Parade – March 4, 2010 5:09 AM PST
By Jeanne Wolf, Parade.com
Johnny Depp takes on another show-stopping role as the Mad Hatter in “Alice in Wonderland,” which marks his seventh collaboration with filmmaker Tim Burton. He brings the same kind of off-beat originality to his character that you’d expect from an actor who’s played everything from a boy with scissor-hands to a hilariously eccentric pirate. Parade.com’s Jeanne Wolf found out why Depp felt at home in Burton’s Wonderland.
It’s all about Tim: “To be honest, he could have asked me to play Alice and I would have said yes. I would have done whatever character he wanted. The fact that it was the Mad Hatter was a bonus because it was a great challenge. There is some kind of connection, some sort of understanding that Tim and I have that is at most times unspoken. I do feel a certain amount of pressure like, ‘Will this be the film where I disappoint him?’ I try really hard just to come up with something that’s very different and we haven’t experienced together before.”
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Getting ‘mad as a hatter’: “That label was pretty accurate. The amount of mercury that hatters used in the glue to make hats was toxic. They literally became physically damaged goods. So you just had to imagine the out-of-control emotional side which could result in a hyper nutty guy who would go from levity straight into some kind of potentially dangerous rage.”
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Getting that deja vu feeling on the set: “My whole ride in this business since day one has been pretty surreal. It defies logic. I’m still completely shocked that I get jobs and still am around. So it has been a kind like falling through the rabbit hole into a kind of wonderland.”
Saying goodbye is hard to do: “Sometimes you fall in love with who you’re playing. As filming winds down, you hear the clock ticking because you know you’re going to leave your character behind and a kind of odd separation anxiety kicks in. You get irritable and just sort of melancholy. That’s what happened to me when we wrapped the first ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ I realized I was going to miss Captain Jack. I had felt so comfortable being him and being in that skin. Suddenly you go, ‘Am I ever going to see him again?'”
As for the reunion with him in ‘Pirates 4’: “I can’t wait to get back in costume. Some people will say, ‘Aha, Depp sold out by doing the sequels.’ But it was never an issue for me. I love Captain Jack so much I’d do ‘Pirates 7’ if they asked me.”
His kids have a different favorite: “They love ‘Edward Scissorhands.’ It’s funny because they have a difficult time watching it because it’s their dad. But they just connect with the character and also I think they see something — you know their dad feeling that isolation, feeling that, you know, loneliness. He is a tragic character. So I think it’s hard for them. They bawl when they see it.”
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What’s really important: “I think meeting the mother of my children, Vanessa, completely changed my life. When I watch her with our kids, I can’t think of anything more beautiful in the world. We live in the south of France and that’s been good for me. Now when I come back to Hollywood I can enjoy it. In spite of my career we really try to have a normal family life. I think it’s made me mellower about just about everything.”
Having fun on the set: “One of the first things I learned in the couple of times I worked with Marlon Brando was it’s OK to have a ball and even screw up occasionally because you’re only making a movie. I have to tell you, Al Pacino can be as funny as Brando and he has a great repertoire of jokes. Unfortunately, I’m not a great audience. I remember Al kept telling me his favorite joke and it didn’t make me laugh. I listened to it about 40 times before I finally got it. What really made me laugh is he didn’t stop. He insisted on telling it over and over. And it got so silly that he was making me laugh just because he wouldn’t stop.”
What’s guiding his future: “I’ve worked with some amazing people. And you know what? They all told me the same thing — ‘Don’t compromise. If what you’re giving them is not what they want, don’t be afraid to walk away.’ The first thing you gotta trust is your instinct, your gut, that’s really how I believe I’ve been able to stick around for such a long time, just by doing what is right for me. What is right for someone else is not right for me, you know, so I just stick to my instinct.”