Crest, trough and Johnny’s Depth

Cut to, 1987 and Johnny Depp was a beautiful young man, who pulled off adventure in the TV series 21 Jump Street with élan. It was at this juncture that Depp had the world at his feet, the Hollywood studios beckoning with superlative career opportunities, but Depp made an uncharacteristic and wise decision. He chose to indulge in his quirk and off-beat instincts. And thus the world got a marvellous artistic collaboration between director Tim Burton and Depp with the 1990 film Edward Scissorhands. It was the foundation of Depp’s future stardom. In Scissorhands, he managed to evoke pathos and emotions from behind a thick layer of make-up and a clay-cold appearance. Honestly speaking it was like falling in love with a corpse and you didn’t even have to be a goth to appreciate that. Nevertheless, that’s how Depp managed to transform into so many characters that have defined his long and illustrious career – Jack Sparrow, Ed Wood, Raoul Duke, Donnie Brasco, The Mad Hatter, Sweeney Todd, Willy Wonka and many many more. It is said that at one point Disney wasn’t even sure of Depp’s portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow from the first Pirates of The Caribbean movie in 2003. But upon release, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl ended up earning $650 million at the worldwide box-office, a figure that was hair-raising and euphoric, at the time. And the best part was, audience surveys suggested that it wasn’t the swashbuckling action and state-of-the-art CGI that endeared viewers to the movie, but it was Depp’s zany comic genius that made the whole franchise so affable and exciting. That was the big-bang in Depp’s career, a move that eventually saw him become the numero uno star in Hollywood what with he even raking up a Guinness World record for earning $75 million pay cheques. Long before the Avatars and Avengers became box-office rockstars, it was Depp’s calypso capers that were top draw at the big screen. Parallel to his driving force behind Disney’s ascension to the monopoly status, Depp’s collaborations with director and bestie Tim Burton allowed his off-beat image to thrive. Here was an LA superstar who didn’t have the machismo and swagger that is blatantly obvious about his ilk. There are beautiful men like Brad Pitt and George Clooney, but Depp was that rare man who exuded a boyish grace, he could carry a stunning set of locks with the elegance of Katherine Hepburn. He actually had the sublime dexterity to be able to pull off masculinity with the right amount of feminine grace. On-screen he was the man with a thousand faces and off-screen he was the man with a consistent, Don Juan DeMarco personality, he was a pheromone magnet. The operative word here is ‘was’.

This innate quality of being affable is now a thing of Depp’s past. Over the years, he was considered to be one of those men who were impervious to the ticking clock. Till 2012, when Depp was about 49, it seemed like he didn’t age, infact, it seemed like his physical beauty was moving in the opposite direction. And then, he broke up with his then long-time girlfriend Vanessa Paradis and it was like she walked out with his de-aging potion. It was either that or the wild streak that liquor and Amber Heard brought into Depp’s life, that turned him into the quintessential star, aging well beyond his years. And this is perhaps the most crucial juncture where Murphy’s ill-fated law took control of Depp’s egomaniacal ascension. Fan boys will eagerly dump the fault on the girlfriend and absolve the true artiste by calling him naive and gullible. But the reality check is irrefutable. Depp’s first impression with Heard happened on the sets of their 2011 film Rum Diary. He was 48 at the time, and their official relationship status only finds credence in the year 2015, so that makes him 52 by the time that he became besotted and started living with her. At that age, you cannot be naive and gullible to the point where you can’t tell the difference between right and wrong, you can’t be taken for a ride, you cannot blame your spouse and allege that she took away $650 million from your coffers without your knowledge. Even if your swimming in a sea of rum and trekking a mountain of substance, you won’t suddenly turn into a country bumpkin. Certainly not after having claimed that your creative leanings align themselves with the likes of Marlon Brando and Hunter S Thompson and that you are definitely not mainstream. So there’s no way that the inebriated soul can put all the blame squarely on Aphrodite. Apollo must take responsibility for his own failings.