JOHNNY DEPP By IGGY POP Even more than the other superstars of his generation (the Pitts, the Clooneys, the Cruises), Johnny Depp has built a personal mythos as complex and compelling as his career. In a sense, hes managed to position himself as the beatnik troubadour of American cinema. After his early roles, as the cute boyfriend in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and the cute narc on the late-80s cop show 21 Jump Street, Depp fought against his matinee-idol image. In his first headlining role, in John Waterss cult greaser comedy Cry-Baby (1990), the actor sent up his own pinup status, playing a high school toughie with his tongue planted firmly in cheek. And, even as he became grist of young-Hollywood tabloid mill (dating the likes of actress Winona Ryder and model Kate Moss), there seemed to be another Depp hiding beyond the spotlight, an inquisitive artist who sought out his creative heroes, including Marlon Brando, the Beats, and his good friend Hunter S. Thompson. With his star turn in Tim Burtons eerie fantasy Edward Scissorhands (1990), Depp began putting together the menagerie of oddballs, outcasts, and misfits (Ed Wood [1994], Don Juan DeMarco [1995], Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow [1999] , Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas [1998]) that would define his reputation as Hollywoods unpredictable master of disguise. And, for much of the past 15 years, those complicated sideshow characters of Depps have been the main attraction in a series of CGI circuses (as Willy Wonka and the Mad Hatter in Burtons Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [2005] and Alice in Wonderland [ 2010], respectively, and as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean series). Now, aged 50, Depp may be reinventing himself yet again. Escaping the makeup trailer in this months techno-fable Transcendence, the actor plays a present-day artificial intelligence researcher whose mind is incorporated into a computer system-his character, in other words, disappears into a network of his own design. Or maybe Johnny is just the same old Johnny-the Johnny who, with his band the Kids had a dream come true by opening for Iggy Pop in the early 80s. The actor and the musician then met again on the set of Cry-Baby and have been friends and collaborators ever since (Pop even scored the lone movie that Depp directed, the 1997 drama The Brave). Last February, Pop, who now lives in Florida, phoned Depp, who was at his home in Los Angeles, to talk about heroes, guitar solos, getting into character, and getting away from it all. IGGY POP: Ive got this article that you wrote in 1999 called Kerouac, Ginsberg, the Beats, and Other Bastards Who Ruined My Life. In it, you mention being a teenager and daydreaming about drinking Boones Farm with the cute cheerleader. JOHNNY DEPP: Oh, yeah, man, Boones Farm was one of the early muses. Boones Farm and MD 20/20. [Laughs] IGGY POP: Im glad to hear that. Boones Farm was a big favorite for the Stooges, and especially for me. But, of course, now youre familiar with some of the better Bordeaux-Cheval Blanc and those. JOHNNY DEPP: Its a ways from Boones Farm, for sure. IGGY POP: You mention Ginsberg flirting with you. He visited me once but he didnt flirt, so Im kind of hurt. I think I was a little over-the-hill by that time. He just looked around my apartment and went, How much did this cost? [Laughs]
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 23:02:40 +0000
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