Johnny Depp's Unrecognizable Transformations For Roles

Johnny Depp has made a career out of being a chameleon when it comes to acting. The Oscar-nominated actor has transformed into both realistic and fictional personas in a wide array of genres over his almost four-decade long career. From anxious animated lizards to alien-infected astronauts, his dramatic talent has run the gamut and earned him numerous accolades. "The most important thing that an actor needs to do is not to act, but to react," he once shared with CinemaBlend. "That's what it is all about, and you do one of the most difficult things in the world, which is to just be — to be in the state of being.

But it's about more than just finding your footing in your role, according to Depp. It's also about incorporating your own flavor into your character. "With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it," he once said (per the BBC). "There has to be, otherwise it's just not acting. It's lying."

Depp's bad boy persona was first influenced by his initial roles upon entering the Hollywood scene in the early 1980s. After a bloody breakout appearance in "A Nightmare on Elm Street," he made his way to television as a youthful undercover cop in "21 Jump Street." The series catapulted Depp to stardom, though he initially resented his status as a teen idol. "Television was the devil for me ... because the parameters were very controlled," he revealed in a 2021 interview (per Rob's Rules). "Everything was very formulaic. [The studio] had turned me into some product that I wasn't. That tends to spook you a little." He left the show at the end of the fourth season, but he did make a surprise cameo in the 2012 film adaptation of the series.

Depp's way of leveraging his bad boy mystique (and telling off his sudden idol status) led him to dark comedy auteur John Waters and the 1990 film "Cry Baby." Depp portrayed the titular character, a juvenile delinquent who finds love with a preppy girl, all while singing and dancing in his Elvis meets James Dean best. "It makes fun of all that stuff I sort of hate," he shared in an interview with the director for Interview Magazine (via Johnny Depp Zone Interview Archive). "It makes fun of all the teen-idol stuff. It makes fun of all the screaming girls."

While Depp's star continued to rise (and his personal life began to become tabloid fodder), he began a creative relationship with what would become one of his most famous collaborators. In 1990, he starred as the titular gothic creation "Edward Scissorhands" in director Tim Burton's beloved creepy classic. Yet, one of his most iconic characters almost didn't come to light because of the actor's initial hesitance to even meet with Burton. "I thought it was pointless," he shared with Icon (via Johnny Depp Zone Interview Archive). "[My agent] forced me to ... You know, something you want so badly and he's never gonna see me as that, never. He's gonna think, 'Aaw, f****** TV actor s***.' Everybody wanted that f****** role, so I just thought, 'Hell, why would he give it to me?'"

The film ended up becoming a cult classic and launched Depp's star even higher into the Hollywood stratosphere. His collaboration with Burton would later produce other films like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Corpse Bride," and "Alice in Wonderland." "Tim is a true artist in every sense of the word," Depp once said of his collaborator (per Pantheon Art). "His characters, his creations ... so we've always worked very closely together and I certainly foresee that stopping any time soon."

Even when his characters aren't fictional, Johnny Depp commits in full to inhabiting his characters inside and out. In the 1994 film "Ed Wood," Depp teamed up with Tim Burton once again to portray the eccentric titular cult filmmaker. The film saw Depp take on Wood's multiple personas, complete with fitting costuming and make-up. He even crafted his own voice for the character based on real-life figures like Ronald Reagan and Casey Kasem. The role itself also allowed the actor to reflect on both his character and his collaborators. "I think that [Ed Wood] was a guy who was driven and hungry to release some sort of vision that he had," Depp said in an interview for the film. "And I think that he was an important filmmaker in that sense, because there may not have been a John Waters or a Tim Burton or a David Lynch without a renegade like Ed Wood."

Depp later took on the role of author-journalist Hunter S. Thompson in 1998's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," based on Thompson's book of the same name. The "Gonzo" journalist himself took a liking to Depp when he spotted a kinship in him that played into the film's off-the-walls nature. "I noticed at once that Depp had a dangerously energized intelligence," Thompson told George Magazine (via Johnny Depp Zone Interview Archive). "He was a suave little brute, but he had a wicked sense of humor and a rare instinct for escalation."

Like many A-List actors before him, Johnny Depp has put his spin on the gangster movie genre in a number of roles. One of his first takes was alongside icon Al Pacino in 1997's "Donnie Brasco," in which he returned to his "21 Jump Street" roots as an undercover FBI agent. Depp has shared his love of mob movies like "The Godfather" series and "Casino," but was anxious to do a different take for audiences to see. "For me, those films slightly romanticize the Mafia and they deal with the upper echelons," he shared with the Sydney Sun-Herald (via Johnny Depp Zone Interview Archive). "One thing I like is that [this] film doesn't glorify the Mob and it certainly doesn't glorify the FBI. There are no winners and I think that is more like life."

