Total Film magazine, April 2007
By Aubrey Day

10...Icons of Our Age

Johnny Depp

Any way you take him, he’s cool; goatee, glasses, cowboy hat, smoking, non-smoking, dressed up, dressed down, dressed as a woman. Or a pirate. Or a wonky, wacko sweet-seller…He can do anything. Really well.

Yeah, yeah. Be still our swooning hearts. But is there anyone out there who doesn’t love Johnny Depp? Total Film’s favourite actor of our lifetime was once considered the Marlon Brando of his generation (the pair worked together on Don Juan DeMarco and the Depp-directed The Brave). But he spent the first half of his career running from the mainstream, preferring to hang out with Hunter S. Thompson and Shane MacGowan and ply his peerless skills for mates Burton (six times including forthcoming Sweeney Todd), Gilliam and Jarmusch, than go all Hollywood (he turned down Interview With The Vampire, Speed and The Matrix).

But when Johnny got the invite from Jerry Bruckheimer to shiver his timbers in Pirates of the Caribbean, he couldn’t resist. Dressing up like his mate Keef scored him a wider audience and he became an A-list icon overnight, finally scooping that long-overdue first Oscar nomination.

Over the years, Total Film has always found him warm, witty and satisfyingly non-moviestar-ish. The best invite saw us bundled into Depp’s Libertine trailer, as he kicked back with a bottle of red wine and, as we remember, a touch of classical music on his stereo.

So here he is, about to follow up last year’s billion dollar-busting Pirates 2 with this year’s all time box office-shattering Pirates 3…

So, we called him up. And he wasn’t in. Busy filming Sweeney Todd, apparently.

So, we called again. And again. Eventually, he back to us…World-exclusively. Turn over, quick!