Johnny Depp-I love his modesty

[khanumofpersia]

Hehehehe................well, I just finished posting on another board about how Johnny never forgets friends and coworkers.

I am cheating with a copy and paste from my other post. We were ranking our favorite Johnny Depp movies:

"Don't laugh, but his Gilbert Grape movie is higher on my list too. I think it is because of the emotional sentiment with that movie. Ever since I saw an interview with Darlene Cates, the woman who played Johnny and Leonardo's mother, that movie chokes me with tears. She really isn't a professional actress, but is called on occasionally to play the roles of extremely fat women. Her only other movie role has been in Wolf Girl in 2001, where she played another morbidly obese character.

Darlene Cates is rather agoraphobic and extremely emotionally scarred due to her looks. Johnny has maintained a long and close friendship with her and writes her supportive letters frequently, even though they have not worked together since the filming of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" ended in 1992. (The movie itself was released 1993). Darlene could not stop talking about him and his long friendship with her during that whole interview. She cried with joy and dedicated the interview to him.

I have seen the whole spectrum of Depp movies, but I did not really become a hardcore Depp fan until the Cates interview. Since then, I have admired his shunning of the "Hollywood star" image. He is neither spoiled or egotistical, preferring to live in France with his wife and children, where he can walk the streets in peace without constant disruptions due to fame. He throws no tantrums and demands no special treatment."

Too add to that copy and paste, I love Johnny's style. He is a unique dresser with incredible fashion sense. He is not afraid to take risks.

[Fleur-de-lys]

I've never heard that story, but it's really sweet and lovely. Johnny is a very special and classy(is that the right word?) person, he's one of the actors I admire the most.

[PirateMinx777]

I've never heard that story either, but it adds more to the respect I already hold for him.

I love What's Eating Gilbert Grape! Its always been one of my favorite Johnny movies.

I also love Bennie and Joon and I have Sleepy Hollow and Pirates on DVD of course.

[khanumofpersia]

The Cates interview was on Entertainment Tonight awhile back. Entertainment Tonight sponsored her going to a weight loss spa.

Speaking of mean people, this interview was discussed on the IMDb message board. I bet most members can imagine some of the hateful troll responses.

However, her interview made me aware of Johnnie as a person. After10-15 years, why would someone care about the fate and feelings of a person he spent a month shooting a movie with way back in 1992. The tendancy of most people would be to be disgusted with a 500+ lb fat lady. Johnny is different. He cares about her life.

[khanumofpersia]

From The Age:

Depp stays true
August 29, 2005 - 12:21PM

He is so talented and good-looking, he would be forgiven for being loud and obnoxious.

Women love him and men have a right to be jealous.

Johnny Depp could have a supermodel on his arm any day of the week, but here he is on a recent sweaty afternoon at the Atlantis Resort in The Bahamas as gentle and sheepish as a sober nerd at a school formal.

Depp, deeply suntanned from six months in the tropical sun, has taken a short break from shooting the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels nearby the resort to stop by and chat about his latest film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

He speaks in whispers, is polite and intelligent and is so sweet you want to give him a hug, or maybe a clip across the ear and tell him not to be so well-behaved.

It was not always the way, he says.

As a kid his mother had a special name for him.

"She used the term 'hellion'," Depp, on this day looking part scallywag pirate and part Parisian artist, laughs, albeit quietly, as he explains.

"I wasn't obnoxious or precocious but I was curious. There were a lot of practical jokes. I got on her nerves basically. I pissed her off quite frequently."

Depp looks part pirate because he has just walked off the Pirates of the Caribbean set.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer is shooting two Pirates sequels back-to-back in The Bahamas, so Depp, returning as salty sea dog Captain Jack Sparrow, has spent plenty of time bronzing his skin in the Caribbean.

During this interview he has Capt Sparrow's gold plated teeth (which will have to removed by a dentist after filming ends), his arms are inked with fake tattoos and on his right wrist a thick leather strap dangles with coloured beads.

