Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp was born June 9, 1963 in the small American town of Owensboro, Kentucky, in the family of an engineer and a waitress. When Johnny was 7 years old, his family moved to Florida, where his father was offered a promotion in a seaside town.

On the surface, the family seemed prosperous, but in fact, things were like this: the father constantly drank, hit his mother, scolded the children. The older brother Danny was saved by books, he loved Kerouac, beatnik poetry, and Van Morrison's music. Johnny found another solution: he tried to be home as little as possible. The nights in Florida were warm - you could sleep outside. Johnny dug a cave in his backyard and hid in it, imagining it to be his kingdom, terrified of being swept away. Until a few years ago, he had given himself other kinds of challenges, such as walking along the ledge of the eighth floor. He would become a great warrior, no, a great poet or musician or writer.

Johnny was 10 years old when he first went to a sermon given by his preacher uncle. "I was stunned," he recalls. - His uncle exclaimed: "Repent, save your souls!" and the adults cried like children." From then on, Johnny often imagined stepping out in front of the crowd and leading it. Where? That he didn't know.

The constant moving, house changes that began at this time, as well as the death of his grandfather, with whom he spent his childhood, left a negative imprint on the child's psyche, and in school the boy went completely without the slightest interest and was never known for a cheerful disposition. From the age of 12 he began smoking and indulging in alcohol, and at 13 he lost his virginity. The situation was complicated by the divorce of his parents: Depp, who was 15 years old at the time, began using drugs and quickly dropped out of school. He hated school, considering it an attack on personal freedom. By this time, Johnny had given up on his folks and was living his own life. "It's perfectly normal," he assures me. - If school is boring and there's nothing to do at home, you start experimenting." Johnny quickly found another hobby - he was seriously sick of music. When Johnny was 12 years old, his mother bought him an electric guitar for $ 25, and Depp, himself mastered the instrument, never parted with it.

Youth and music

Leaving home, 16-year-old "experimenter" began living in a friend's car, earning money for food, a laborer at the construction site, and all his free time he gave to rock music.

He started playing in one of the amateur bands. Performing in local bars and clubs, the young rockers began to earn their first royalties, and Johnny even seriously began to think about continuing his musical career. But things were going very badly, the guys had to earn their living by moonlighting here and there, and the band ended up not being very popular. During 4 years he took part in 14 "garage bands" which as a rule quickly fell apart.

At the age of 20 he was lucky enough to become a guitarist in a semi-professional band called "The Kids", which soon made a splash in Florida as the local Sex Pistols. It was then that Johnny first realized quite clearly what success was all about. It was this band that was noticed by the famous musician and hooligan Iggy Pop, with whom Depp later had to communicate on the grounds of filmmaking. This band and "warmed up" the audience before Iggy's concerts. Johnny loves music and, if possible, does not miss a moment to play the guitar. So, on the request of his friends from the band "Oasis" he played solo on the guitar in their song "Fade In-Out", took part in 1991 in a video of the song "Into the Great Wide Open" on the request of singer Tom Petty. In his spare time, Johnny occasionally played with the Rock City Angels, hoping to pursue a career in music.

Depp is now a member of the R Band, where he is joined by Gibby Gaines, guitarist Bill Carter, former Sex Pistols musician Steve Jones, Flea from the Red Hot Chilly Peppers and Sal Yenko. Johnny's music career never really took off.

In 20 years Depp married Laurie Allison, the sister of one of the musicians "The Kids". Playing in a band did not bring money. Johnny sometimes traded pens on the phone to earn a few bucks for lunch, and sometimes he dug ditches or delivered pizzas. After two years, Lori couldn't take that life and divorced Johnny. They remained friends, it was she who introduced Johnny (who at that time worked as a construction worker) with his new lover Nicolas Cage. He already had a couple of movie roles. Cage and Depp instantly found common ground, and Cage suggested that Johnny "just in case" to stop by his agent. So Johnny began a very different career - a movie.

