2005 Rolling Stone interview JOHNNY DARKO
JOHNNY DARKO.
By Erik Hedegaard. Photograph by Albert Watson.
HE’S FOUND NEVERLAND WITH THE WOMAN HE LOVES AND THEIR KIDS. BUT EVEN WITH OSCAR CALLING, JOHNNY DEPP SAYS “RAGE IS STILL NEVER FAR AWAY”
At Claridge’s Hotel in London, squirreled away at a table in the bar, over a relaxing glass of red wine, Johnny Depp lighted one of his hand-rolled cigarettes, grinned, leaned back, exhaled a plume and said “Fuck it” quite happily. It was a Tuesday afternoon. Earlier, he’d thought to go to the Dorchester Hotel, one of his other usual hants, but was put off by all the paparazzi and professional autograph hounds milling around, so he ended up here, talking about the movie he’d just finished shooting, the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, his fourth film in fifteen years with director Tim Burton “I have no idea what I did” he said, which he basically says about all his performances “And I have no idea of it’s anywhere near where it needs to be. I can only go by what I feel, and I feel good”
He smiled his slightly fractured, slightly raffish, entirely vulnerable smile and said that he was looking forward to a few months off before relocating himself and his family – his girlfriend of seven years, French pop singer and actress Vanessa Paradis, and their two children, Jack, 2, and Lily Rose Melody, 5 – to Los Angeles to begin making the sequel to Pirate of the Caribbean,