On Clowns
"There's something about the painted face and the fake smile. There seems to be a darkness lurking under the surface."
On Charlie & the Chocolate Factory with Tim Burton
"... It's Tim's version of Roald Dahl's classic book and it's gonna be a wild ride. Tim and I have had a couple of meetings, sat down and had some talks about where he wants to go, where we need to go. And I think it's gonna be great, you know? Big shoes [to fill], though. Gene Wilder did such an awesome job in that film in the early '70s, so I mean, taking that character of Willy Wonka and going somewhere completely different is ... he sort of made the job infinitely more difficult for me."
How have children changed Johnny?
"Oh yeah. I would say that the kiddies give you strength. The kiddies give you strength and perspective and you understand stuff. Things that would've made me sort of upset or angry before, or things about Hollywood, things in magazines or paparazzi or stuff like that, now you can sort of really go, 'Oh, piss off. I'm just going to play Barbies with my daughter.'"
and more on his children
"You can't plan the kind of deep love that results in children. Fatherhood was not a conscious decision. It was part of the wonderful ride I was on. It was destiny; kismet. All the math finally worked."
On Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando is maybe the greatest actor of the last two centuries. But his mind is much more important than the acting thing. The way that he looks at things, doesn't judge things, the way that he assesses things. He's as important as, uh... who's important today? Jesus, not many people... Stephen Hawking!
On Ambition
For me, ambition has become a dirty word. I prefer hunger.
To be hungry-great. To have hopes, dreams-great.
Johnny on...life
"I think the thing to do is enjoy the ride while you're on it."
Johnny on the attempted filming of "Lost in La Mancha"
"We were having a ball in spite of everything that was going on around us - the curse! Torrential downpour, hail, equipment floating off into the desert, F-14s dropping test bombs between the set and the caravans. It was shocking!
"It was like an endless parade of, like, 'What?!'
"Every time I speak to Terry(Gilliam) he's still very, very enthusiastic about getting Quixote back on the block. If he wants to do that and if he's able to do that, I'd be right there."
Life
Anything I've done up till 27 May 1999 was kind of an illusion, existing without living. My daughter, the birth of my daughter, gave me life.
On the money he makes
"You use your money to buy privacy because during most of your life you aren't allowed to be normal."
On 'Secret Window'
"The screenplay was the first thing that attracrted me (to the film), I just thought it was such a well written story. It had a lot of twists and turns that I didn't expect. I was really impressed with it."
On the prospect of making 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'
"For me it's really exciting to go back to working with Tim (Burton) again. It will be our fourth film together. The fact that it's from a Roald Dahl masterpiece, the fact that it's Willy Wonka I'm very excited. They're big shoes to fill - it's a great challenge."
On chatting a lot with fans
"There's no reason to be otherwise...I think that the kids that come around, it's so nice to meet them. For all intents and purposes they're my boss, they keep me employed."
Freaking People Out
Ed Wood was an extraordinary character. A cannonball, a lightning strength coming, from the darkness and rushing at full speed toward the light to the point of burning itself. I loved portraying this guy who sees everybody getting into a panic around him, and has just a thought: "I don't give a shit." For the Gilbert Grape release, I had come to Paris and lived in the Ritz hotel. I got ready in the same time for Ed Wood and so, I experimented with how it was to live and sleep with woman's underwears: panties, underskirt, high heels.
One morning, I wake up and I phone the room-service and ordered a coffee. I hang up and go back to half sleep. Five minutes later, a waiter rings at the door. I'm going to open and I see a guy who looks ghastly at seeing me: I've realized that I was stripped to the waist, I wore a silk underskirt and high heels shoes! The guy was very uncomfortable, he laid the tray down and ran away trying to act as if he had seen nothing.
Being Johnny
"I don't pretend to be captain weird. I just do what I do."
Incredible Moments
"One of the most incredible moments I've ever had was sitting in Vincent [Price]'s trailer...I was showing him this first-edition book I have of the complete works of Poe--with really amazing illustrations. Vincent was going nuts over the drawings, and he started talking about The Tomb of Ligeia. Then he closed the book and began to recite it to me in this beautiful voice, filling the room with huge sounds. Such passion! I looked in the book later, and it was verbatim. Word perfect. It was a great moment. I'll never forget that."
