Johnny Depp Talks about Love and Family

When did you first meet Vanessa?

I was working on the film [The Ninth Gate] and happened to be sitting at this restaurant one night. I was kind of bored and then I noticed some woman with her back to me. I was kind of intrigued by her neck, of all things, and then she turned around and looked back and we made eye contact. That was all it took. I was completely in love. She had me!


What has your life together meant to you?

It's completely transformed my way of thinking and my outlook on everything. I was functioning in some strange kind of fog before we met. For a long time I was deeply uncomfortable in my own skin and even though I had a lot of outward success as an actor, I was very miserable and unhappy for most of that time. I just couldn't find any peace of mind.
But being with Vanessa and having a family with her has just made things come together for me. I needed to have something to hold onto and a life that seemed real and meaningful. And I've found that. It doesn't get any better than this.

Is it important for you to be living in France now as opposed to LA?

It's much easier for me in France. No one cares who I am and it's very rare that anyone acknowledges me in the street or takes my photo. The French public keeps a polite distance from so-called celebrities and since I'm fairly paranoid about being watched or followed this gives me a lot of peace of mind. The only people who bother us are the paparazzi, but even they're bored with watching us take our kids for a walk or seeing me wearing bad clothes and a funny hat (laughs).

Does being a happy family man come as a surprise to you?

Oh, yeah! A huge surprise, but a very nice one! When I found myself with this incredibly beautiful and talented woman (Paradis) I just knew that we were going to be happy together. There wasn't any doubt in my mind. I just knew it. My family is everything to me. I want my children to grow up in a simple and calm environment. Everything is not about the next movie or paycheck.

I love the idea of our children growing up in France and in the US. People think we never spend time in the States, but that's not true - it's more that their mother is French and that I love living over there and taking in the culture and the cafés. It's a different way of life. They'll spend time in the States and get to know their father's culture, too, but in terms of educating them and protecting them from their father's strange celebrity, they're better off being in France. And their father's head is much better off for not being in LA (laughs).

Are you an active father - playing with and feeding your kids and so on?

I love playing with my kids. I just love seeing their happy faces and how unspoiled and free they feel. I also laugh at their reactions to things they see for the first time or the way my son Jack loves to run back and forth around the house and smash into everything and then just keep on going like a little freight train.

Is it tough being away from them when you make movies now?

It can be. But if possible they'll come visit me or I'll get away and spend time with them. It's usually not that much of a problem.

Was it a question of finding the right woman or having gone through a lot of stuff in your life to get to the point where you were ready to find the right woman?

It's hard to say. I feel like I've been on this long, strange journey for many years, not knowing where I was going or what I was doing with myself, obsessing about a lot of nonsense. And suddenly all that neurotic garbage that's been churning around in my brain for years simply disappeared. It was like this switch got thrown and boom, I could see everything clearly for the first time. It sounds like a bad cliché, but that's exactly what happened to me. When you click with someone, it's hard to explain why everything becomes so easy, but it does. It wipes the slate clean.

Have you finally made peace with your celebrity and your movie stardom?

In some ways. I'm still uncomfortable with the attention, because there's still a deeper side of me that doesn't feel I've really done anything so important to deserve this much attention. I feel I have a certain gift for mimicry and stepping into characters as an actor, but it's not something I find very difficult. So it's constantly amazing to me that there's so much attention paid to what I do.

It used to bother me in a negative way and made me angry. Now I've just accepted it as part of culture. It comes with the job (laughs). I'm not fighting windmills any more. The problem was that I wasn't happy in my own skin and that just makes you miserable, no matter how much outward success and attention you might be getting.

You look more relaxed than ever. Is it tough getting used to the idea that you've finally got your life together?

No, not really. Sometimes I wonder what took me so long. But when you don't know what it's like to enjoy yourself and be able to appreciate the good things that come your way, it's hard to imagine what it would be like. All I know is that I've got exactly the kind of life I want to have. It's beautiful. No complaints at all!