Johnny Depp is 60 years old: his craziest metamorphoses in the cinema

The actor, who will also be celebrating 40 years of career shortly, has made a specialty of delivering spectacular performances, fueled by stunning transformations. From Edward to Louis XV via Willy Wonka or Jack Sparrow, a look back at his craziest roles.

Difficult to give an age Johnny Depp, so much has his appearance changed over the years, over the films, over the roles. And yet, the star revealed in the 80’s with 21 Jump Street is no longer a sassy young wolf. The actor just turned 60!

John Christopher Depp II was born on June 9, 1963 in the depths of Kentucky (United States) and in addition to his birthday, he will celebrate in a few months his 40-year career, which began in 1984, in The Claws of the Night, pushed by his friend at the time, Nicolas Cage… He played a boyfriend massacred by Freddy Krueger. Between this role of second-rate victim and the last Maïwenn which caused so much noise at Cannes last month, a lot of roles have passed. Lots of crazy performances that made Johnny Depp one of the most spectacular actors.

During his prolific career, Johnny Depp took care never to lock himself behind one type of character. To believe that he seeks, to better change his skin (literally), to disappear under slices of make-up, miles of hair extensions and more atypical clothes than each other, even if it means never winning an Oscar. For the moment.

From Edward Scissorhands to Louis XV via Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, Ed Wood and so many others, a look back at his craziest metamorphoses. Happy birthday Johnny Depp !

Edward Scissorhandsby Tim Burton (1990)

The first collaboration between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp is the first in a long line of physically transformative roles for the actor. But where his Hollywood colleagues have fun playing yo-yo with their weight to show the Academy of Oscars how hard they work, Depp, he will prefer camouflage to the double chin. And contrary to what one might think, Edward Scissorhands is not just a love story between a poet with scissors and a teenager played by Winona Ryder. It is also the birth of an inseparable trio formed by Burton, Depp and liters of white foundation that we will find a few years later.

Las Vegas Paranoidby Terry Gilliam (1998)

After having chained a dozen films (crybaby, arizona dream, Ed Wood, dead man), eight years later Edward ScissorhandsDepp regains a taste for disguise at terry gilliam. In Las Vegas Paranoidhe becomes Raoul Duke, journalist lit (based on Hunter S.Thompsonthe creator of “gonzo journalism”) on his way to vice town with his lawyer (Benicio Del Toro), with whom he tries to take as many drugs as possible. Suddenly, on the accessories side, Johnny is banging all the paraphernalia of the perfect redneck of the 70s: swimming pool shorts, Hawaiian shirt, tourist hat and high white socks. Without forgetting the sunglasses which look a little too much like those worn by Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) In The Big Lebowski. Unforgettable.

Before the nightby Julian Schnabel (2001)

The actor discovers a new facet in Before the nightwhich retraces the life of the Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas (Javier Bardem), an HIV-positive homosexual involved in the Revolution. He plays a transvestite named Bon Bon, who performs the duties of a deranged lieutenant on a daily basis. Alternately wearing a blonde wig and the military uniform, Depp changes skin with disconcerting naturalness.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearlby Gore Verbinski (2003)

Head costumers, makeup artists and hairstylists had to go all out to transform Depp into Jack Sparrow, the actor’s most famous makeover to date that earned him his first Oscar nomination. Victim of the enormous success of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (more than $650 million in box office receipts), Disney will produce four sequels to the film (and it is now a question of rebooting it!). Johnny won’t miss a single chance to don his filthy 17th century pirate costume, the look of which now tries to be imitated every year on Halloween night.

Charlie and the chocolate factory (2005), Sweeney Todd (2007), Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Dark Shadows (2012), by Tim Burton

The common point between the crazy characters that Johnny interprets for Tim Burton ? Their pale complexion, of course. From Edward Scissorhands, the director loves to whiten the skin of his favorite actor. And, moreover, offer him crazy roles, like that of Willy Wonka in Charlie and the chocolate factory or the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. Hollywood does not completely snub the atypical metamorphoses of Depp, nominated for the third time for the Oscar for best actor for Sweeney Todd (neverland been there in the meantime).

Lone Ranger: Birth of a Heroby Gore Verbinski (2013)

From pirates to redskins, there is only one step: Johnny Depp carries around with a dead bird on his head during the two hours of the spectacular synthesis of westerns that Disney signs, Lone Ranger. Unfortunately, audiences won’t be receptive to his transformation into an Indian warrior, for which he was even nominated for the 2014 Razzie Awards for Worst Picture. Nevertheless, Gore Verbinski’s western does not lack qualities…

Into the Woodsby Rob Marshall (2014)

In line with its transformations for Tim Burtonthe actor finds Rob Marshall After Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and plays the Big Bad Wolf of fairy tales in the Broadway musical Into The Woods. Johnny has only one scene in the film, it nevertheless allows him to dig into the wardrobe of Tex-Avery’s characters and stick a mustache on his face. That’s pretty much what he did again, less successfully, in another recent flop, Charlie Mortdecai (2015). Would the public have had enough of his insignificant coquetry?

tuskby Kevin Smith (2014)

Turning Johnny Depp into “ugly” movie characters seems to work. In tuska horror comedy that was not released in theaters in France, Kevin Smith offers the actor the role of Guy Lapointe, with the look of a caricatural Quebec redneck. We will later find this wacky investigator in Yoga Hosessequel to tusk centered on the duo formed by his daughter Lily Rose Depp And Harley Quinn Smith. That’s brave coming from an actor who has been voted sexiest man alive multiple times.

Strictly Criminalby Scott Cooper (2015)

With all due respect, the crooks of Ray Liotta In Freedmen can go get dressed in front of Johnny in Strictly Criminalthe true story of James Whitey Bulgeran out-of-the-ordinary Irish gangster who became America’s most feared gangster in the mid-1980s. Blue eyes, grainy skin, rotting teeth and a bald head: impossible to recognize the actor who once made his debut in Freddy, the claws of the night on the first images of the Scott Cooper film. “Unrecognizable to the point of being forgotten“, writes the critic First. The beginning of a new cycle of physical transformations for Depp?

Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwaldby David Yates (2018)

Unveiled at the very end of fantastic animalsin 2016, Grindelwald is the big villain of the spin-off saga of Harry Potter. The opportunity to change his appearance once again for Depp, at the heart of the sequel to the blockbuster: as a powerful wizard with white hair and odd eyes, “He delivers his best performance in ages”we wrote in our review of the film, when it was released in 2018. The actor will however not be in the n°3following his divorce from Amber Heard, a trial during which he was accused of domestic violence, Warner Bros decided to replace him with Mads Mikkelsen.

Jeanne du Barryby Maïwenn (2023)

Tangled up in sordid personal affairs and a rocky divorce from Amber Heard, Johnny Depp finds himself in a French film playing Louis XV. By default, as the director will admit, after withdrawals from French actors. But no matter, his performance is once again astonishing: under a powdered wig and decked out in an 18th century royal outfit, he manages to make people forget the “kentucky hick” (as he says himself with humour) and the improbable American accent he gives to the King of France, in a most surreal talkative role. For him, that’s saying a lot. A nice gift for his 60th birthday.

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