Johnny Depp in five films: from hero to zero… to hero again

On display in Jeanne du Barry, by Maïwenn, in theaters on May 3, in which he plays Louis he reinvent himself?

“It’s difficult to film with him… the whole team was afraid because of his particular humor. We never knew if he would arrive on time, if he would be able to say his lines correctly… I mean, even if he was on set and on time, the crew was scared of him,” said Maïween two weeks ago, during an interview with The Independent British. A few days later, she specified in the pages of Variety that she had been misquoted and that she meant that “when I said Johnny was ‘scary,’ I was talking about his charisma, his notoriety, his star status, etc.” Without this context and its subtleties, it absolutely no longer means the same thing.

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

First of eight feature films that Johnny Depp is shooting under the direction of Tim Burton, Edward Scissorhands propels him to the forefront. His first appearance on the big screen was in The claws of the night (1984), because it was by becoming a drinking friend of Nicolas Cage that the latter advised him to become an actor and introduced him to Wes Craven while Depp moved to Los Angeles to become a singer. He also gets a small role in the Platoon (1986) by Oliver Stone before appearing in Cry-Baby (1990), which has since become cult.

Cartel (2001)

He then took on roles, notably touring with Lasse Hallstrom in Who is Gilbert Grape? (1993), finds Tim Burton for Ed Wood (1994) or opposite Marlon Brando in Don Juan DeMarco (1995). He appears in several films per year and goes from one shoot to another, from Donnie Brasco (1997) to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) through The nineth Door (1999), Sleepy Hollow: The Legend of the Headless Horseman (1999) and Chocolate (2000). In Cartelbased on a true story and directed by Ted Demme, this cinema chameleon transforms into George Jung, an American who becomes a cocaine trafficker for the Medellin cartel.

Charlie and the chocolate factory (2005)

This Tim Burton, for whom his salary is US$18 million, earned him his sixth Golden Globe nomination – in total, out of 10 nominations, he only left with one Golden Globe for Sweeney Todd: The Evil Barber of Fleet Street (2008) and will never win the Oscar despite three citations. As a crazy Willy Wonka, Johnny Depp wins the hearts of moviegoers and the feature film brings in no less than US$475.8 million at the international box office.

Rum Express (2011)

It’s on the set of Rum Express, based on the eponymous novel by Hunter S. Thompson, he meets Amber Heard, with whom he begins a romantic affair. The following year, he separated from Vanessa Paradis, his partner since 1998 and with whom he has two children, Lily-Rose and Jack. The film is a flop, as is the The Lone Ranger: the masked vigilante (2013) by Gore Verbinski or Transcendence, by Wally Pfister. Johnny Depp is no longer popular.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)

But Disney studios continue to bet on the franchise, the first part of which, The Curse of the Black Pearl, dates from 2003 and which grossed US$4.52 billion at the international box office for a total production budget of US$1.36 billion. But rumors and testimonies about Depp’s behavior on the film set are rife. He arrives late, he’s drunk, he doesn’t know his lines, in short, it becomes more and more risky to hire him. In April 2018, The Sun Brit claims he beats Amber Heard. Johnny Depp filed a complaint against the publishers of the publication and the highly publicized trial took place in 2020 and resulted in the conviction of the actor. In December 2018, Amber Heard signed in the Washington Post an editorial in which she accuses her husband of violence. Depp counterattacked, in 2019, by filing a defamation complaint, to which Heard responded with a defamation complaint in 2020 – the “Depp v. Heard” is also the subject of a documentary series on Netflix. Disney lets go of Johnny Depp, the actor is no longer filming and we will have to wait Jeanne du Barry to see it on screen again… in the meantime Modi, planned for this year and of which he is the director.