Over the course of a film and television career that's spanned over 30 years, Johnny Depp
has played more than a few strange characters.
Some have been part of his bizarre collaborative history with director Tim Burton, which has
seen him become everyone from Willy Wonka to Sweeney Todd, but he's also always marched
to the beat of a different drummer by himself.
Though he's had a tortured relationship with fame, Johnny Depp is still a master of his
craft and an extremely interesting guy to boot.
Even after spending all these years in the limelight, there's still plenty that's been
left out of the headlines about the enigmatic actor and musician.
This is the untold truth of Johnny Depp.
Auspicious start
There's a longstanding Hollywood rumor that Johnny Depp first got his start after his
first wife introduced him to her ex-boyfriend, who just so happened to be Nicolas Cage, and
Depp has somewhat corroborated the story in his own words.
"Somebody said, 'Well, why don't you go meet my agent.
My agent is Nic Cage.'
She sent me to an audition for something, and I got it."
Cage reportedly saw something in Depp, and opened some crucial early career doors for
him.
Soon after, he was cast in his first film role in A Nightmare on Elm Street, and with
that, he was officially an actor.
Making movie magic
Thanks to projects like Platoon, Cry-Baby, 21 Jump Street, and Edward Scissorhands, Johnny
Depp started to boast some clout in Tinseltown in the early '90s.
The film he decided to cash his chips in on was What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
So the story goes, then-girlfriend Winona Ryder read Peter Hedges' novel of the same
name, and got Depp to read it too.
He felt it was a modern day Catcher in the Rye and identified strongly with Gilbert,
a young man trapped in a small town and saddled with family responsibilities.
"There was some residue with my childhood that I connected to that character and with
those people."
Depp then told director Lasse Hallström about the book, and the two agreed to work on the
film before there was even a script in place.
Hallström enlisted the author Hedges to work on the script, and the rest was movie history.
Sticking to music
When Johnny Depp first came to California, he didn't actually intend to be an actor.
He was actually in a band called the Kids, who'd been pretty successful around the greater
southeast.
Depp actually dropped out of high school because of the band, and they opened for national
acts like the Talking Heads, the Pretenders, and the Ramones.
After the band split up, he turned to acting, but Depp never forgot his love for music,
and was in the glam band Rock City Angels before making his screen breakthrough.
Depp later started the band P with Butthole Surfers frontman Gibby Haynes.
Although they broke up fairly quickly, he remained musically active; most recently,
he's been in a band called the Hollywood Vampires alongside Alice Cooper, Aerosmith guitarist
Joe Perry, and Guns N' Roses vets Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum.
The members say they've all had brushes with death, and Depp in particular seems to feel
lucky to be part of the collaboration.
Kid friendly
By portraying Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Johnny Depp
got to bring a lot of joy to children both in and outside of the theaters.
He's spent a great deal of his free time suiting up in the character costume to visit children's
hospitals and schools, and the reason for his particular fondness for children has a
little something to do with his own experiences as a father.
"They're giving me the gift."
"I was the parent when my daughter was ill and…"
"I've known darkness in my life, but that was the darkest period ever."
Of course, Jack Sparrow isn't the only character he has embodied to bring joy to his youngest
fans.
In 2016, he acted in The Black Ghiandola, a micro-budgeted movie about a young man who,
in the wake of a zombie apocalypse, risks everything to save the life of his companion.
The short movie came together thanks to the Make a Film Foundation, a charity which helps
filmmaking dreams come true for kids and teens with serious medical problems.
The film was written by and starred Anthony Conti, a 16-year-old who was stricken with
stage 4 adrenal cortical cancer, and Depp happily joined in as one of the film's supporting
A-listers.
Cinematic chameleon
Johnny Depp has tried on so many different screen personas that it's entirely possible
that even he doesn't even know what he looks or sounds like anymore.
Even in interviews, he tends to talk with affectations that sound like they're from
somewhere between Great Britain, Boston, and Wonderland.
And he also seems to enjoy disappearing into his roles.
"The last thing I want to look like is myself.
I've always felt it was important to escape."
So, if you ever wondered why he tends to choose roles that make him virtually unrecognizable,
it's because he seems to prefer on-screen anonymity.
