Now that moviegoers have caught up to Johnny Depp, they want to know one thing: Who did he base his latest character on?
This after Depp famously revealed that he modeled “Pirates of the Caribbean’s” irrepressible scoundrel Capt. Jack Sparrow on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and amorous skunk Pepe Le Pew, a mirthful mixture previously untapped–and for good reason. Only Depp could have pulled it off.
It was probably the most popular indulgence in eccentricity in movie history, powering “Pirates” to box-office heights and winning Depp an Oscar nod in the process.
“I’m still in shock,” Depp says of all the acclaim. “It was definitely outside the box.”
But Depp lives outside the box. Witness his “Pirates” follow-up, “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” which had Depp playing a crazy CIA agent living, as he puts it, “la vida loca,” engineering a series of political intrigues south of the border.
Depp modeled this character on a Hollywood charmer he once knew, a guy “who was aiming to [screw] you over, but you almost didn’t mind because he was so fascinating to watch.”
Now comes the psychological thriller “Secret Window,” opening Friday, with Depp starring as Mort Rainey, a reclusive writer living in a mountain cabin, trying to get through a painful divorce and contending with a psycho hillbilly who believes Rainey plagiarized his story.
Depp makes Mort into a disheveled hard-luck case, the kind of guy who avoids mirrors at all costs because he has let his personal hygiene go to seed in an alarming way.
So who was the inspiration this time?
“Brian Wilson,” Depp says. “I remember hearing those famous stories or maybe myths about him in this very reclusive period where he didn’t leave his house and had sand brought in to cover his living room floor. Then he dropped the baby grand on top of that and wrote these great classics. That was the level of reclusiveness I was looking for.”
Says “Secret Window” writer-director David Koepp: “So much of this movie is a guy in a cabin alone. So I needed a really charismatic actor who could make taking a nap look entertaining. And that’s Johnny. He’s never boring. He’s all about the minutiae that builds into fascinating characters.”
Koepp, who elaborately wooed Depp for “Secret Window,” is hardly alone in his admiration. Filmmakers love Depp for his dedication and the lengths to which he’s willing to go to get the job done.
As Tim Burton, who directed Depp in “Edward Scissorhands,” “Ed Wood” and “Sleepy Hollow,” puts it: “He simply has no fear of failure. And, in Hollywood, that makes him unique.”
Depp is talking about making a “Pirates” sequel (or maybe two), relishing the memory of the Disney executives who initially thought his performance was too over-the-top and would sink the movie and taking delight in the number of children who now recognize him from the film.
Depp is filming “The Libertine,” a bio of 17th Century poet John Wilmot, a.k.a. the Earl of Rochester. After that, he will collaborate with Burton again in a new version of Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
The moral: Continue to expect the unexpected, at least when it comes to the movies Depp chooses.
“He’s never going to fit into one category,” Burton says. “That’s the beauty of the guy.”
