Johnny Depp

Depp plays Ichabod Crane in Tim Burton’s adaptation of Washington Irving’s classic story. Crane is an investigator from the city sent to investigate a string of decapitations in a neighboring village.  What he finds are townsfolk convinced that the Headless Horseman is the culprit. It’s up to Crane to discover what is really happening before more villagers lose their heads. Co-starring Christina Ricci, Michael Gambon.

I was sort of doing Snoopy dances thinking I was going to get to wear a long nose and big ears. The classic Ichabod Crane from the book — Washington Irving’s description is really beautifully written — (included) a long, sliding nose, huge ears; and (Irving) talks about his hands being very far away from his body, and long feet. So, yeah. I did want to do that.

In this mystery thriller directed by the Hughes Brothers, Depp plays Inspector Frederick Abberline from Scotland Yard, a highly analytical thinker, clairvoyant, a regular user of Absinthe, who is investigating the Jack the Ripper murders. He uses clues from his visions to help him attempt to solve one of the greatest murder mysteries of all time. Co-starring Heather Graham and Ian Holm.

I’ve been fascinated by him since I was a young kid.  I jumped at the chance to do the film. It meant I could talk to some of the great Ripper-ologists and I got to wander through the area of Whitechapel at night, I loved that.

Depp stars in this fantasy action film as Jack Sparrow, a pirate trapped in Davy Jones’ Locker. Sparrow’s old friends Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) join forces with Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) to free Sparrow. The crew then goes on to battle Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) who is determined to end piracy forever. The film is the third in a series directed by  Gore Verbinski, who says about Depp’s character:

Johnny and I love pushing Jack as far as he can go, but we are also aware that keeping him unpredictable requires a constant oscilation between the dramatic and the abusrd. So, it’s both spurs and reigns — constantly.

In this musical thriller directed by Tim Burton, Depp plays Sweeney Todd, an insane barber who seeks revenge for the loss of his beloved, and gets it easily as soon as the victim sits in his barber chair. After killing the hapless souls, they are sent to the neighbor lady, Mrs. Lovett, to be made into her amazingly popular meat pies. The two grow closer as she tries to win his attentions, until Todd discovers her dark deeds and the night explodes into violence. Co-starring Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman.

I’d seen the more recent production of it and then just thought it might be, you know certainly a great opportunity to, to try to find a, a new Sweeney, a different Sweeney. Just like a little contemporary in the sense of like also the punk rock Sweeney you know.

In this family fantasy adventure based on the classic book of the same name and directed by Tim Burton, Depp plays the Mad Hatter. The Hatter befriends Alice and accompanies her on her adventures through Wonderland and helps her to find her way to complete her quest. Co-starring Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Wasikowska, Crispin Glover, and Anne Hathaway.

There’s one person, in particular, who is the main ingredient for the Hatter and if I said who it was they’d probably be upset. It’s someone I came into contact with and was fascinated by the way this person spoke. And I knew then, when I met the person, that I was going to sponge off them as much as I could, and use them one day as a character. And I did.

In this romantic action thriller directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Depp plays Frank Tupelo, a quiet American math teacher on vacation in Italy. Tupelo barely sets foot in Italy when he meets Elise, an extremely beautiful and mysterious spy. Before he knows it, Tupelo is fully involved in cat and mouse spy games worthy of a novel. Co-starring Angelina Jolie and Timothy Dalton.

The idea was to make him seem the Everyman, this math teacher who doesn’t have particular highs or lows in his life. He has a slight amount of obsessive-compulsive disorder in his weird routines. The idea was to take this normal guy and put him into these situations that are certainly less than normal. High stakes situations.

In this animated action comedy directed by Gore Verbinski, Depp voices Rango, a regular house-chameleon who is involved in an accident and finds himself alone in the desert.  He stumbles upon a town of animals who are living in the grips of a tyrant. Rango finds himself stepping up to be “that guy” just like the classic western cowboy would to save the day. Co-starring Isla Fisher, Ned Beatty and Timothy Olyphant.

They actually call me the Lizard King, my children, they do. I force them to address me like that. [laughs] It was an odd sort of thing. ‘Where you going, Daddy?’ I gotta go to work. ‘Well, what are you doing?’ Well, I’m playing a lizard. You drop your kids off at school and give them a kiss, and now I gotta go be a lizard.

In this film based on a book by the same name, written by Hunter Thompson in 1959,  Depp stars as Paul Kemp – a man who travels to  Puerto Rico to write for a local newspaper.  run by editor Lotterman, played by Richard Jenkins. Kemp covers a story about Sanderson, played by Aaron Eckhart, an American entrepreneur making shady capitalistic deals.

It was about 3am. I was staying with Hunter preparing for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, looking at stuff in boxes in the War Room, which was in his basement next to the room where I slept. There was all sorts of stuff in there – cocktail napkins, toothpicks, old hotel bills, God knows what else – and I found this folder with a rubber band around it, and it just said The Rum Diary. I started reading it and said to Hunter, ‘What’s the matter with you? Publish the thing – it’s great.’ It was that night that he said, ‘Maybe we should make this into a movie together…’

Depp wins People Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actor.