Several of his other mobster characters are also based on historical figures, including Chicago shooter John Dillinger in 2009's "Public Enemies" and Boston crime lord Whitey Bulger in 2015's "Black Mass." In the latter, Depp collaborated with the film's hair and make-up artists to create the perfect look for the dangerous Bulger, even down to eye color. "Initially, [Depp] wanted to look exactly like [him]," make-up designer Joel Harlow shared with Deadline. "So we did five different tests. We got to where we both felt it was the perfect combination of 'Whitey' Bulger and Johnny ... There is something in the eyes that speaks of a darkness and that's what we were trying to achieve."

It's not always been spooky and kooky for Johnny Depp in his acting career. He's also made a name for himself in some awards season fare that has earned him both critical acclaim and industry accolades. He starred alongside future Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1993 drama "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," in which Depp portrayed the title character. The film didn't gross much at the box office, and it was DiCaprio who earned the Academy Award nomination, but Depp still earned rave reviews from critics and audiences praising his dramatic chops. "I think it hits people on a certain level about [things] having to do with ... devotion to family and responsibilities and love," he shared in an interview with Jimmy Carter. "I think there's a lot of things in this film that people relate to."

He eventually received an Oscar nomination for his role as "Peter Pan" author J.M. Barrie in 2005's "Finding Neverland." Like his other portrayals of real-life people, he focused on maintaining the author's childlike imagination while filming. "You owe it to their memory, to everything they did in life, and to their families to do as good a job as possible and be as honest about it as possible," he shared with NPR.

Many associate Johnny Depp with roles that are both quirky and oftentimes spooky. He's played a Devil-summoning book dealer in 1999's "The Ninth Gate," an alien-infected astronaut in 1999's "The Astronaut's Wife," and even a (spoiler alert) murderous writer with multiple identities in 2004's "Secret Window." As in all of his roles, the entertainer has taken delight in building his characters piece by piece, as well as pushing boundaries. "It's fun to try to invent a character from the ground up," he shared with SPLICEDwire. "Make him interesting, different, and push him as far as you can go where you're just on the verge of believable and not so believable."

For his role as Ichabod Crane in Tim Burton's 1999 take on Washington Irving's classic horror tale, Depp initially wanted to go almost cartoonish with his portrayal in order to stay as close to the source material as possible. "I was sort of doing Snoopy dances thinking I was going to get to wear a long nose and big ears," he told SPLICEDwire. "Irving's description is really beautifully written — (included) a long, sliding nose, huge ears; and [Irving] talks about his hands being very far away from his body, and long feet. So, yeah. I did want to do that. [But] there was a fairly hefty silence from the upper echelon at Paramount."

One of Depp's most notable personas is the rum-drinking, adventure-bounding Captain Jack Sparrow from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, which earned Depp his very first Oscar nomination for 2003's "The Curse of the Black Pearl." To create Captain Jack, Depp drew upon figures like Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards (who later played Sparrow's father in the third film, "At World's End") and cartoon skunk Pepé Le Pew. He even created a backstory for Sparrow's mental capacity, saying that his exposure to the Caribbean sun had altered his brain. He then tried to mimic Sparrow's surroundings so he could literally get into his headspace. "I cranked the sauna up to about 1,000 degrees and sat in there as long as I could until it started to affect me mentally," he told Collider. "While you're in there in that kind of heat you can't stand still, but the worst of it is if you move, it kills you. So that gave me the idea that his brain has been par-boiled to some degree."

Sparrow has become a fixture in Depp's life in more ways than one. "That's the greatest pleasure of Jack Sparrow," Depp shared with CinemaBlend. "I can travel with Captain Jack in a box — literally Captain Jack in a box — and when the opportunity is right and I'm able to go and visit people and places where the smiles and the laughs and the things that are important, the most important things in the world are on the line."

No Hollywood heartthrob truly lives up to their name without mastering the art of on-screen romance. Johnny Depp is no exception, having starred in both widely acclaimed and widely lambasted romance-based films. In 2000's "Chocolat," Depp played a sensual Romani nomad opposite Juliette Binoche. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards and grossed more than $150 million worldview. "It's so rare that you get the opportunity to do something like this," Depp said of the film in an interview with CNN (via Johnny Depp Zone Interview Archive). "It's really a magical, beautiful film."