Depp is also wearing a green beret, a stringy goatee and black-rimmed glasses that look like he has pinched from Woody Allen, so with an easel and some paint he could also pass for a Parisian artist.

That is part of Depp's genius.

He is Hollywood's modern day chameleon, switching from dirty Jack Sparrow, to tidy playwright James Barrie in Finding Neverland, Constable Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissorhands or D-grade Hollywood director, Ed Wood.

Now he is Willy Wonka, the reclusive, powder-skinned, chocolate mogul in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the remake of the Roald Dahl classic.

That is how Depp likes it.

Moving from character to character is the same as moving from town to town and that is what he has done all his life.

"I don't want to be stuck in one spot," Depp says, fiddling with the beads on his wrist.

"My childhood was spent moving around. We were total nomads. Like gypsies, just moving from one place to another all the time.

"That's kind of ingrained into my psyche, into my being. I couldn't stand being in one spot for too long a period of time.

"For example, we split the year up with six months in Los Angeles and six months in France. It just seems to work for us."

The "us" is Depp's family, a postcard of beauty - his longtime girlfriend, French actress Vanessa Paradis and their two children, six-year-old daughter Lily-Rose and three-year-old son, Jack.

Depp says he is only happy when he is with his family and that is why they are rarely apart. They are with him in the Caribbean, living in a palatial home while he shoots the Pirates films.

"They're here," Depp smiles.

"They're with me.

"The most I've ever been apart from my kids and my girl is four or five weeks and that drove me mad.

"One shouldn't have to do that. I can't do it.

"So as much as humanly possible I bring them with me on location. If Vanessa is doing a film and I'm not working, I'll go on location with her.

"I have to have them with me.

"I love running around on the beach with the kids. Going swimming. Taking them out on the boat."

Making Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has brought back many childhood memories for the 42-year-old actor.

With his equally odd and dark close friend Tim Burton directing, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been one of America's most successful movies of 2005, making almost $US200 million at the box office over the US summer.

The story follows the poor, good-hearted Charlie Bucket, played by British child actor Freddie Highmore, as he wins a contest and tours Wonka's secret chocolate factory with four other children.

The children, except for Charlie, are brats.

Depp says he is lucky. His children, Lily-Rose and Jack, despite their privileged lives, are just like Charlie.

"They'd both be closer to Charlie's personality," Depp says, knocking on the wooden table in front of him.

"Luckily the kids are pretty well-balanced and well-grounded and not monster-like at all."

Depp is almost unrecognisable as Wonka.

He wore clip-on teeth "which actually changed the shape of my face a little bit".

Wonka's thick white make-up and outrageous clothes had some pointing to Michael Jackson as the inspiration for the eccentric character, also played by Gene Wilder in 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

There's no link to Jackson, Depp says.

There could be a bit of another recluse, eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, in the character, but mostly Depp's Wonka is an amalgam of quirky TV hosts he watched as a child.

"It wasn't specifically any one or two guys who were models for the characters," he explained.

"There were memories I have when I was a little kid watching children's shows and children's show hosts and I remember, even at that age, their speech patterns and musical quality of the way they were speaking to the camera and the children, I thought then it was really strange, super bizarre.

"'Helloooo children. How are youuuuuuu?'

"So guys that I watched, Captain Kangaroo, Mr Rogers and Uncle Al, became that main part of the ingredient.

"Also game show hosts I remember watching and thinking 'My God, they can't be like that at home', which led me to believe they put on a mask in a way so there's that all-important, positive smile."

Depp and Burton have forged one of Hollywood's most quirky, but successful partnerships.

Since 1990 they have worked together on six films - Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Ed Wood, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the new animated feature, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, scheduled for release in Australia October 27.

"The great thing about him is he has stayed true to himself," Burton said.

"That's what I love about Johnny.

