On the way to see The Lone Ranger this morning, I read a hilarious “open apology to Johnny Depp” on the HolyMoly website, which you can read here. The apology was in relation to HolyMoly’s vitriolic review of The Lone Ranger (found here), so needless to say that when the curtains opened on the film, my expectations were not high… and two and a half hours later, I felt that HolyMoly’s review was entirely justified.
My main Johnny Depp related issues from The Lone Ranger are:
a) Johnny Depp is a white, American man playing a Native American man. Is this not just another version of blacking up?
b) Were his one-liners meant to be funny?
c) Between one of the supposedly best actors of our time (Depp) and the director of half of the highest grossing franchises of our time (Gore Verbinski– Pirates of the Caribbean), you’d think they’d be able to come up with a character who wasn’t a more-extreme-but-with-white-face-paint-on version of Captain Jack Sparrow? I mean, I’m pretty sure they kept the same plaits in.
You can hear my full review of The Lone Ranger on Greg’s showthis Thursday but it got me thinking about Depp’s credentials, so I went back to one of his earliest popular film roles. I bypassed Edward Scissorhands because I wanted to watch a stripped back Depp without special effects, without a false voice and without an established actor/director relationship. So I went straight for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, made in 1993 by Swedish director, Lasse Hallström. And I was so glad I watched it, it was fantastic to be reminded of what a powerful actor Johnny Depp can be. In case you haven’t seen it (and I recommend that you do), Depp plays Gilbert Grape, a young man stuck in a small American town, forced by circumstance to look after his disabled brother (an incredible performance by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his depressed, obese mother.
It was refreshing because Depp wasn’t constantly mugging to the screen and the humour was relaxed. It was subtle. I’d forgotten that he could do subtle. You felt his anguish and frustration at being trapped, you even empathised at his lowest moment when he hits his brother. You pray for his relationship with Juliette Lewis to actually go somewhere and you care about his plight despite it being on such a small scale. There are no ghosts, pirates, horse chases, no gunfire, no need to question his decision to play this part. I’m definitely not saying that those roles never work - box office figures would prove me wrong. What I am saying is that while DiCaprio went on to carve a career for himself by picking characters who were diverse and interesting, Depp has fallen into a rut of repetitive roles and wearing too much make-up.
My question is this. If Johnny Depp has been able to absorb an audience for so many years by being a magnificent actor, then why has he become such a joke today?