Career

Depp's appearance, his look and demeanor impressed the agent, and he immediately sent him to audition for the film, which became a milestone in the horror genre. As a result, the future sex symbol landed his first small role in Wace Craven's "Nightmare on Elm Street. Johnny came in, expecting, at best, an episode, and suddenly got one of the main roles. Would you say he was lucky? Director Wes Craven, who chose an unknown guy with no acting experience for one of the lead roles, thinks it's not Johnny who got lucky, but him as a director. "Unlike the pretty boys that agents sent me, Johnny was real," Craven later recalled. - "You could feel the patina of the time, of his time - the 80s. He smoked incessantly, his fingers were yellow with nicotine. There was an old soul in this young guy. I decided to test my choice on my teenage daughter and her girlfriends. Of all the samples, the girls chose "Johnny's Soulmate." They shouted that he had "it" - and in huge doses! "Until then, Johnny never stood in front of the camera. However, on the first day of filming he was so calm and relaxed, so naturally said his lines, so clearly entered his role, that Craven thought the agent who warned him about the inexperience of the guy, with someone confused.

"A Nightmare on Elm Street" was a huge success at the box office, and Johnny was noticed. He, inexperience, immediately agreed to star in the movie "Private Resort", in which he had to appear for the first time before the camera in the nude. Then he was called to television, and he began playing guest roles because they paid well, and Johnny still dreamed of amassing enough capital to produce his own music album. But his first acting fees Depp spent on much-needed acting lessons at the time, after which he managed to get a small role in Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning drama Platoon /Platoon/. Johnny eagerly accepted Stone's offer, flattered by the opportunity to go for three months in the Philippines and work with famous actors. And when he returned learned that the agent found him a job on television in the youth series "Jump Street, 21" / 21 Jump Street / on the role of one of the detectives, working undercover in schools and fighting youth crime. However, the actor considered himself above participating in television productions and initially refused to work on the project and did not sign a contract for several years. The role was taken by someone else, but he apparently did not suit the studio executives, and after some time, they still turned to the proposal again to Depp, offering him $ 45,000 per episode. Depp hesitated for a long time. This time Johnny's agents were able to persuade him to agree, reasoning that the series is unlikely to last more than a year, after which you can return to the big movie. Depp learned that his partner in the series will be his favorite actor Frederick Forrest. But Forrest's character was taken out of the plot after a few episodes. The series was a hit, and Depp - the audience favorite, resulting in his return to the big screen had to postpone for three years. What was Johnny doing to leave the show! Scolded the writer and directors, used drugs. Once he burned the clothes of a hated character, which he did not like. Once punched in the face the producer. He got away with it all: viewers sent him ten thousand rave letters a month. What pissed him off the most were the ladies' letters that included their panties or pubic hair. Despite his success, Johnny was disgusted with the idea of being a youth idol.

In 1990, between seasons he threw out another trick - played a major role in the movie "Cry-Baby" / Cry-Baby / scandalous director John Waters, prays all human vices. Depp played a parody of his television role as the swaggeringly handsome, woman-loving leader of the unbridled rockabilly boys who oppose the sleek boys of noble families. In signing him, the director said that with this film Johnny would kill his image. Johnny said it was meant to be. But even the satirical role did not diminish Johnny's popularity among young people. After "Crybaby," Johnny began to be seriously overpowered by female fans. Handsome tried to hold himself and did not spoil the image. And when, after yet another scandal, they decided to replace him in the series by another actor in the studio had such a powerful barrage of protests that the producers were forced, with a heavy heart, to return "that brat. By that time came out the picture "Edward Scissorhands / Edward Scissorhands / Tim Burton. Despite a most tarnished reputation in Hollywood, Burton came to admire Johnny's dusky charm. Burton would later cast Johnny in three more of his films, inviting him to voice a cartoon. On the set of "Edward Scissorhands" actor struck up an affair with his partner in the film Winona Ryder, which lasted about three years and ended with a loud breakup - Depp even had to fix his tattoo "Winona Forever" on "Wino Forever". By the way, there are 13 different tattoos on Johnny's body.

His subsequent film career has shown a stubborn reluctance of the actor to star in standard roles and a penchant for finding original material. Despite the frequent scandals and problems in his personal life, film career Johnny formed more and more successfully - the role in the films "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" /What's Eating Gilbert Grape? / and "Arizona Dream / Arizona Dream /, were well received by critics.

Released in 1995, the romantic film "Don Juan DeMarco," in which Depp was a great screen trio with Marlon Brando and Faye Dunaway, not very popular with audiences, while "Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man was hailed as one of the most outstanding cinematic masterpieces of the past 20 years, cementing Depp's reputation as one of the most talented young actors. Depp is proclaimed as one of the best actors of his generation for his role in Mike Newell's Donnie Brasco, starring Al Pacino.

Depp is trying out as not only a main character, but also as a screenwriter, writing with his brother Danny Depp script for the movie "The Brave", based on the book by Gregory MacDonald. The script, however, received mostly negative reviews.