"He's maintained an artistic integrity and been doing great work for years.

"He has one big hit movie (Pirates of the Caribbean) and all of a sudden he's landing on the planet for the first time.

"But, he's always kept his artistic integrity and hasn't got caught up in the Hollywood scene. It's great to see he hasn't changed at all."

The Hollywood scene?

Depp, who owned LA's hottest nightclub of the early 1990s, Viper Room, does not spend much time on the Sunset Strip anymore.

He might split his year between homes in LA and France, but when he is in Tinseltown he is not a regular in nightclubs or Hollywood parties.

When he talks about his lack of interest in the haunts frequented by Hollywood's new generation of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, Depp sounds like an old man.

"I like very selfishly and very simply keeping a distance from Hollywood and the social expectations from Hollywood because I'm not good at that kind of game," Depp confides, almost whispering.

"I find great comfort in having that distance because I don't have the pressure or responsibility of knowing who is the top dog this week and who is out from last week.

"I don't know who anybody is and I really like it."

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opens in Australia Thursday.

[Fleur-de-lys]

I never knew that he had a nightclub.
And he named his kid Jack? That's a really cute coincidence. ;D

[khanumofpersia]

His old nightclub is where that one child actor overdosed...?? Phoenix.

He has bought a new nightclub in Las Vegas recently.

From JohnnyDepp-zone.com:

Johnny Depp's quest to fulfill his late friend's wishes came to a successful conclusion tonight as the ashes of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson blasted skyward in fireworks shot from a 153-foot-tall replica of HST's famous emblem, the Gonzo fist. (For a larger view of the fireworks picture, click HERE.) The tower, a temporary structure, was built on the grounds of Owl Farm, Thompson's home at Woody Creek, Colorado, near Aspen. An invitation-only crowd of several hundred family members and close friends gathered at Owl Farm for Hunter's spectacular sendoff, six months after the celebrated writer died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The tower construction, fireworks launching, and farewell gathering are estimated to cost between $2 and $2.5 million; Hunter's widow Anita confirms that Johnny Depp is paying for the event as a gesture of love for Hunter, whom Johnny played in the 1998 film of FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS. She told the Aspen Daily News,"My husband is the only writer in American history that I know of that could inspire this sort of monumental tribute and Johnny is the only one who could pull it off. I think it's his way of mourning, and he's helping a lot of people heal by doing this for Hunter. [...] He's a Southern gentleman. That's why Hunter loved him so much."

In an AP interview in July, Johnny explained his quest to fulfill Hunter's often-expressed request to have his ashes launched, rather than simply scattered, over his Woody Creek farm. "We had talked a couple of times about his last wishes to be shot out of a cannon of his own design," Johnny explained. "All I'm doing is trying to make sure his last wish comes true. I just want to send my pal out the way he wants to go out."
/ / August 20, 2005

When Johnny Depp stepped up to a podium to address Hunter S. Thompson's family and friends Saturday night at the elaborate memorial service he had planned and funded, he kept his remarks characteristically modest. "It's nice to be able to give a little something back," Johnny said. "Hunter, this is for you." Later, he played the guitar and sang "My Old Kentucky Home" with Lyle Lovett and Jimmy Ibbotson of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band--a gesture to Hunter's Kentucky roots (which Johnny shares).

Two hours of tributes and reminiscences preceded the launching of the fireworks containing Hunter's ashes. His widow Anita spoke first, reading Hunter's favorite poem, Coleridge's visionary "Kubla Khan," through her tears. "We've been through a lot together," she told her guests. "Hunter just wants to come home." CBS news reporter Ed Bradley and Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, both longtime friends, spoke of their affection for Hunter and their admiration for his groundbreaking journalism. 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, whose doomed campaign was documented by Hunter in a brilliant book, saluted Hunter and wished him "a happy journey in that land of mystery." Juan Thompson, Hunter's only child, was the last to speak, and dismissed the idea that the farewell ceremonies were designed to bring closure. "I don't want closure; I want to remember him," Juan Thompson said. "Missing him is a way of loving him."

