Johnny Depp is an American original

Johnny Depp’s experience with the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie is a good primer in the inevitable conflicts between artist and businessman.

The artist desires originality. What hasn’t been done before? The businessman desires repetition. What has been successful before? Businessmen fret over originality because they can’t predict its outcome — or, more accurately, pretend to predict its outcome, since their predictions are always suspect at best. “Seinfeld,” after all, bombed before focus groups. “Bottle Rocket” received the lowest focus-group numbers in its studio’s history. Focus groups are the enablers of studio executives in this way. What’s this thing? say focus groups. I’ve never seen anything like this before. It must not be any good.

For “Pirates,” Disney executives imagined Capt. Jack Sparrow as a gleaming-teethed swashbuckler, a Burt Lancaster type, something that had worked before. Instead Depp gave them a pirate who was touched, tippled, fey and vain. He wobbled. He wore mascara. He was comic. He was original. He was, according to Depp, a combination of Keith Richards and Pepe Le Pew.

Disney executives famously objected. I’m sure there were discussions of branding and cross-promotion and synergy. “Pirates” wasn’t just a movie, after all, it was one of the most popular rides at Disney theme parks around the world. It was already a brand. If the film bombed, it might ruin the brand. They might have to close the rides.

They did. Thanks in large part to Depp’s comic performance, the film proved so popular — making over $650 million worldwide — that Disney temporarily closed the rides to include likenesses of Capt. Jack and other characters from the film. The ride inspired the movie which inspired the ride. Synergy.

Result: Depp was honored for his artistry — a rare Oscar nomination for a comic performance — while the businessmen counted the loot. Those same businessmen are now paying through the nose so Depp can repeat the performance they initially feared; so Depp can repeat his originality. Find the irony where you will.

Ain’t pretty no more
Johnny Depp has been an original for much of his career. The purpose of the movie star is to appear cool and good-looking onscreen. Depp, cool and good-looking in real life, goes out of his way to appear geeky and freaky onscreen. He hides his pretty face. He is Jake La Motta to his own Tony Janiro. Ain’t pretty no more.

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He became a TV star on “21 Jump Street” but chafed under the teen-idol image, and was mocked and maligned for it. Didn’t he have fame? Good looks? Why is he running from what we all want? Since most of us compromise for a middle-class paycheck, we couldn’t understand someone who wouldn’t compromise for a world-class paycheck and all the perks that went with it (Sherilyn Fenn, Kate Moss, Winona Ryder). Sure, it’s a cartoon version of you, but more people see it. Less you, more them. What’s the problem?

So he fled his teen-idol image... by playing a teen idol in John Waters’ film “Cry-Baby.” Waters also cast Tracy Lords, who was trying to flee her porn queen past, as a bad girl. Waters knows. Make fun of your image, and, as he says in the director’s commentary, “they can never use it against you again.” Depp, in a 1990 interview, said more-or-less the same. “It was a chance to make fun of the image that had been shoved down America’s throats by the company I worked for,” he said. The role also helped introduce him to Tim Burton, with whom he would make five films. And counting.

Slideshow   Faces of Depp From Wonka to Cry-Baby, Johnny Depp prefers oddballs and outsiders to traditional leading men. Vote for your favorite Depp film. more photos

He went on to play characters who battle with reality. They are often confused men trying to make sense of a harsh reality (“Edward Scissorhands,” “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?,” “Dead Man,” “Sleepy Hollow”) or crazed men who suck others into their fantasy (“Ed Wood,” “Don Juan DeMarco,” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”). In “Benny & Joon,” Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson) first sees the silent film-loving Sam (Depp) perched in a tree. The second time she sees him, after winning him (by losing) in a card game, she says, matter-of-factly, “You’re out of your tree.” He pauses, shrugs, and responds matter-of-factly, “It’s not my tree.”

That sums up many of Johnny Depp’s early characters. They’re out of their tree, but it’s not their tree.

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