Johnny Depp is easily the silver-screen idol for women
(and men) young and old. His on-screen personae and leading-man
charisma are remarkable for their lack of definition and comfort—from
making you cringe as the syphilis-afflicted Earl of Rochester in The
Libertine, to making knees weak in the romantic drama
Chocolat. His work from the last decade has played to younger
audiences, also creating that cross-generational appeal.
Depp makes quirky choices, but his quirkiness is often expressed
under the rubric of conventional storytelling: he’s a gypsy musician in
Chocolat, and plays writer J.M. Barrie, author of Peter
Pan, in the true story Finding Neverland. While intense
likeability is a common thread among all his sympathetic and relatable
heroes, Depp informs his darker characters with compelling tics as
well. With Public Enemies coming out this week, where Depp
portrays real-life bank-robber John Dillinger, a discussion of the
qualities that inform some of his more-recent characters is timely.
In true Depp fashion, his bad guys are never cut and dry. They are
never unambiguously evil: They all have their reasons for wrong-doing.
The titular Sweeney Todd, from Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The
Demon Barber of Fleet Street, vents his murderous rage on the
throats of his barbershop customers after a revenge scheme against the
corrupt Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) fails, and he waits for another
chance to finish him off. Depp never sang publicly before this musical
(that wasn’t his voice in Cry-Baby) and acquits himself well to
the task. It’s another example of Depp stepping outside the
boundaries—not only of his acting experience, but within the genre
itself. Sweeney Todd turns the relentlessly chipper tone of
recent musicals like Mamma Mia and Hairspray on its ear
with Todd‘s giddy revelling in gore and macabre stylization.
Depp grabbed the mantle of rogue pirate by the throat in the
Pirates of the Caribbean pictures, earning an Oscar nomination
for his outrageous and unexpected performance (even for Depp) as
Captain Jack Sparrow in the first film, The Curse of the Black
Pearl. While not the outright villain of the piece, Sparrow isn’t
the hero either; he’s usually too drunk or in pursuit of his raggedy
pirate ship to be trusted to act altruistically.
Famous are the stories of Disney chief Michael Eisner disliking the
performance for its flamboyance—he felt that Depp had too many gold
teeth in his make-up—and failing to anticipate the delight audience
would take in the character. There is nothing uniquely quirky in
Pirates—Orlando Bloom is an Errol Flynn-type dashing hero and
Keira Knightley is a spunky damsel in distress—but Depp parlays his
leading-man charisma and offbeat charm into a film combining
blockbuster momentum with surprising and original performances from an
overall great cast.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a curious experience,
not only for its searing portrayal of factory practices that flout
various safety and labour standards, but also for the queasy
resemblance Depp’s Wonka has to the now-late Michael Jackson, whose
molestation trial was winding down at the film’s release in 2005. Roger
Ebert wrote, “Can anyone look at Willy Wonka and not think of Michael
Jackson? Consider the reclusive lifestyle, the fetishes of wardrobe and
accessories, the elaborate playground built by an adult for the child
inside. What’s going on here?” Though Depp insisted there was no
influence of Jackson in his performance, the poor timing hijacked his
intention.
Of John Dillinger, Depp has stated that he feels the “’30s bank
robber was a hero for his time.” He told Entertainment Weekly:
“Some people might disagree, but I think he was a real-life Robin
Hood,” indicating that this is another character informed by unlikely
choices. Public Enemies is R-rated and, therefore, not skewed
toward the same broad audiences that lapped up the Pirates movies. But Dillinger, the character, fits perfectly in Depp’s oddball
repertoire: a career that has room for Edward Scissorhands, Donnie
Brasco and Hunter S. Thompson.
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This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2009.