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Sept. 15, 2005
No celebrity made
more of a splash at this year's Toronto Film
Festival than Johnny
Depp. He was in town to promote "Tim
Burton's Corpse Bride," and fans hounded him
everywhere he went. The previously
"reclusive" star surprised many by taking
the time to indulge them with autographs and
pictures. Depp has been on a roll the past couple
of years with box-office hits "Pirates
of the Caribbean" and this summer's "Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory." After all of
his success, he's most touched by those fans who
have been with him since the beginning.
"I don't like
to refer to anyone as a fan," Depp says.
"But the kids who are outside the movie theater
and the kids who stuck with me on a very, very long,
lengthy and strange road. Those the ones that mean
the most and are the people who keep me employed.
That's why I kind of look at them like they are my
boss."
Depp's employers
will be very satisfied with "Bride." His
fourth collaboration with Tim
Burton is a beautifully animated tale about a
skittish groom who ends up mistakenly married to a
dead bride. Depp would love to admit he spent weeks
on end preparing for the role, but it just wasn't
so. Incredibly focused on playing Willy Wonka in
"Charlie," Depp thought he had months
to get ready.
"Suddenly one
day on the set Tim came to me and said, 'Maybe
tonight we can go and record some 'Corpse
Bride,'" Depp says. "And I was like,
'Yeah. Sure we can.' I had no character. So, I sat
Tim down and grilled him for about 15 minutes and
that's how I found the guy."
It didn't hurt that
Victor, Depp's character in "Corpse
Bride" is similar to roles he's
played in other Burton projects. According to Depp,
Victor is "a little bit [of an] outsider;
bumbling, deeply insecure and nervous. A lot like me
in life."
A rewarding part of
"Corpse" was making a movie his kids Lily
Rose (age 6) and Jack (age 3) could enjoy.
"That was
another amazing experience, because Lily Rose ... loved
it, really enjoyed the ride," the proud father
says. "My boy [usually] wants to break things
and run around. He sat on my lap for the entire film
and was just glued and riveted. Really reacting well
to the music, quoting lines and loved all the
characters."
Depp's recent
box-office success has been just as gratifying.
"It's a
relatively new experience to have more than a few
people go and see my films," Depp says.
"That whole part of the process is so foreign
to me that two or three weeks ago I called my agent
Tracy and said, 'Is 'Charlie' doing O.K.?' And she
said, 'Well, yeah. Looks like it's going to cross
the $200 million mark domestically.' And I didn't
know what that meant and I said, 'Is that good?' She
said, 'Yeah, it's very good. Don't worry.'"
(Laughs.)
Lastly, Depp is
still unable to answer a question he's been asked
for years: Will Keith Richards (who inspired Depp's
Captain Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the
Caribbean") play his dad in either of the
"Pirates" sequels?
"No, it's not
official yet," he says with a smile.
"Everybody's trying. You know he's got this
tour ..." (Laughs.)
"Tim
Burton's Corpse Bride" opens in New York, Los
Angeles and Toronto on Sept. 16, and nationwide
Sept. 23.
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