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By Angela Dawson
Entertainment News Wire
HOLLYWOOD -- Two things have changed Johnny Depp's outlook on life during the past five years: living in France and starting a family.
It appears the 40-year-old actor, known as a sexy Hollywood bad boy during his 20s and early 30s, has moved from the fast lane to a meandering country path. He lives most of the year in the south of France with singer-actress Vanessa Paradis and their two children, 4-year-old Lily-Rose and 1-year-old Jack. Living far from Tinseltown gives this native Kentuckian a chance to enjoy a tranquil, relatively normal existence while maintaining a busy film career.
"Living in France has done wonders for my relationship with Hollywood," the actor says during a recent stopover here. "I'm so removed from it that I don't know anything that's going on."
Sitting in the windowless basement meeting room of a ritzy hotel, Depp looks like a bohemian intellectual in his brown suede jacket, jeans and tortoise-shell glasses. A black knit stocking cap covers much but not all of his sun-bleached brown hair.
"I don't know who's famous and who isn't," he insists. "I don't know who's rich, poor, successful or a drag. I don't know what made money and what didn't. And it's great, because I don't have to think about anything but my work."
Things that used to frustrate him about being a celebrity, like tabloid reports about his personal life, don't bother him as much anymore. "Now, I can sort of go, 'Oh, piss off, I'm just going to play Barbies with my daughter,'" he says.
But that doesn't mean the darkly handsome actor has completely dissociated himself from Hollywood. After all, he's starring this summer in a major studio movie: "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl."
The Jerry Bruckheimer-produced action-adventure was inspired by Disney's popular theme park attraction about 18th century pirates. Depp plays the roguish but charming Jack Sparrow, captain of the pirate ship Black Pearl. The Black Pearl is stolen by Sparrow's nemesis, Capt. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), who sets off to attack the town of Port Royal, Jamaica, where he kidnaps the governor's daughter, Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley).
British hunk Orlando Bloom ("The Lord of the Rings") plays blacksmith Will Turner, Elizabeth's childhood friend. Joining forces with Sparrow, he commandeers the Interceptor, the fastest ship in the British fleet, in a gallant attempt to rescue the girl and recapture the Black Pearl for Sparrow.
It's a big-budget, effects-laden movie, but Depp steals every scene he's in with his comic portrayal of the staggering seafaring scalawag. Co-star Rush says Sparrow is a lot like Depp. "He is freewheeling -- he is absolutely his own man (and) he's hilarious," says the Oscar-winning actor.
To Depp, his character Sparrow is amorphous. "Captain Jack is like this strange pulsating organism who shapes himself to model whatever situation he's in," Depp explains. His ideas for how to portray the character came to him while reading the script in his sauna. "I began thinking about these guys out on the high seas, totally at the mercy of the elements all the time -- the swaying of the ocean, the constant blazing heat hammering their heads," he says. "I felt this is a guy who's always swaying slightly and infinitely more comfortable on the water with its rhythms than on the land. He's also a guy who uses that to some degree with people, hypnotizing them like a cobra."
Sparrow had that hypnotic effect on Depp himself. "I just knew him so well and I felt really comfortable in that skin," he says.
As he speaks, it's hard not to notice that Depp's fingers are adorned with pirate-like jewelry, including a silver skull-and-crossbones, which predates his making the movie.
Though he stars in the movie, Depp is relieved not to be playing the romantic lead. (That honor goes to 26-year-old Bloom, who courts 18-year-old Knightley in the film.)
Depp also wanted to take a role in a family film that his children will enjoy in the years to come. "I wanted to make a film that was a little more accessible for them," he says, adding with a laugh, "It's a little more accessible than 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.'"
Depp modeled the pirate captain he plays on Rolling Stone Keith Richards, with a dash of Pepe Le Pew and a hint of Dean Martin thrown in. With his long braided hair slung back in a bandana and dark makeup under his eyes, Depp certainly bears a passing resemblance to the rock star in the movie. He's quick to point out, though, that his performance isn't an imitation of Richards, merely a salute to him. "Keith has a certain grace, elegance, wit and wisdom about him that I thought would be very useful," explains Depp, who knows the legendary guitarist but never talked to him about the role.
