Johnny Depp: Johnny Handsome

Professionally, things dried up again after Depp's return from several months filming with Stone in the Philippine jungles. Despite no movie offers, Depp turned down producer Patrick Has-burgh's offer to play a dimpled undercover cop who busts drug-and porno-mad high schoolers in a TV series. Instead, he accepted an invitation by a friend who lived in his apartment building to join a band--Rock City Angels.

Meanwhile, the producers of the TV cop show were dissatisfied with the actor they had cast (Jeff Yagher, from the TV series "V") and again offered Depp the role. The fewer movie scripts Depp got, the more tempting the series sounded. Liking the script for "21 Jump Street," and eager to work with actor Fredric Forrest, Depp signed on, thinking the job might see him through a lean season or two. Instead, the Fox Broadcasting Company turned up the teen god heat and thrust Depp into the living rooms--and fantasies--of pubescent America. Then, Forrest departed the show after a few episodes, and, two months after Depp began filming the series, Geffen Records and Depp's Rock City Angels band members signed the biggest deal since Madonna's. "It was like, oh Christ," Depp recalls of hearing the news of his ex-band's success. "All I wanted since I was 12 years old was to go on the road." (To date, however, the band has not released a second album.)

Part of Depp's appeal to kids appears to stem from the hint of grit and fingernail dirt that lurks beneath the mousse-and-bronzer-style dramatics of the TV show. Depp does nothing to polish his image; in fact, the day we met, it looked like his hair hadn't been washed anytime recently. "If you're honest with people, without splitting yourself open, sometimes you can help somebody in trouble," says Depp, who told the press early on about his former drug and alcohol use. He's no one's idea of a role model, which suits him fine. "Things are pretty bad if kids have to write to an actor for advice. I couldn't tell anyone what to do. I don't want to be the Messiah or some spokesman for 'Just Say No' to drugs. I'm just as fucked up as the next guy. If I can help people by saying, 'I've done this and it really feels bad after a while. I wouldn't do it if I were you,' that's great. But also, the [producers] were trying to make me out to be this, like, perfectly baked cake. I don't want to be what these people created."

Some observers say that what "these people" created is, in fact, an ego monster who keeps cast and crew members of "21 Jump Street," which is filmed in Vancouver, B.C., in an uproar. According to reports, Depp has set fire to his underwear, been deliberately belligerent to his producers, and even thrown them a punch or two. Two things are known. When Depp refused to do certain episodes, Richard Grieco, who plays Dennis Booker, replaced him (and got his own hit series, "Booker," for his trouble). And just before Depp left to begin filming Cry-Baby, he was arrested for assaulting a hotel security guard. (And, later, he was completely cleared of those charges.) "Guys have gotten a little cocky with me sometimes," Depp says, in defense of his alleged behavior. "They either see that they can make themselves look good in front of their friends by being a man--something about their penis size, I guess--or they see free lunches in their future. So, they figure if they fuck with you, you'll hit them and they can take you to court."

Four seasons and major TV stardom later, Johnny Depp keeps this calendar: "Every day," says the actor, "I mark down the days left. Two more seasons... contractually." After a moment, Depp says of his $45,000-per-episode series deal: "I don't want to bite the hand that feeds me. I've been lucky. It's put me on the map.But once you put your name on a piece of paper, you have no choice. There are people in ties with very big pens and hulking desks who do bad things to you."

Jabbing his umpteenth Marlboro into an overflowing ashtray, Depp says, "I'm a little long in the tooth to be in high school. Clay won't help the bags under my eyes anymore. [The producers] really should do a Menudo-type thing, just pop other guys into the role, or else, like on soap operas, if one of the regulars is sick, announce: 'This week, Lance McGillacutty will be playing the role of Alan Quartermain.' " He sighs, "They only cancel TV after it's been really bad for a really long time."

On the evidence of Cry-Baby and the fact that top filmmakers as different as Tim [Batman) Burton and Oliver (Born on the Fourth of July) Stone want to work with him, Depp can probably feel optimistic about the near term. He enthuses over Edward Scissorhands, an oddball romantic parable--Depp plays the title character, a man-made monster who has gardening shears for hands and hits it big with women--which he began filming in March. "Johnny related on a real emotional level to the character's pain and humor," asserts Denise Di Novi (producer of Heathers), who says that she and director Tim Burton chose Depp for his "dynamite combination of clear, accessible vulnerability, real strength, and sexuality." According to some, Depp won out over such contenders as Tom Cruise for the role. Di Novi explains, "We're creating a new character and didn't want an actor that carried baggage with him. Johnny could do any movie he wants, yet he chooses to take risks on emotionally complex parts. The camera likes his cheekbones but it also likes what comes through in his eyes. He's deep, complex, intelligent, and sensitive. To me, that suggests he will fare very well."

