Quotes about Johnny Depp
With thanks again to Deppography
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AmZ (in response to an author comparing Johnny to Tom Cruise)

I think Johnny's beyond-charisma is a really basic and fundamental aspect of his personality, which is why Cruise will never match it, no matter how hard he tries.

There is an old stage concept in the theatre: the test by cat. It's a sort of mental exercise. A cat is brought out on stage and an actor comes on with it. The cat does whatever it wants, the actor launches into something dramatic. The test of a good actor is whether or not the audience wil be looking at him emoting or at the cat napping on a chair. In the vast majority of cases, the cat wins.

It always has seemed to me that Tom Cruise is that hard-working but ultimately boring actor earning his bread with the sweat o' his brow, and Johnny Depp is that cat. He can take a nap, chase lint, stretch, yawn, sit perfectly still or move around, look at the audience or not look at the audience - it doesn't matter. All eyes will be riveted on him. And when he gets bored with being gawked at and trots off stage for a snack, the audience will know beyond all shadow of doubt that the loss is all theirs. The only thing that will keep them in their seats - besides their bourgeois sense of social sensibility and propriety - is the hope that the kitty might return.

Johnny Vegas on Johnny (From Cassady)

"He's a very distant man, a very shadowy character. Always dipping out late at night, coming back with muddy hands, but we don't ask him any questions."

"He won't allow eye contact, when you talk to him, you've just got to talk to his hand and look at his hand. No looking at him above the nipples. I think he rates his nipples."

"He beats you with one of those pairs of spectacles with the springy eyes. He has you tied to a chair and he hits you, saying 'Don't you dare, you're eyes are unworthy to rest themselves on my pretty peach-like face'. It's ten lashings for every second you look at him."
 

Oprah Winfrey (From Cassady)

"I've only seen him on the red carpet I think during the Oscars last year and I have to tell you that when, ahh and he was kinda all dazzled up at the Oscars. When he just walked in here, Dean, looking like that, he is kinda breathtaking. You know he is really, really handsome. I really do get that whole...I know (to Dean) you're a guy and you've seen a lot of guys come through here. Was he not very breathtaking? (Dean agrees: "breathtaking") And he is great in his new movie 'Finding Neverland' which is in theatres now."
 

David Koepp(director of Secret Window) (From Pattie)
"You can rumple him, but you can't make him unattractive. You can try, but it won't happen."

David Koepp (From Mrs. Sands)
"Johnny sort of popped into my head midway through the first draft, and he wouldn't leave. But the more I thought about, the more it made sense. In the first half of the movie, this guy is in the house not doing anything. I really needed an actor who's inventive and who will make enough idiosyncratic choices to make it entertaining to watch. And let's face it, Johnny Depp could make a nap interesting to watch."

Mel Brooks
"Very few people can stand in Gene Wilder's shoes. But Johnny Depp is brilliant. I think he could do anything. He was amazing as Ed Wood."

Mike Newell
"He was pushing his luck - he just wondered how far it could be taken. Because he's a cheeky little sod as well, and that's part of his charm."

The Hughes Brothers (directors of From Hell)
A journalist asked them if they are afraid of working with big movie stars.

"Not if you give them a lot of cocaine," joked Allen.

"On this one we got lucky," said Albert. "We haven't had the experience of temper tantrums and people running into their trailers."

"We talked about casting one of those guys just so we could get past it," said Allen. "We screwed up with Johnny Depp, who is the sweetest person on the planet and does none of that... He's coming tomorrow to Prague. I want to tongue-kiss Johnny Depp!"

From Mistress Quickly
(About Johnny and his need to run away from his face--what  James Lipton called: "The Burden of Beauty.")

I think Lipton has a point about the Burden of Beauty. It really is a double-edged sword -- it brings enormous advantages and colors everything in the beautiful person's life. Face it, Johnny would never have gotten his big breaks as an actor if he wasn't "beautiful." Then came the incredible, terrifying fame -- also based on beauty -- which may have been horrible for him but also set up the rest of his career. John Waters found him in teen magazines. Tim Burton would never have been able to give him the role of Edward Scissorhands if he hadn't been a star.

Directors fall in love with him -- yes, they appreciate his extraordinary talent but every one of them is also in love with his astounding camera face. I don't think there's one director's DVD commentary that doesn't mention it. My favorite is Mike Newell on the DONNIE BRASCO commentary where he makes a very reasonable remark about an actor's face being his fortune and Johnny being very "fortunate" in that respect and then pauses and you can just feel him looking at him onscreen and says, almost involuntarily, "He's just gorgeous."

But Johnny is smart enough to know that beauty is not an accomplishment and achievement feels hollow when it's based on looks, especially for a man in this culture. And beauty fades, so if your success is based on your looks it will inevitably fade too. The tragedy of beauty is that the main ingredient in what we call beauty is youth -- smooth skin, clear eyes, shiny hair, firm body, etc. None of it lasts.

So he has fought it, demanding to be valued for who he is, not what he is. But he also knows how to use it -- that's clear from the many, many spectacularly seductive still photos he's posed for. And he's a charmer too, not willing to rely on his looks in social situations.

As to masculinity, Johnny probably had to fight a lot of guys (and remember, his mom encouraged this!) when he was younger because of his looks. His macho swagger counters his physical delicacy. Part of him was still a little redneck southern punk kid! With a hot temper. I think his public persona is somewhat more feminine than his private persona -- in candid paparazzi photos with friends or family he always seemed more macho. Of course, I also think he's a chameleon who takes on the persona appropriate to the situation and company -- but that's a whole 'nother discussion and I have rambled enough.

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