"They are very solid, very supportive," a friend says of Depp and Paradis (in October). Photo by: David Bebber / REUTERS / Landov |
Though the ability to name your movie after years of being known as the coolest guy nobody goes to see ("Box office poison," Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein said of his colleagues' take on Depp before
Pirates) is pretty darn good. Depp has signed on to make two
Pirates sequels – but also
The Diving Bell and the
Butterfly, the true story of a French editor who suffered a paralytic stroke and dictated a memoir by blinking his eye. These days, he picks films based primarily on their appeal to his "kiddies." As he told Le Parisien writer Alain Grasset, a longtime friend of Paradis's, he wants his children to "be proud," says Grasset, "and say, 'Dad did good work for a while.' " Work like his heartwarming – and wrenching – turn in
Neverland as the eccentric Barrie, who befriends the young sons of a widow (Kate Winslet) and finds inspiration for
Peter Pan. "Johnny is at the pinnacle of his career," says Weinstein, who was an executive producer on
Neverland and has worked with Depp on
Dead Man, Chocolat and
Once Upon a Time in Mexico. "He is the most versatile actor in the industry. He is a leading man, a character actor, and he has the courage of his convictions."
That extends to his curious sense of style. PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive, 2003, has never feared disgruntled looks from those who do not get his scruffy fashion sense – from his trademark old hats to his tattoos to a pair of boots "he's had since I've met him," says his longtime friend Jim Jarmusch, his director on 1995's
Dead Man. "Johnny's a kind of strange tribal guy. He has little superstitions, and things that are comforting to him become his friends. Those boots are his good friends." What Depp has feared, on the other hand, is the fame that for many years left him – as he recently put it – "freaked out." In the opinion of Lasse Hallström, his friend and director on the 1993 drama
What's Eating Gilbert Grape, his choice of eccentric roles in offbeat films has been a form of "hiding."