True Lovers
"The only creatures that are evolved enough to convey pure love are dogs and infants."
Politics and Politicians
I was ecstatic they re-named 'French Fries' as 'Freedom Fries'. Grown men and women in positions of power in the U.S. government showing themselves as idiots.
"America is dumb, it's like a dumb puppy that has big teeth that can bite and hurt you, aggressive. My daughter is four, my boy is one. I'd like them to see America as a toy, a broken toy. Investigate it a little, check it out, get this feeling and then get out."
(Johnny felt this was translated poorly and not what he really said to the German reporter - see next quote)
"Taken in context, what I was saying was that, compared to Europe, America is a very young country and we are still growing as a nation. It is a shame that the metaphor I used was taken so radically out of context and slung about irresponsibly by the news media. There was no anti-American sentiment. In fact, it was just the opposite. I am an American. I love my country and have great hopes for it. It is for this reason that I speak candidly and sometimes critically about it. I have benefited greatly from the freedom that exists in my country and for this I am eternally grateful."
"France, and the whole of Europe have a great culture and an amazing history. Most important thing though is that people there know how to live! In America they've forgotten all about it. I'm afraid that the American culture is a disaster."
On Captain Jack Sparrow
(Captain Jack Sparrow is like a cross between Keith Richards and Pepe Le Pew.
Leaving Edward and finding him within
"I can remember when I finished Edward Scissorhands, looking in the mirror as the girl was doing my make-up for the last time and thinking, it was like the 90th or 89th day of shooting and I remember looking and going 'Wow, this is it. I'm saying goodbye to this guy, I'm saying goodbye to Edward Scissorhands.' You know, it was kind of sad. But in fact, I think they're all still somehow in there."
"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."
His Hats
[When asked by James Lipton on "Inside The Actor's Studio" what attracts him to funny hats] "I don't know, maybe I just read too much Dr. Suess as a kid."
Being a Romantic
"Am I a romantic? I've seen Wuthering Heights ten times. I'm a romantic."
More about Acting
"Who knows what goes on underneath the table, outside the frame? I may have a feather duster down my pants. It's not necessarily sexual, either. If I'm having a difficult time with a scene, getting too serious, I like to take a handheld duster or maybe a wrench, shove it down my pants and play the scene that way. Any object that doesn't belong--it takes your mind off the seriousness of the situation. Just when you're bursting into tears you realize there's a dust mop in your shorts."
About filming and directing "The Brave"
"I should be commited to an institution immediately for even thinking I could get away with that. These two things are opposing, they oppose one another. To be a director you have to be in complete control of the set, complete control of the surroundings, and very aware of what's going on, what's being used and what's not being used... It's insanity. To be an actor you have to be, in a sense, out of control."
"I really approached the film as if it was a white big piece of paper and I was just going to draw a picture on it. And whether that picture was good or bad, whatever people thought of it, what they could never take away was that it was my picture."
"We always say 'I would kill for my family' or 'I would die for my family' but would you really? I mean, when really put in that situation, would you really give up your life? Do you really love something or someone that much?"
It's okay to be different
"If there's any message to my work, it is ultimately that it’s OK to be different, that it’s good to be different, that we should question ourselves before we pass judgment on someone who looks different, behaves different, talks different, is a different color."
On Vanessa
“I pretty much fell in love with Vanessa the moment I set eyes on her. As a person, I was pretty much a lost cause at that time in my life. She turned all that around for me with her incredible tenderness and understanding.”
And, no, they’re not married — but they do seemed destined to live to a ripe old age together: “Vanessa and I have considered ourselves husband and wife since the day we moved in together. We just haven't gone through the formalities of legalising our union.”
The Dark and the Light and self harm
"As a teenager I was so insecure. I was the type of guy that never fitted in because he never dared to choose. I was convinced I had absolutely no talent at all. For nothing. And that thought took away all my ambition too."
