An A-list impulse buy: The lavish purchase Johnny Depp made because of Marlon Brando
There aren’t many actors who don’t want to emulate Marlon Brando in one way or another, but Johnny Depp took his hero worship to an entirely different level after following in his hero’s footsteps by making one particularly extravagant purchase.
Although they remained close friends right up until the legendary star’s death, the professional relationship between Depp and Brando was nowhere near as fruitful as their personal one. They worked together on three movies, but only one of them ended up getting released, and one didn’t even finish shooting.
Their first collaboration on Don Juan DeMarco did at least go according to plan by making it all the way to the finish line, but their reunion on Irish-set period piece Divine Rapture was forced to pack it up after two weeks due to financial irregularities, while their third teaming on The Brave was withheld from public consumption after first-time director Depp deemed it unfit for a wide audience.
Brando may have become increasingly eccentric and unwieldy on set as his career progressed, but as well as being miles ahead of the curve in reinventing the entire concept of screen acting, he was also in front of the trends by becoming one of the first celebrities to buy their very own island.
After stumbling upon Tetiꞌaroa while shooting Mutiny on the Bounty, he ended up buying the land in 1966, and it remains his property to this day after he signed a 99-year lease, with airstrip, research facility, and spa The Brando Resort opening in 2014.
Deciding that it sounded like a solid investment, Depp would buy his own island in 2005 after becoming the proud owner of Little Hall’s Pond Cay. He didn’t know much about owning such a thing, and he knew even fewer people who’d purchased one for themselves, meaning there was only one person he could turn to for advice.
Making a call to Brando, Depp soon found out that he didn’t have the first clue about island ownership. “Brando said, ‘Well, what’s the elevation? Do you have a water system there? What about the electricity?'” he shared with The Guardian, only to admit that he didn’t know. “Brando said, ‘Well, get me the paperwork and we’ll go through it’. He was all for it, but before he could go over it with me, he went away.”
Depp ended up completing the purchase without Brando’s wisdom after he passed away in 2004, and he ended up owning Little Hall’s Pond Cay for more than a decade before reportedly selling it to J.K. Rowling of all people in 2016 for the tidy sum of $75 million.
