Johnny Depp“With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise it's just not acting. It's lying.” source: www.rottentomatoes.com |
What you see above is the best quote about acting I've ever read, which makes it that much stranger since it comes from an actor who seems content to waste his inarguable talent lately. For a man who left television to pursue more challenging roles, his recent repetitive turns are mind-boggling. Johnny Depp loves eccentric; that much should be obvious from the grid above. Lately, however, his love of eccentricity has become somewhat paradoxically mundane, since roles like the Mad Hatter, Willy Wonka, Tonto, and Barnabas Collins have become par for the course. It will be interesting to see him play a more subtle character in the upcoming Transcendence before fleeing back to the comforts of the ridiculous in Into The Woods.
Like last week's piece on Woody Harrelson, Depp arguably got his real start on television with "21 Jump Street". Unlike Harrelson, he soon had a very memorable movie role with Edward Scissorhands that began a long, intermittently productive relationship with director Tim Burton, with whom he's now made eight (8!) movies. This sort of appreciation of familiarity is one of the biggest elements of Depp's career, with author Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing, The Rum Diary), Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp will star in the fifth PotC movie in 2016), a planned documentary about Keith Richards (whom he says he based Jack Sparrow on), and his aforementioned eight films with Burton all stand as proof that Depp is not fickle when it comes to the movie roles he takes. When he finds one he likes, he'll pretty much run it into the ground if nobody stops him. Depp has always said he takes the roles that interest him, not ones he thinks will be commercially successful, but can Jack Sparrow really be all that interesting after four previous portrayals? Are there really more layers of that onion to peel back?
Thrice nominated for Best Actor, but with no wins to his name, Depp has at least avoided the trap many actors like him (immensely talented, but without an Academy Award) make: taking a role clearly only for its awards potential (I'm looking at you Leo; I may never forgive you for J. Edgar). At the same time, it would be nice to see him spread his wings a little and leave his eccentric/Burton comfort zone more often. I've always thought The Ninth Gate was somewhat underrated (not great, just pretty good) and his portrayal of Dean Corso in it shows he doesn't need garish makeup or quirky mannerisms to hold your attention on-screen.
For me, Depp is one of my favorite actors to imagine in different roles than he's taken and how he would've improved that film. I'd argue that replacing Keanu Reeves with Johnny Depp in The Devil's Advocate, for example, would push that movie into a lot of people's favorites. It's that sort of ability that makes his unwillingness to branch out so frustrating. He's done fantasy and drama and has an obvious love of roles from different time periods; that's pretty much it. Sure, there's the occasional animated film or film with slight comedic or romantic angle to it, but he's never veered too far off that narrow path. Which is what makes Transcendence all the more interesting! It's the first-time directorial effort of longtime Christopher Nolan DoP Wally Pfister, and marks Depp's first foray into sci-fi since 1999's The Astronaut's Wife. While it would still be nice to see him try an action movie once in a while, this slight diversification is still exciting news for one of Hollywood's great actors that really has yet to live up to his talent.
Like last week's piece on Woody Harrelson, Depp arguably got his real start on television with "21 Jump Street". Unlike Harrelson, he soon had a very memorable movie role with Edward Scissorhands that began a long, intermittently productive relationship with director Tim Burton, with whom he's now made eight (8!) movies. This sort of appreciation of familiarity is one of the biggest elements of Depp's career, with author Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing, The Rum Diary), Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp will star in the fifth PotC movie in 2016), a planned documentary about Keith Richards (whom he says he based Jack Sparrow on), and his aforementioned eight films with Burton all stand as proof that Depp is not fickle when it comes to the movie roles he takes. When he finds one he likes, he'll pretty much run it into the ground if nobody stops him. Depp has always said he takes the roles that interest him, not ones he thinks will be commercially successful, but can Jack Sparrow really be all that interesting after four previous portrayals? Are there really more layers of that onion to peel back?
Thrice nominated for Best Actor, but with no wins to his name, Depp has at least avoided the trap many actors like him (immensely talented, but without an Academy Award) make: taking a role clearly only for its awards potential (I'm looking at you Leo; I may never forgive you for J. Edgar). At the same time, it would be nice to see him spread his wings a little and leave his eccentric/Burton comfort zone more often. I've always thought The Ninth Gate was somewhat underrated (not great, just pretty good) and his portrayal of Dean Corso in it shows he doesn't need garish makeup or quirky mannerisms to hold your attention on-screen.
For me, Depp is one of my favorite actors to imagine in different roles than he's taken and how he would've improved that film. I'd argue that replacing Keanu Reeves with Johnny Depp in The Devil's Advocate, for example, would push that movie into a lot of people's favorites. It's that sort of ability that makes his unwillingness to branch out so frustrating. He's done fantasy and drama and has an obvious love of roles from different time periods; that's pretty much it. Sure, there's the occasional animated film or film with slight comedic or romantic angle to it, but he's never veered too far off that narrow path. Which is what makes Transcendence all the more interesting! It's the first-time directorial effort of longtime Christopher Nolan DoP Wally Pfister, and marks Depp's first foray into sci-fi since 1999's The Astronaut's Wife. While it would still be nice to see him try an action movie once in a while, this slight diversification is still exciting news for one of Hollywood's great actors that really has yet to live up to his talent.