The end of 90′s was marked for Johnny a series of unusual, dissimilar to one another roles: He impressed everyone with his crazy reincarnation alongside Benicio Del Torro in Terry Gilliam's acid-halucinogenic film "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas," then he turned into a dark bookseller in search of Satan in Roman Polanski's mystical thriller "The Ninth Gate, and in 1999, The Astronaut's Wife, a "sci-fi flop" that did nothing but disappoint.

There was a succession of paintings, where Johnny brilliantly played his role. The most successful role in recent times with Johnny - this is Captain Jack Sparrow in the adventure, you might even say a fantastic movie "Pirates of the Caribbean. As the first film, and its sequel was a huge success at the box office. For his role as Captain Jack, Johnny was nominated for the first time at the Academy Awards in 2004. The whole audience, adoring Johnny Depp, with bated breath waiting for him to win. Alas! The golden statuette went to actor Sean Penn, with whom Johnny has a friendly and partnership relations. They have a joint restaurant "Man Ray", located in Paris. Johnny is a great actor, he will get "golden idol" more than once!

Johnny has recently enjoyed playing pirates and chocolate tycoons in movies for kids. But he is still interested in roles of extraordinary personalities: released in 2006, a historical film about the poet John Wilmot of scandalous fame "The Libertine," had problems at the U.S. box office, but was enthusiastically received and showered with awards in Europe.

Johnny Depp continues to actively shoot, the flow of proposals to participate in various projects does not stop for a minute. Johnny, after more than 20 years of his career, is still in great demand. He is just torn to pieces. Career success? Despite the huge royalties he now receives, Depp thinks he got into movies by mistake. When asked how to become a famous actor, Johnny replies that it takes a lifetime of experience. "No, I don't encourage everybody to do drugs. And running away from home is not the best solution to problems. But before you play something, you have to experience it for yourself. The camera can see right away what kind of person you are. You can fool the producers, the director, but never the camera!

In 1995, "Empire" magazine recognized Depp as one of the 100 Sexiest Movie Actors. In 1996, recognized by "People" magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world. This title will be awarded to him more than once. Johnny has become one of the most respected actors in Hollywood.

Love and family

Even five years ago, he had a lot of problems. These included chronic insomnia, a fear of crowds, cigarettes one after the other, and a persistent hostility toward all authority figures that cost him three, albeit small, prison sentences: a major fight with a police officer in Los Angeles, a major fight with a hotelier in Vancouver, and speeding in Arizona. In 1994, an arrest for trashing a hotel room in New York; in January 1999, an arrest for fighting with reporters in front of a restaurant in London. Although then he was protecting his common-law wife Vanessa Paradis from paparazzi encroachments.

In addition, the frequent changes are not even a mood, almost a personality: "Sometimes I wake up not the same person who went to bed. No wonder I am hard to get along.

On his personal life Depp prefers not to spread. This is understandable, given his lack of companionship, as well as high-profile affairs with Sherilyn Fenn, Jennifer Grey, Samantha Janus, Winona Ryder, Kate Moss. He and Winona had been on and off for four years, and now she was out of his life, and the tattoo on his shoulder, "Winona Forever," had turned into a sort of incomprehensible ligature, "Wine Forever. He had always wanted freedom.

After parting in 1998 with the model Kate Moss, an affair with which lasted about 4 years, Johnny soon met at one of the social parties with a young French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis and was conquered by her once and for all. The lovers moved to France to start a new life there. In St. Tropez, Johnny bought a huge ranch for the family. "I always wanted to have space around me, to be able to ride a horse or race a motorcycle and not have to think about speeding or the fact that every second someone might appear in front of you and say something," Johnny once said. Johnny also has an apartment in Paris near Montmartre.

Vanessa got Johnny addicted to hamburgers, something he couldn't stand before. Love is a great power!

In May 1999, Johnny and Vanessa had a daughter, Lilly Rose Melody Depp. And on April 9, 2002, Vanessa gave birth to Johnny's son Jack. Johnny seems to be very happy. He adores his children. All his free time from filming, he spends with children, taking them to Disneyland, playing computer games, walking. When Lily and Jack were little, even changed their diapers. Johnny can talk about children endlessly, talk about their achievements in cognition of the world, even though in his youth he was afraid and even hated children. He is like a kite, he would peck any paparazzi if he got close to his little ones. Johnny guards his world, where his dearest people live - Vanessa, Lily, Jack - and does not want to let anyone in.