Mint juleps--another Kentucky tradition--were given to arriving guests, but no alcohol was served during the tributes until just before Hunter's ashes were launched. Then trays of champagne circulated so Hunter's friends could raise a toast. The Gonzo monument was unveiled to the strains of "Spirit in the Sky." A troupe of Japanese ceremonial drummers reached a crescendo as the fireworks exploded in the Colorado night. Johnny and Juan Thompson solemnly raised their champagne glasses and then embraced one another as the ashes fell.

The brightly lit monument continued to shine an image of the Gonzo fist on the clouds over Owl Farm as Hunter's guests lingered to the wee hours of the morning. Boston attorney George Tobia, one of the executors of Hunter's estate, told reporter Jeff Kass, "I really think this is the greatest celebration that anyone has ever thrown for anyone else." Given the breadth of soul of the man who inspired it and the man who created it, it could not be anything else.

The Zone thanks emma for posting reports from the New York Times and the Rocky Mountain News; johnnysboots for the article from the Denver Post; sjc, who posted a radio interview from NPR with one of the guests; and Charly, Reemi, and theresa who posted news videos. Links to the videos and many news stories can be found on the Zone's News & Views forum.
/ / August 21, 2005

[piratess]

I went to California in May, and we went through Hollywood. I actually saw the Viper Room, but just the outside as we drove past. I remembered reading that he had owned it at one time. My brother didn't believe me at first when I told him. (He likes Johnny Depp, too, which is cute to me in a sisterly way).

Oh yeah, and that cannon/send off sounds interesting.

[captainscarletrose]

he's such a sweetheart. if I could find a guy like Johnny, i might start liking guys.....

[Fleur-de-lys]

It's awesome of him that he does this. It really shows what a kind person he is.

[khanumofpersia]

LOOOOOOOKIE!

Johnny has his Cap'n Jack gold caps and facial hair during the trip to Japan this month!

[Fleur-de-lys]

Wheee! Captain Sparrow with geek glasses! ;D He looks good.

[khanumofpersia]

Oi! This weekend's news conference for "Corpse Bride" at Toronto Film Festival.

Nice piccie with geek glasses again. I want a pair. Get a load of some of the stupid questions reporters ask Depp:

www.thegate.ca/news/more.php?id=998_0_1_0

[Fleur-de-lys]

Maybe his next project?


Will Depp Do Don Quixote?
Source: Edward Douglas September 12, 2005

The plight of Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote with Johnny Depp was well-documented in the 2002 documentary Lost in La Mancha, as the director's lifelong dream project ground to a halt in 2000 due to a series of unfortunate mishaps and coincidences.

While talking to Depp about Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, his fifth collaboration with the director, ComingSoon.net asked the popular actor about the project, since Gilliam himself had been suggesting recently that he'd like to try to revive the film for a third time.

But is Depp himself interested in being involved with the failed project and has Gilliam talked to him about it yet? "Every time I see him, he threatens to do something," Depp told us. "I just saw him last night. I'd love to do it again…well, I don't want to do that again. If there's any way to avoid the curse, that would be better. I'd love to do the film, if at all possible, and I stress that 'if at all possible' because it was really going to be good, that was the thing we all felt. It was really sad. It was really going to be good, like the best of Terry Gilliam. I felt really good about my character, and the good news is that if he wants to go back and do that, I already know the character, so I have less homework to do."

Who knows if The Man Who Killed Don Quixote will ever see the light of day, but you can at least hear Depp's voice in Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, which opens in limited release on Friday, September 16.

[piratess]

I watched "Lost in La Mancha". It was pretty sad. I mean, that the film went nowhere. I felt sorry for Terry Gilliam. If you can find it, I recommend watching it. It's also fascinating.