Why Johnny Depp doesn’t see himself as a serious actor: “Comic actor makes more sense”
Some actors prefer to play dramatic roles, while others excel in the realm of comedy. Every now and then, you get somebody going the other way. The mind immediately wanders to the likes of Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems or Leslie Nielsen reinventing his career in Airplane! Some actors, though, they’re just good at everything. A prime example of this is Johnny Depp.
The controversial star is just as adept at making audiences cry as he is making them laugh. A quick look at his ‘Best Actor’ Oscar nominations reveals just how versatile he is. He was nominated in 2005 for playing Peter Pan creator JM Barrie in the biopic Finding Neverland.
Three years later, he picked up another nod for his performance as the titular character in Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street. His first nomination is easily the strangest; Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Across those three roles, Depp showcased a range of abilities across the entire acting spectrum. Sure, he didn’t actually win anything, but that’s by-the-by.
Acting is as much about personal branding as it what you do on stage or on the screen. With that in mind, what label does Depp give himself? Is he a dramatic actor? A comedian? Or something in between? Speaking to Deseret News on this very subject, he gave a typically Depp-ian response.
“I’ve always thought the term ‘serious actor’ was an oxymoron,” he said. “An actor pretends for a living, tells lies for a living. I guess you could be a serious liar, but comic actor makes more sense. Most comedy is based on tragedy: it’s only funny because something horrible happens.”
On one hand, it’s quite refreshing to hear this sort of sentiment from somebody as high up the chain as Depp. Acting is an industry full of self-aggrandising egomaniacs, who take themselves far too seriously in the pursuit of the ‘dramatic arts’. Getting to pretend to be someone else for a living is a privilege many people would kill for, so it’s important to acknowlegde that, in the grand scheme of things, it really isn’t that big of a deal.
On the other hand, Depp has managed to make this statement in the most pretentious-sounding way possible. The phrase ‘serious liar’ is just as vapid and self-mythologising as anything spewed from the lips of the most annoying method actor. In trying not to take himself seriously, he’s managed to sound like even more of an out-of-touch Hollywood snob. It’s not even like he’s been immune to egotistical behaviour in the past either. This is the guy who once compared himself to Nelson Mandela just because he got out of a contract. Talk about comedy based on tragedy.
While there is certainly some truth to Depp’s views on the acting profession, the way he expressed them leaves a lot to be desired. If more actors stopped trying to come up with clever ways of talking about their jobs and just started behaving like normal people instead, the world would be a better place.
