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Star Magazine, 8/5/03

Johnny Depp: Why He Gave up Drink, Drugs and Hollywood

Johnny Depp was a hell-raiser known for trashing hotel rooms, drinking and drugging. But five years ago he abandoned Hollywood, gave up his wild ways and moved to France.
And he did it all for love.
It was amour at first sight when he spotted French singer-actress Vanessa Paradis, 30, in a Paris restaurant in June 1998.
“I just saw this back across the room and suddenly the back turned and looked at me,” Johnny now 40, recalled of the moment he first locked eyes with the future mother of their two children, Lily Rose, 4, and Jack, 1.
That romantic connection – and the joy of fatherhood – gave him the push he needed to clean up his act.
“I did all kinds of drugs when I was drunk,” he has said, “It’s all under the pretense that it’s all recreational. It’s all a big party. Well, that’s a lie. It had nothing to do with recreation for me. It had more to do with numbing my brain. It had mor to do with self-medicating.”
But with the birth of Lily Rose on May 27, 1999, was a wake-up call for the quirky star.
“I think I just sort of wandered through 35 years in kind of a fog,” he says “And Vanessa and little Rose woke me up.”
The one time 21 Jump Street heartthrob traded the glitz of Hollywood for the serenity of the South of France. But he frequently leaves his haven to appear in movies like Sleepy Hollow, Chocolat, Blow and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, when he isn’t working, he settles down with Vanessa and the kids in a $2 million villa in Plan de la Tour, a village in the hills above St Tropez.
“Johnny is a perfect father,” according to Vanessa. “He dresses the children, he changes them, he makes the children laugh.”
It’s a far cry from the serial dater who counts, Sherilyn Fenn, Jennifer Grey, and Winona Ryder as former fiancées.
And it’s even farther from Johnny’s volatile romance with British model Kate Moss, which made headlines in1994 when he trashed a NYC hotel room after the then-couple had a fight.
“Fatherhood has given me great strength, great perspective, great calm and sleep deprivation,” says Johnny.
His ultimate dream is make a movie co-starting Vanessa so wouldn’t be separated from his family.
“It would be perfect,” he says. “We can go to work together, us and the kids.”

Will Johnny Strike Oscar Gold?
Hollywood heartthrob Johnny Depp may have found treasure as scruffy scalawag Capt. Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. Insiders say the part could finally earn him Oscar gold.
“I would be happy and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Johnny get an Oscar nod for this role,” Village Voice movie critic Ed Park tells Star. “Although Oscar doesn’t usually reward comic-adventure roles, I think it is a winning performance.”
Depp,40, has received three Golden Globe nominations- for Edward Scissorhands, Benny and Joon and Ed Wood – but never a statue.
But it may finally be Johnny’s turn to be rewarded for years fo original performances, like the misfit Edward Scissorhands, the bizarre real-life director Ed Woods and Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow
. “Johnny has once again come up with a totally unique and original character,” nationally known film critic Bill Harris tells Star. “He says he based Jack Sparrow on a combination of Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones and the cartoon skunk Pepe LePew. Whatever his inspiration, the end result is unforgettable.”
Now critics and fans alike think Johnny’s fortunes could turn with his portrayal as the whacked-out pirate in the new swashbuckling blockbuster.
“His Sparrow will make you think of Dudley Moore’s ever-drunk manchild in Arthur, Peter O’Toole’s frequently inebriated, spoiled star in My Favorite Year and Brad Pitt’s overtly touched asylum patient in 12 Monkeys,” says Cox News Service critic Bob Longino. “All were odd, but each also gathered an Oscar nomination.”