when you're doing it.
Where do you get your inspiration?
My painting and drawings always become portraits of people I may or may not know. I'm inspired by people. For my acting I get my inspiration from human behavior and emotions.

The United States of Disneyland
You have left America to life in Paris. When you come back to Los Angeles, like now, does it feel like coming home? Is it like you have never left?
Absolutely not, I have really left LA. It makes me feel good. I have to admit that it was nice to come back to make this pirate movie, with my two children and my girl (Depp usually refers to Vanessa Paradis as 'my girl'). We lived in my old house and it was fantastic. Maybe because I knew it was just for a short while, because we would go back to France. I don't think I could live in the United States again, especially not with my children. That time has passed. America has a certain charm: it's a bit like Disneyland! It's cool to come and visit, and it's even better to leave again.
Why do you think it's better for your children to grow up in Europe?
We life in France and sometimes in London for a while. I think European culture is much better. The American culture is in many ways like a young puppy: a bit stupid but friendly!
Do you speak French or English with your children?
English. I have spoken French with Lily-Rose for a while, but she herself switched to English.
It seems that fathers are terrified for the moment when their daughters start showing interest for the other sex. Can you imagine that?
Yes, I'm worried about it. I think I will be waiting in the car with the car jack to hit the admirers. I think I will play the pathetic father that tries to make her feel guilty. Although, that doesn't seem to work anymore.
You said that European culture was very sound, but don't you think it's Americanizing a lot?
France is still staying away from that. France will stand strong.
There are a lot of McDonald's there?
You also have those in Russia and China. McDonald's has become a culture on it's own and is dominating the world.
But on the French television there are a lot of reality shows as well and bad American soaps?
It's a good thing then that I don't watch television.
What do you do at night? Open a bottle of wine, with a baguette and a piece of French cheese?
For example. I enjoy the things François Villon enjoyed centuries ago (François Villon was a travelling rebellious poet that lived outside the law from 1431 to 1463 when his death penalty for murdering a priest was changed in being banned from Paris). The simple things of life. That's what I achieved by going to live in France: simplicity. It was unachievable when I lived in Los Angeles, because everything there has to do with the movie business.
But in France you do still get recognized on the street?
It depends where I'm going. I've always been a bit shy, even as a teenager. But I can go to flee markets in French towns without a problem, even around Paris. There I talk to beautiful old people with life experience. Sometimes one of their grandchildren says: 'You look like Johnny Depp. And she looks like Vanessa Paradis.' Then we do like we don't know what they are talking about.

In a plastic bag
Did you really hate doing your television work as much as you say you did?
I was terribly frustrated on the creative level. That television program was just stuffing between the commercials. And it also marketed a product: me! That scared me. I knew it would soon be finished with me if I kept doing that.
You were a teen idol but you wanted out?
It's like being in a thick plastic bag from which you need to escape with nothing more than a blunt object. You have to kick and bite and scratch to get out of it. And I did it. It was a remarkable period. I look back at it like most people do at their time at school: I learned a lot from it. Also about the technical sides of the business. Five days a week I was in front of the camera, seven to nine months a year. You do learn a lot about the business. But it was a hard learning school.
What's the best advice you ever got?
I got that from my mother. She said: "Don't ever take shit from anybody. Ever!" Don't let anyone boss you around. Ever!
That's sound like the motto of gonzo-writer Hunter S. Thompson, whom you played in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. You became friends with him then. Do you still have contact with him?
Oh yeah, all the time.
It seems like his house if full of pictures of the two of you together?
Yeah, where we are playing with weapons. Hunter likes shooting.
At photos of American presidents and things like that.
At a lot of things. He sometimes also shoots Micky Mouse (Thompson once shot his assistent, and once his now ex-wife).

Head nor tails
You once directed The Brave with you and Marlon Brando in the leading roles. Don't you ever feel like getting behind the camera again?
I would like to direct a movie if I don't have to be in it myself. That was too hard and suffocating. My problem is that I would like to make something without a linear story, something that deviates from all formulas. Most of all I would like to make a movie that makes no sense at all. That would be great. Just a movie that consists of a lot of images and music and that you can make head nor tail of it.
Like Charlie's Angels 3?
(smiles) For example.
Actor John Malkovich also lives in France. Do you ever see each other?
Yes, I've once been to his house in the Provence. He made a drink a very good red wine.
Your wife, Vanessa Paradis, also acts. No plans to be in front of the camera together?
I would love to. It would be ideal. Then we could go to work in one car. And take the kids!

A scoop of Depp
Born on June 9, 1963 in Kentucky. Apparently he has one of his ancestors, who has a Cherokee, to thank for his photogenic cheekbones. Used to be a rough teenager that hung from bridges on the tips of his fingers with Nicolas Cage and once in a while set things on fire. In his first movie, Nightmare on Elm Street, he got swallowed by a bed. Became a teen idol thanks to the tv-series 21 Jump Street. Later become known for his relationships with beautiful women like Winona Ryder, Kate Moss and now Vanessa Paradis. After his break- up with Ryder he got his tattoo Winona forever changed to Wino Forever. Once got arrested for trashing a hotel room. And for hitting paparazzi that were chasing him and Moss in London. Is the owner of The Viper Room in Hollywood, the club where actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose. Has a high rock-'n-roll alloy, even plays in a band named P. Depp like to call himself Mr. Stench and is notorious for his real or not farts on the sets of movies. But above all he's an excellent and pigheaded actor that has made excellent movies like:
· Cry-Baby: Depp breaks through as a young tug in this unusual movie by John Waters.
· Edward Scissorhands: a movie by Tim Burton. Depp shines as a strange creature with razorsharp scissors in stead of hands. He gets to know Winona Ryder on the set.
· What's Eating Gilbert Grape: Depp is excellent as the Gilbert from the title that takes care of his 200 kilo mother and his mentally handicapped brother. In this role Leonardo DiCaprio knocks almost everyone of the screen.
· Ed Wood: another Tim Burton movie. Depp plays the legendary Hollywood director, a strange crazy person that made bad movies and like to dress as a woman.
· Donnie Brasco: based on true facts. Depp is a FBI-agent that goes undercover in the New York maffia and lets himself be charmed by maffia boss Al Pacino.
· Sleepy Hollow: Depp is a very rare police man that gets send to a tiny town to investigate a number of murders that are ascribed to the headless horseman. Where he has to deal with Christina Ricci.
· Blow: Depp shines as George Jung, the man who learned America to sniff cocaine and is still in jail. Penélope Cruz plays the hysterical, drugged wife.
· From Hell: Johnny speaks with a strange English accent as the addicted detective that has to find Jack the Ripper.
· Pirates of the Caribbean: Depp has a strange accent as the strange pirates captain Jack Sparrow who looks like Keith Richards' younger brother.
· Once upon a time in Mexico: Depp is a CIA-agent in the sequel of Desperado.