WHO IS THE REAL JOHNNY DEPP?
September 29, 2003 |
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HOLLYWOOD's newest box office king, Johnny Depp, 40, is different. Not just from other so-called heartthrobs, but from his own reputation. Which is to say that the real Johnny Depp, once known as a hotel-trashing, wild child, is actually nice. And sensitive. And really funny. Those who know the Kentucky-born actor all agree.
"He was a laid back guy, not the aggressive type," actor Jsu Garcia, who played opposite Depp in 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street -- Depp's first film role -- tells Star.
"While we were shooting Nightmare, Johnny was getting ready to test for another movie called Gotcha! One day in the dressing room, he handed me the Gotcha! script and said, 'I think this part is tailor made for you. You should try out for it.' So I auditioned for it and got the part.
"You have no idea how rare that is for one actor to do that for another," says Garcia. "That just tells you what a terrific guy Johnny is."
Says another source who knew Depp years ago, "Johnny once got a fan letter from woman whose child was dying of cancer. The child's last wish was to meet Johnny -- so he paid to fly the family to see him. He was like that."
But he's not just nice. He's also curiously eccentric. Depp -- who is friends with such offbeat characters as Marilyn Manson, Tim Burton and Iggy Pop -- has made a name for himself picking non-mainstream films like Cry-Baby, Ed Wood and Before Night Falls, in which he played a transvestite in a blonde wig .
Even his current roles are left of center. In Pirates of the Caribbean -- which has already raked in nearly $300 million! -- he's a batty, makeup wearing captain named Jack Sparrow. And in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, he plays a maverick CIA agent simply named Sands. Yet both are box office blockbusters.
The part-Native American actor (just look at those cheekbones!) is now living in France with actress/singer Vanessa Paradis, and their two children, daughter Lily-Rose, 4, and Jack, 1. But fatherhood hasn't changed his sense of humor. This is, after all, a man who changed a "Winona Forever" tatoo on his arm (for former girlfriend Winona Ryder) to read "Wino Forever" after they split. Robert Rodriguez, the director of Mexico says he let Depp choose the goofy slogan T-shirts he wears in the film that say things like
"Yo Quiero Taco Bell" and "CIA: Cleavage Inspection Agency." "It was his idea and he brought his own stuff," says Rodriguez.
Adds Eva Mendes, his co-star in the film, "Everything I thought of him was true! Beautiful: check. Intelligent: check. Mysterious: check. What I didn't know is that he is so funny. . . I was like, 'Oh my God! You're funny, too!"
-- Amy Spencer, Alex Burton & Josh Herman |
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