For his part, Depp, who would "sooner fry burgers or pump gas than do Fabian movies," says, "On my movies, I make my own decisions based on what I feel, not on [what] someone says the public wants to swallow. I try to fight the everyday, normal leading man stuff as much as I can. [Edward Scissorhands] has what would appear to most people as a real severe disability. On the other side, there's got to be something good from it. There's a lot of interesting twists to it."

Not the least of these twists has to do with "Winona Forever." That's how the scroll-like tattoo reads when Depp strips off his jacket to proudly display his bared biceps. This is but the latest of Depp's skin engravings, which even Cry-Baby satirizes as a fetish of the actor's. "Betty Sue"--a bright red heart commemorating his mother--adorns one arm; an Indian chief's head, a salute to his bloodlines, stares out from his other.

"It was no big deal for him, because he's had tattoos done before," says Mike Messina of Sunset Strip Tattoo--"Tattooers of the Stars Since 1971"--whom Depp engaged for about $75 to needle into his flesh his feelings for Winona Ryder, the actress whom he currently acts with by day in Edward Scissorhands and cohabits with by night. "The fact that we're together and we're in love certainly won't hurt the movie," Depp says, with a warily happy smile. "Winona and I are engaged. It's official. She has a lot of talent and, aside from that, I also happen to love her. I'm sure we're going to do more things together. People have had great success at that, like John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands. In a perfect world, I'd just do movies with [Winona], John Waters, and Tim Burton, and live happily ever after."

Depp declines to discuss the fact that he also became officially engaged to his two previous girlfriends, actress Sherilyn [Two-Moon Junction] Fenn and, more recently, actress Jennifer (Dirty Dancing) Grey, except to say, "I'm pretty old-fashioned."

Depp-watchers profess amazement that his and Ryder's relationship has the wandering waif putting down roots for the first time. Temporary ones, mind you. "I have a house now that I'm renting," says the actor whom John Waters calls "a homeless movie star." Although Depp hints that his and Ryder's probable marriage has him thinking about "sniffing out a place to own and live in, maybe somewhere on the east coast," Waters says: "I've only known Johnny for a year-and-a-half, but I have a page of addresses for him. The best way to reach him is to write: Johnny Depp. A Bench. Vancouver, British Columbia. By the way, he moved again this week." Depp adds, cautiously, that for the first time, "I have beds, tables, chairs, a TV set. And they're mine." And as for friends? "I've got a couple who are very important to me and I have Winona who is very, very important to me. That's all I need."

Depp is less forthcoming about his big-screen future. He says he has dropped out of Wonderland Avenue, an Oliver Stone-produced project based on the autobiographical reminiscences of an adolescent throwaway who ran with Jim Morrison of the Doors. "It's going to be an interesting, really dark movie," he says. "But it was taking too long to work out." He also chilled on a project based on either On the Road or The Dharma Bums, both by Jack Kerouac, whose work, according to John Waters, Depp "idolizes" (he collects first-edition copies). "I thought about buying the rights, then thought I'd be doing an injustice to the real thing," Depp explains. "Kerouac had to write those books. Most movies only get made because a company thinks it's a good idea, financially."

I propose that Depp try to talk John Waters into directing him and Ryder in a whacked-out remake of Viva Las Vegas with Depp taking over for Elvis's hip-swiveling grease monkey and Ryder for frenzied, lip-smacking Ann-Margret. "That would be beautiful," Depp says. "I would love to do something like that. Especially with the Dead Kennedys' version of the theme song." But for the present, once Depp completes his inspired weirdness with Tim Burton in late spring, it is back to Vancouver for another season of kiss-kiss, run-your-hands-through-your-tousled-hair, bang-bang.

Awaiting fans' and critics' verdicts on Cry-Baby, Depp is aware of how quickly one's 15 minutes of fame can boomerang. "Most of this business is so full of shit," Depp observes. "People take it so seriously, as if their life depended on this episode or that movie. I mean, film burns. You can light it on fire. It's not like fucking Confucius written on stone." I ask how Depp foresees future pop culture historians noting his career. "Johnny Depp got his big break on '21 Jump Street,' " he says, without missing a beat, "went into films, then went on to become a Las Vegas entertainer." Johnny Depp, a lounge act? "Sure," he says. "I would hope that my final hootenanny might be in a Vegas or Tahoe nightclub." Okay, so even a godhead like Wayne Newton cannot croon forever. But, as he tears off down Sunset back to Winona, Johnny Depp--whose singing voice in Cry-Baby is dubbed by someone else--is still a long way from doing encores of "Danke Schoen."

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Stephen Rebello wrote our March cover story on Dennis Hopper.

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