Becoming a father gave Depp (with his family in London in '02) "instant perspective," he told Oprah. |
And yet for all the chaos that accompanies two working parents moving between homes and sets – Depp spent most of 2004 shooting
Chocolate Factory and
The Libertine with John Malkovich in the U.K. – their life is surprisingly simple. When he is on location, his family comes to him or he visits them on weekends. In the south of France, the foursome generally go marketing on Thursday mornings and can be seen on many Sunday mornings wandering around an open-air flea market. "It's a very normal family life," says one local. Outings to Paris are less likely to include dinner at the trendy restaurant Depp co-owns, Man Ray, than a stopover at a pizza restaurant near the Pont d'Alma, where he and Paradis come in, says owner Paul Balilli, "with their kids, no assistants, no pretense. They take beautiful care of their children, [who] are well-behaved."
In L.A., life is the typical mix of trips to the park, walking the two dogs (mixed breeds), visiting the pediatrician, playing with Barbies and Hot Wheels and having weekly viewings of
Finding Nemo. Depp told Winfrey that Lily-Rose, "from the first second, was just a little princess, very delicate, very girly." He described Jack as a boy who "almost immediately just would vault himself into walls and, you know, runs around now with these plastic swords swatting at everyone." Just the boy for Captain Jack Sparrow, who is pleased, if a bit surprised, at his own domestic leanings. As he told
Vanity Fair, "It's amazing when you get to a certain age and you talk about sleep in the same way you spoke about inebriates 20 or 25 years before. 'Man, I got eight hours of sleep last night – it was fan-tas-tic. . . .' "
