“Even at gunpoint”: the one actor Johnny Depp wanted to force into all of his movies
At the peak of his popularity in the post-Pirates of the Caribbean era, plenty of actors would have jumped at the opportunity to work with Johnny Depp. Even so, the star took it upon himself to tell the world he would make it his mission to reunite with one colleague as much as possible, even if he had to threaten them into agreeing.
It sounds fairly ominous, but it was based on nothing but love and professional admiration. Of course, one actor saying they’d do everything in their power to work with another is the Hollywood equivalent of, ‘Yeah, we’ll definitely catch up soon’, which often leads directly into an extended period of radio silence.
Depp has previous on that front, too, dating back to his early days. When he headlined John Waters’ 1990 cult favourite Cry-Baby, he claimed that he wanted to collaborate with the ‘Pope of Trash’ for the rest of his career. It’s been over 30 years since the film was released, and the number of Depp/Waters flicks continues to exist as just one.
However, he made amends the second time after fulfilling his promise, at least to a certain extent. Michael Mann assembled a star-studded cast for his period-set crime thriller Public Enemies, which pit Depp and Christian Bale against each other with support coming from Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Channing Tatum, Carey Mulligan, Giovanni Ribisi, and more.
It wasn’t any of them, though, but a diminutive scouser who only had a handful of American credits under his belt at the time. Still, Stephen Graham’s breakout role was enough to convince Depp that he’d found a scene partner for life. “One of my favourite actors of all time,” he said. “I saw This Is England; it took me to my knees. Magnificent. I was absolutely destroyed. I will force him to be in all my films, even at gunpoint.”
Depp did at least try to live up to his end of the bargain, with Graham subsequently cast in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise as Scrum, appearing in On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales. After that, they drifted apart until the fallen A-lister recruited the actor to play Léopold Zborowski in his second directorial outing, Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness.
The two have obviously remained close in the years since they first crossed paths on Public Enemies, which might explain why they’ve only made another three pictures together. Hypothetically, it could have been many more if Depp followed through on his quest to force Graham into all of his features under threat of duress, but once they became friends, maybe he decided that instead of pulling a gun and pressuring his buddy into their next team-up, he was allowed to say yes or no of his own volition.