"Pirates were sort of the equivalent of the rock 'n' roll stars of the 18th century," he continues. "They represent, to some degree, freedom, adventure, outlaw behavior and all that stuff."
Like Pepe Le Pew, the French-accented cartoon skunk, Sparrow is single-minded in trying to get his ship back and oblivious to the contempt of those around him. Like Martin, Sparrow has a charming swagger and zest for life.
To prepare for the role, Depp took it upon himself to have several of his teeth capped in gold and platinum. Initially, the filmmakers weren't too keen on the idea. Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski ("The Ring") asked him to remove the caps, concerned that they would distract audiences. But Depp insisted the caps were necessary, as were the beaded ornaments in his braided hair. Eventually, the two sides reached a compromise. Depp had two of the gold caps removed but kept the majority of the metal work in his mouth and the hair jewelry.
Verbinski describes Depp's character as a con man. "He's lazy, a great pirate, but he is not going to fight if he doesn't have to," the director says. "He's always going to take a shortcut. ... The big thing for Jack Sparrow is his myth."
The director compares Depp's characterization to that of Lee Marvin in "Cat Ballou," who "floats through the story affecting all around him while pursuing his goal." Adds Depp, "Marvin was once asked how he prepared for his role as the drunken gunfighter and he said, 'I've been preparing for this role for 40 years.' I kind of feel the same" about playing a pirate.
Months after finishing the movie, Depp still has the gold caps on his teeth. He says he kept them in case he had to do reshoots and plans to have them removed soon. Still, he seems amused by people's reactions to his shiny mouth. During a recent visit to Disneyland, he recalls, a sales clerk gave him a discerning look when he smiled. "She looked at me as if to say, 'I have really good dentist,'" he says, laughing. "She seemed so upset about my dental dilemma."
While at Disneyland, Depp took his daughter on the 35-year-old "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride, a personal favorite. But she preferred some of the park's gentler attractions -- like Cinderella's castle. "She's a real girlie-girl," Depp says. "At home, we play little princess computer games. You can design the most beautiful dress, crown and magic wand -- the whole thing. It's killer."
Like any proud father, Depp seems most animated and contented when talking about his children. "The kiddies give you strength and perspective, and you understand stuff," he says.
He boasts that his daughter can speak French and English fluently. (Paradis is French.) His son is only just starting to talk but apparently has energy to burn. "He stands up and screams like some godawful warrior then runs straight into the wall, falls down then gets up, shakes it off and does it again," he says, amused.
After Depp's daughter saw "The Pirates of the Caribbean" trailer, she actually went around telling people what her father did for a living: "'Yeah, my daddy's a pirate!'" Depp recalls her saying. "I was quite proud."
Though he's willing to talk about his offspring, Depp still guards his family's privacy like a lion protecting his cubs. "I don't care if they take my photograph or that of my wife," says Depp of his occasional paparazzi encounter. "But when they start taking photographs of my kids and putting them in their magazines, I can't support that. That's why they had better bring a really long lens, because if I catch them, I'll bite their nose off and swallow it."
Like so many creative types, Depp has struggled with inner demons over the years. His social life once played like a soap opera. He was engaged to actresses Sherilyn Fenn, Jennifer Grey and Winona Ryder at various times.
Meeting and settling down with Paradis, 30, seemed to have a positive, calming effect on the once rambunctious actor.
"I've stepped in s*** more than most people -- and on purpose, willingly," he confesses. "It's been a hard, a long battle and it's still kind of going on to some degree even at the ripe old age of 40."
But Depp says as long as he sticks to his guns, he should be fine.
"The best advice I ever got was 'don't ever get to a place where you have regrets,'" he recalls.
And who said those sage words? His mother.
