Friday Minute
No. 31 | February 12, 2010

Talkin’ ‘Bout “D” Generation

Our theme this week
Actors of the “D” Generation

Featured this week
Monday         —   Matt Damon
Tuesday         —   Matt Dillon
Wednesday    —   Leonardo DiCaprio
Thursday        —   Robert Downey Jr.

Johnny Depp

The essentials
Johnny Depp was born in Kentucky and moved often before his family settled in Florida.  He had his share of troubles growing up.  He went to Los Angeles seeking a record deal with his rock band but turned to acting in the mid-1980s.  His early film roles were in supporting or secondary parts.  He was a victim on Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and a private in Platoon (1986).  As the lead on TV’s 21 Jump Street, Depp became a teen idol.

Edward Scissorhands (1990) was a gem, an ingenious creation, and the first of many film collaborations with director Tim Burton.  Depp made a couple of movies in 1993 that demonstrated his penchant for the offbeat.  Benny & Joon was a comedy about misfits who fall in love.  What’s Eating Gilbert Grape was about the family struggles of an odd bunch.  In 1994 he reteamd with Burton to make Ed Wood, a biopic about the B movie director who specialized in oddballs.  None of the films were big hits but they were fresh and inventive.  Depp made daring choices in the roles he played, and his imaginative performances provided audiences with characters they hadn’t seen before.

Dead Man(1995), directed by Jim Jarmusch, and Don Juan DeMarco (1995), with Marlon Brando and Faye Dunaway, were other films off the beaten track.  Donnie Brasco (1997) was more conventional, an update to the gangster genre, with Depp as an undercover agent who befriends a hit man for the mob played by Al Pacino.  Depp took the road less traveled again with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998); not especially successful at the time, it’s now considered a cult classic.

Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999) was a hit, with Depp as Ichabod Crane.  Chocalat (2000), starring Juliette Binoche, was too.  From Hell (2001), adapting the Alan Moore-Eddie Campbell graphic novel, did well also.  Director Ted Demme’s final film, the underrated Blow (2001), featured Depp in a first-rate performance as drug trafficker George Jung.

In 2003 Depp created the iconic role of pirate captain Jack Sparrow for the first Pirates of the Caribbean (the trilogy continued in 2006 and 2007).  It was hugely successful and elevated Depp to a new level of stardom.  In Finding Neverland (2004), adapted from the stage, Depp played J.M. Barrie, the imaginative writer who befriends a group of children.  The film and Depp earned good reviews, along with Best Picture and Best Actor nominations.  Again working the Tim Burton, Depp made two very different films, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), playing children’s favorite Willy Wonka, and Sweeney Todd (2007), the violent musical remake featuring songs of Stephen Sondheim.  Michael Mann’s film Public Enemies (2009) starred Depp as 1930s gangster John Dillinger.  Another Burton film, Alice in Wonderland, with Depp as the Mad Hatter, is due in March.  (Depp and Burton have plans for yet another movie, Dark Shadows.)

Beyond the final credits
Partners in crime (frequent collaborators):

• 7 films — Tim Burton*
• 4 films — Helena Bonham Carter*, Jack Davenport, Christopher Lee*
• 3 films — Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Pryce, Geoffrey Rush, Gore Verbinski
• 2 films — Marlon Brando, Faye Dunaway, Terry Gilliam, Lasse Hallström, Max Perlich, Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken

      * Includes Alice in Wonderland

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Benny & Joon (1993)
Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Aidan Quinn

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Blow (2001)
Johnny Depp, Jordi Mollà

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Sweeney Todd (2007)
Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter
“My Friends”

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Quote of Note
Ed Wood:  “Do you know that I’ve even had producers re-cut my movies?”
Orson Welles:  “I hate when that happens.”
Ed Wood:  “And they always want to cast their buddies.  It doesn’t even matter if they’re right for the part.”
Orson Welles:  “Tell me about it.  I’m supposed to do a thriller for Universal.  They want Charlton Heston as a Mexican.”
—Ed Wood (Johnny Depp), Orson Welles (Vincent D’Onofrio), Ed Wood (1994)

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