Top Five Roles: Johnny Depp

*Disclaimer: Johnny Depp was one of my favorite actors once upon a time. I thought he was fantastically-interesting and creative. Even though it had been a while since I’d really loved any recent work of his when I wrote this post, and it was even later that I heard the allegations against him, it was still a rough one. I don’t know whether he was doing the same shit back in the day or if it was only in recent years, but it both makes me mad and saddens me that some truly great roles have been tainted for me.*

Lately, I haven’t seen much from Johnny Depp that really excites me.  I have no great love for Dark Shadows or Public Enemies, and I haven’t seen many of his most recent movies.  At his best, however, he’s an incredibly fine actor who can bring a really inventive presence to a well-written role.  These are my favorites.

 

Edward, Edward Scissorhands

The first time someone described this movie to me, I was sure they were pulling my leg.  That it works as well as it does is insane, and lot of that is down to Depp’s weird, sweet performance as Edward.  Plenty of films have been made about artificially-created life or sentient robots, but none quite like this.  Edward is artistic, curious, shy, intrepid, naïve, and above all, entirely new.  Just a terrific character.

Sam, Benny & Joon

Sam! I raved about him in my Benny & Joon review, and I’ll gladly do it again here.  A twist on a familiar archetype, Sam is what I’d call a Manic Pixie Dream Boy, but, as with Edward, his quirkiness is entirely his own.  Obviously, I love his devotion to cinema, especially silent comedies, I love his ironed grilled cheese, and I like that he’s so guileless and un-self-conscious.  Sam knows exactly who he is and honestly doesn’t mind what others may think of that.

Ed Wood, Ed Wood

Depp is perfectly cast in this movie.  Ed is completely hopeless, but he’s also wholly unaware of that fact, and that’s what makes him so engaging.  Just like every villain is a hero in his own mind, so every awful filmmaker is an auteur, and in Ed’s mind, he’s an Orson Welles.  He approaches his terrible movies with ardent relish, reveling in every ludicrous frame with an enthusiasm that’s infectious to behold.

Ichabod Crane, Sleepy Hollow

Do you see the pattern?  Over time, Depp’s collaborations with Tim Burton devolve into too-muchness, but I love their first three movies.  Not to confused with the one from the supernatural TV drama, this Ichabod is an intelligent but obstinate skeptic, only believing the fantastical with the most irrefutable of evidence.  He’s priggish, squeamish, and kind of a scaredy-cat.  In other words, I love that he’s the leading man in this supernatural horror film.  You do you, Ichabod.

Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean

Let’s not talk about the sequels.  Regardless of what happened later, Captain Jack Sparrow in The Curse of the Black Pearl is a thing of comic beauty.  An oddball of a drunken rapscallion, Jack does what so many of the other included characters do – offers an archetype we’ve seen before (in this case, unscrupulous pirate) but delivers it in a different way.  Though I’ve more recently sworn my fealty to another Captain Jack, this was the first to entertain me (in spades!)