How John Waters changed revitalised Johnny Depp’s career: “The perfect opportunity”
There is no filmmaker whose work is more beautifully odd and simultaneously gross than John Waters, a pioneer of transgressive cinema and the video nasty era. Waters mastered the art of both disgusting and entertaining audiences, capturing the dark side of counterculture and mocking traditional values—from stifling gender norms to the nuclear family. With a clear taste for the subversive, he made eternally repulsive yet outrageously entertaining films such as Pink Flamingos, Serial Mom and Polyester, and also penned the original hit musical Hairspray.
Each addition to his filmography is infused with elements of surrealism and dark comedy, often making light of violence by portraying it through the lens of people who are doing so in response to their own oppression, creating a commentary on structures of the world that limit his characters in such a way that they are left with no other option.
Over the years, he has made stars out of many of his actors, with Divine reaching notoriety for the controversial final scene of Pink Flamingos and being eternally remembered for this character and Kathleen Turner somehow forming a reputation for her ability to play twisted maternal figures. However, considering that Waters was an underground and deeply independent filmmaker, it was surprising that he collaborated with an actor who became one of the most famous of his generation, marking a strange start to his Hollywood career.
Johnny Depp was once one of the most beloved actors in the business before his startling fall from grace, originally forging a reputation through his work with Tim Burton in films like Edward Scissorhands, Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with the actor also reaching global fame through his part in the hit Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
However, the beginning of his career on the screen was littered with some interesting choices, starring alongside Marlon Brando in a strange romantic drama and reprising the lead role in Waters’s 1990 film Cry Baby.
The film follows a type-A schoolgirl who goes against her grandmother’s wishes by dating a classic, motorbike-riding bad boy. For Waters, the film is another bizarre instalment to his twisted world, creating an exaggerated and disturbing high school drama that thrives on a rock’n’roll tone.
However, when discussing the film, Depp described his relationship with the film and how it helped invigorate his career and help him out of a creative slump. In many ways, it was a way of revitalising his career and turning over a new leaf, saying, “I turned to John Waters to help me do the exorcism”.
He added: “It was invigorating to do Cry Baby with him, after having been accidentally turned into some kind of poster boy teen idol. The choice that I made with John was the perfect opportunity to make fun of what they tried to turn me into”.
The actor had been painted as a teen heartthrob figure in Hollywood, but the satirical quality of Waters’s work made it the perfect opportunity to go against the grain and make fun of this reductive image.