Even still, he refuses to watch his own movies anyway.
"I've seen only a couple that I've had to see, like just to check you know the cut or whatever. To make sure the cut was cool."
Getting political
In addition to making movies and music, Depp has also been known to use his platform to
raise awareness for political causes.
Alongside several other socially conscious artists, Depp participated in the Voice Project's
"Imprisoned for Art" campaign in late 2016 appearing in a mugshot to shed light on a
Ukranian filmmaker serving a 20 year jail sentence in Siberia.
Depp is also no fan of Donald Trump, and appeared in a Funny or Die "lost" movie called The
Art of the Deal, based on the Trump book by the same name.
The movie was posted the morning Trump won the New Hampshire primary, but Depp's continued
to whip out his spot-on impressions on command.
"I got a feel for him because he's sensational.
Absolutely fabulous."
"I told them to build me that wall.
I want a sensational wall."
If Alec Baldwin ever decides to stop impersonating the President on Saturday Night Live, it looks
like Johnny Depp could fit right into it.
Personal problems
As much as he might like to sink into his screen roles, in recent years, Johnny Depp's
personal life has become a very publicized roller coaster.
He and former wife Amber Heard caused something of an international incident in 2015 when
they traveled to Australia to film the latest Pirates installment and brought along their
two Yorkshire terriers.
Upon arrival, the couple failed to properly declare the animals with customs officials.
"Mr. Depp has to either take his dogs back to California or we're going to have to euthanize
them."
They were forced to return the smuggled animals to the United States, and Heard pleaded guilty
to knowingly producing a false or misleading document for failing to disclose the dogs.
The two ended up delivering an awkward apology video, which he was later able to laugh about.
"I would really like to apologize for not smuggling my dogs."
But that was just the start of their problems.
Their marriage soon after ended in disaster, as the actress claimed that he'd been abusive
to her during their relationship.
She also alleged that Depp was addicted to alcohol and other substances.
Though their divorce was finalized relatively quickly, Depp's days of making headlines for
all the wrong reasons were far from over.
Financial woes
With over $50 million worth of property and one of Hollywood's most interesting resumes
to his name, it was a bit shocking to learn that Johnny Depp has major money problems.
Shortly after his split from Heard, Depp's legal woes raged on after his attorney and
accountant informed him that he was financially underwater.
The two reportedly had to make Depp understand that his income was being outpaced by his
spending on luxuries like art, jewelry, wine, property, and the $3.6 million per year he
paid his personal staff.
Depp finally agreed to sell his yacht, but it was the start of a tense communication
between the three that would end with Depp firing both of his advisors.
Depp went on the allege that his former managers caused him to rack up more than $40 million
in debt and to dispose of valuable assets, and that they talked him into high-interest
loans that they didn't make payments on.
They responded by claiming that Depp was irresponsible, prompting legal actions on both sides.
In January 2017, Depp filed suit against The Management Group for mismanagement of his
wealth and for defrauding him out of money during the course of their duties, between
1999 and 2016.
Depp claimed that the company siphoned some $28 million, and that they didn't pay his
taxes on time.
TMG countersued.
If all of that wasn't bad enough, he's also been sued by his former bodyguards for unpaid
wages and unsafe work conditions.
Thin but okay
Johnny Depp appeared in two major films in 2017 Murder on the Orient Express and Pirates
of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and lined up a few more for 2018, including the
Fantastic Beasts sequel, The Crimes of Grindelwald.
Depp looked mostly like his youthful self in those films, which was why fans were shocked
when an odd picture of of the actor circulated around the internet in spring 2018, where
he's posing with a fan in Russia, looking ghostly pale and skeletally thin.
While Depp often drastically alters his appearance for films, this sudden physical transformation
still proved alarming, leaving fans wondering why Depp was "looking so skinny," blaming
everything from drug addiction to preparing for a movie role.
As it happens, it's probably for a film Depp is set to star in a dramedy called Richard
Says Goodbye as a professor dying of a terminal illness.
Depp obviously still has no trouble scoring promising projects, even now.
"Working lunch.
I'm on a roll."
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