However, not all of his romantic leading roles have garnered favor with audiences. In 2004's "The Libertine," Depp inhabited the role of the debaucherous Earl of Rochester, a poet who plundered his way throughout England in the 17th century. Despite the Earl's reputation, Depp chose a lens of compassion through which to look at and portray the character. "He was a great artist — it was a waste what he did to himself — but I believe he made a great contribution," he told FilmInk Magazine (via Johnny Depp Zone Interview Archive). Despite the actor's dedication to the character, the film received mainly negative reviews and scored just 33% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Despite being a musician himself, Johnny Depp has cautiously dipped his toes into the world of musical movies. He took on the title role in Tim Burton's 2008 adaptation of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," which earned him his third Oscar nomination. The character, a murderous barber set on revenge, spends most of his time singing rather than speaking. Furthermore, composer Stephen Sondheim's complicated score added new depth to the role. "When you start to take those pieces apart, melody line by melody line, it's a lot of half-steps, which is not real easy to do," Depp told Entertainment Weekly. "It's super, ultra complicated, these notes that shouldn't work together at times. But he made them so."

Depp appeared in another Sondheim musical in Rob Marshall's 2014 adaptation of "Into the Woods," this time playing a supporting role as the Big Bad Wolf. But even the second time singing Sondheim's songs didn't make the actor more comfortable with the task at hand. "The deal is, once again it's Sondheim," he told E! News. "[He's] amazing, but when you're not a crack vocalist, it's quite complicated stuff that he writes."

Depp tends to lose himself in his characters, and when it comes to fantasy films, his transformation extends beyond the character itself and into the world they inhabit. 2005's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is a prime example, where the actor drew upon the source material itself for the inspiration of his Willy Wonka. "We're so lucky to have Roald Dahl's book," Depp said in a joint interview with director Tim Burton and journalist Ian Winterton. "It was an amazing help in building Wonka's character. In early conversations with Tim we talked about various things, like children's show hosts and that kind of strange cadence with which they speak to children. And the mask they put on, the sort of perpetual grimace of a smile."

In another Burton fantasy film, "Alice in Wonderland," Depp's take on the eccentric Mad Hatter came from a place of madness within — something he traced back to the "Mad Hatter's Disease" that was rampant in olden days. "[I] was just trying to find those places inside ... to go from extreme sides of personality," he shared with MovieWeb. "So, one minute you're at full capacity rage, the next minute you've dropped to some kind of horrific tailspin of fear, and then you go to some great height of levity. So, that was what I tried to do ... whenever I could find the right moments for it." The film ended up becoming one of Depp's highest-grossing movies and spawned a sequel in 2016.

Johnny Depp is no stranger to blockbuster film series. He entered the Wizarding World with a major role in the 2018 "Harry Potter" spin-off "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald." Depp once again portrayed the main character, but this time as a villain. But before he could reprise his role in the 2020 sequel "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore," the actor was replaced in his role by Mads Mikkelsen due to the ongoing abuse claims made against Depp by his then-wife Amber Heard. "I have been asked to resign by Warner Bros. from my role as Grindelwald in 'Fantastic Beasts' and I have respected and agreed to that request," he wrote in an Instagram post. "My resolve remains strong and ... my life and career will not be defined by this moment in time."

There have been rumors of Depp returning to the role, with even Mikkelsen voicing his support of the actor. "Obviously, well, now the course has changed," Mikkelsen shared with Sky News. "He won the suit, the court [case] — so let's see if he comes back. He might. I'm a big fan of Johnny. I think he's an amazing actor, I think he did a fantastic job."

Not all of Depp's movies have made box office gold, despite the high-profile promotion put around them. In fact, the actor has headlined some of the most publicized film flops of the 21st century so far; in the 2013 film adaptation of the television series "The Lone Ranger," Depp portrayed sidekick Tonto, a Native American warrior who travels alongside the title character in a series of adventures. "Outlaws are fun," Depp described to Refinery29. "They get to do things that we can't. Yeah, they break the rules, but that vicarious thrill in doing so is addicting." Despite the fun, the film lost almost $200 million after promotional costs and became Disney's biggest financial failure.

Another sizable failure in Depp's film career Rolodex was 2015's "Mortdecai," an all-star romp that saw the actor headline a cast including Gwenyth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, and Jeff Goldblum. The actor starred as the title character, a high-society art swindler. The film was a box office bomb, taking in around $47 million on a $60 million budget. But even the flops don't phase Depp. "He's never read a review in his life, he loves the making of the movie, but he doesn't watch the movies," his "Mortdecai" co-star and friend Paul Bettany once told HuffPost UK. "He absolutely doesn't care about what a critic might think. He's a whale swimming through the ocean, and a whale doesn't notice the barnacles on him. He's like, 'F*** that. I'm swimming through the ocean, doing my thing.'"