"My self-image it still isn't that alright. No matter how famous I am, no matter how many people go to see my movies, I still have the idea that I'm that pale no-hoper that I used to be. A pale no-hoper that happens to be a little lucky now. Tomorrow it'll be all over, then I'll have to go back to selling pens again."
"It was really just whatever [times when he hurt himself]--good times, bad times, it didn't matter. There was no ceremony. It wasn't like 'Okay, this just happened, I have to go hack a piece of my flesh off.'"
"My body is a journal in a way. It's like what sailors used to do, where every tattoo meant something, a specific time in your life when you make a mark on yourself, whether you do it yourself with a knife or with a professional tattoo artist."
"My upbringing made me as I am now. But I can become merry and happy at once. There were many years I was feeling at a loss about my life or how I grew up. I couldn't understand what is right or what is precious. At that time, I was so miserable and self-defeating. I was feeling angry with various things. My anger came up to the surface then. I don't say such tendency has disappeared. Even now there are anger and the dark side in myself. But it's the first time I've been so close to the light."
On meeting Vanessa Paradis' dad and telling him she was pregnant after only 3 months together:
"I thought he would just f**king nut me."
About the Viper Room and his motives
"To say I opened a night club to allow people to do drugs, even in the bathroom - do people think I'm insane? Do they think I'm going to throw everything away - even my own children's future, so people could get high in a nightclub? It's ridiculous."
Comfortable roles
"...What I like does tend to be left-field. I feel somehow much more comfortable playing it. I relate more easily than I do when I run across straight roles. I hate the obvious stuff, I just don't respond to it."
Acting
"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."
The piano
Speaking about his piano...."I honestly have no clue how to play, but if you walk into a room with a baby grand, you're kind of obligated to fuck around on it."
Training for having Toddlers
In 2002, Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis had their second child. "He's a hellcat, boy, he's something," Depp remarked. "The best training you can have for toddlers is having spent a number of years hanging out with drunks. Helping them walk, cleaning up their vomit, putting ice on their head when they fall and smack it on the table; the uncontrollable rage and tears and joy all in, like, ten seconds. He's just a cool little drunk."
Flight antics
During the course of a flight one day, Johnny Depp suddenly shouted out, "I f--- animals!" An accountant seated beside him leaned over and asked, "What kind?"
Stalker
Depp was often stalked by unusual characters, among them a man claiming to be Edward Scissorhands and a transvestite claiming to be his wife. "I just attract a lot of oddness," Depp declared. Go figure.
Being an Uncle
"My sister Christi had a baby when I was 17, and I had just heard about crib death. The horrible thing was that it wasn't understood. For some unknown reason the baby would stop breathing. So I would sneak into where the baby was sleeping and put my hand in her crib, hold her little finger, and I'd sleep on the floor like that. It was stupid, I'm sure. But I thought the warmth of my hand might help, that maybe if she felt my pulse it would remind her to breathe."
Madonna and the Pope
"I read that I was in bed with her, which is a ton of shit. I have met her and it went like this: 'How do you do?' 'Hello, how are you?' Now when anyone asks about my affair with Madonna I say no, wrong - it was the Pope. He swept me off my feet."
Publicity related to Engagement to Winona
Johnny Depp was not altogether pleased about the publicity engendered by his engagement to Winona Ryder.
"It became such a public thing," he recalled. "You're taking a squirt and some guy walks up to you and says, 'Hey! how's Winona?' I mean, huh? You're there with your Johnson in your hand. It takes everything, every inch of strength not to turn around and pee on him!"
Publicity
This is a rumor-filled society and if people want to sit around and talk about whom I've dated, then I'd say they have a lot of spare time and should consider other topics...or masturbation.
Remembering Vincent Price
"One of the most incredible moments I've ever had was sitting in Vincent [Price]'s trailer...I was showing him this first-edition book I have of the complete works of Poe--with really amazing illustrations. Vincent was going nuts over the drawings, and he started talking about The Tomb of Ligeia. Then he closed the book and began to recite it to me in this beautiful voice, filling the room with huge sounds. Such passion! I looked in the book later, and it was verbatim. Word perfect. It was a great moment. I'll never forget that."
Johnny Depp -- Movieline, October 1994.
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