The one “unhappy” movie Johnny Depp refuses to revisit: “I can’t watch it”
The generation that grew up with Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Jack Sparrow, or the titular barber in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, might find it hard to believe, but the man was once not just a poster boy for Tim Burton’s eccentricities and considered a sensitive young actor.
Prior to his firmly gothic association and heavy make-up parts, he was renowned for taking on complex, emotional roles. This led some industry veterans to compare him to golden age stars like James Dean or Marlon Brando, such that, while Edward Scissorhands had turned him into an overnight star after years spent on television’s 21 Jump Street, one of the best performances of his entire year came from the family drama What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.
Directed by Lasse Hallström and based on a novel by Peter Hedges (who also wrote the screenplay), the feature starred Depp as a young man from Iowa who considers his future while taking care of his younger brother, Arnie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in a breakout role.
Much of the attention surrounding the film centred on DiCaprio, who earned his first Oscar nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at the age of 19, and while he would soon become the next young star to sweep the industry off its feet, Depp said to Vanity Fair that his memories of making What’s Eating Gilbert Grape were far less positive.
“It was a very sad time for me,” he admitted, “I’ve never seen Gilbert Grape, actually. I can’t watch it”.
The film was released only a few months after the death of River Phoenix, a young actor who was one of Depp’s best friends, and while the loss of an actor who seemed so promising caught the entire industry off guard, it was particularly tough for Depp, who has struggled with the spotlight placed on his personal life ever since.
The actor has retained a complex relationship with his own work, and often refuses to watch films that he’s starred in; however, the situation with What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is slightly different because it was related to surrounding incidents, and not the production of the film itself. It’s among the most underrated roles he’s ever had, as the film walks a fine line between being bleakly observational and slightly melodramatic, such that when people talk about the types of films that ‘they just don’t make anymore’, this one perfectly fits that description.
Regardless, even great reviews didn’t prevent the film from being a box office bust, which unfortunately became a recurring issue for Depp in the 1990s. Despite his brilliant performances in Ed Wood, Dead Man, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and The Ninth Gate, the movies simply didn’t connect with audiences in the same way that they did with critics.
Of course, the perception that he was somehow ‘box office poison’ dissipated fairly quickly in a post-Pirates of the Caribbean world, where he became one of the biggest stars on the planet. While it remains to be seen if he will be able to launch yet another comeback, he has earned the right to never be truly counted out.
