Demon barber … darling, what have they done to you hair, asks Helen Bonham Carter? Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd
Depp as the ocean
“People say I make strange choices,
but they’re not strange for me.
My sickness is that I’m fascinated by
human behaviour, curious about
what’s underneath the surface,
about the worlds inside people”
by Jan Golen
F
rom renegade to mainstay
of Tinseltown, Johnny
Depp has been there,
done that, returned and
done it again. Now, at the
age of 50, the end of working days
beckons the rebel, and he’s thinking
of calling it a day. But is early
retirement really a cause this rebel
would die for?
Johnny Depp is the archetypal
Hollywood rebel who’d rather stay
in the shadows out of the media
spotlight – or at least ration the
tsunami of adulation incessantly
28•FAN FA R E JUNE 2 0 1 4
swirling his way.
Well, just a nano-particle or
so. If he’s cultivated an image
as an outsider of the film world,
Johnny Depp, hasn’t missed a trick
cementing his status as a true talent,
a long way from the bad boy image
that dogged him in his early years.
Fact is Johnny Depp is not your
typical Hollywood A-lister. From
humble roots in Kentucky to
strutting the world stage at fame’s
pinnacle, Depp would rather take a
back seat and let others schmooze
the waves of swoon that is any star’s
constant companion.
Born in 1963 in Owensboro,
Kentucky, Depp’s rise to the
giddy heights has been one long
meandering journey of events and
chance that have lead to global
success. From starting out in a band,
as many young men do, to walking
the red carpet at a premiere, Johnny
Depp at the age of 50 has done just
about all one can do in life. The
world is his lobster, but life was not
always so swell for Depp.
At the young age of 15, his parents
divorced, he dropped out of school
and was constantly on the move with
few obvious life prospects ahead.
He fell into self-harm. Depp recalls:
“My body is a journal in a way. It’s
like what sailors used to do, where
every tattoo meant something, a
specific time in your life when you
make a mark on yourself, whether
you do it yourself with a knife or
with a professional tattoo artist.”
Brights lights of Los Angeles
The bright lights of Los Angeles
beckoned. Depp set about trying to