Johnny Depp Is Not A Good Actor

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 4:43pm

"Maybe this is unfair. Maybe there are still some of you who think Johnny Depp is a gifted actor, but I hardly think I’m on an island. The last time I can remember enjoying a Depp performance was in 2001’s Blow, when he played the drug dealing George Jung, but even then when I recall that film, I get more excited thinking about Paul Reubens in it. The real turning point for Depp’s career started way back in 1999, before he threw on the eyeliner and the gold teeth and solidified a blockbuster career off of a cheap Keith Richards impression with his role as Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. It started with Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, a divisive film among critics and fans alike. For the record, and for what it’s worth, I actually enjoy Sleepy Hollow and Burton’s particular brand of gothic whimsy here, and Depp as the wispy, wimpy Ichabod Crane. It’s Burton’s last live action film that really delivers on Burton’s aesthetic, both tonally and physically, but it’s also one of the last films where we see Depp truly acting both without the aid of a preposterous costume (though he is in period garb) and acting with some restraint. This, followed by Chocolat (shrug), Blow (solid), and From Hell, which, again, I’m okay with, but feels like a retread of gothic territory with which Depp was achingly familiar given his time with Burton -- it just seemed a bit too easy. And From Hell isn’t really an acting showcase as much as it is a film built around a grisly whodunit, so most of the film relies on Heather Graham’s heaving bosom and Depp’s ability to lift his eyebrows so his face acts accordingly with either intrigue, puzzlement, concern, or surprise."


Is He Or Isn't He?

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 5:53pm

He always seems to me to be someone in need of a long overdue shower.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 5:54pm

I only loved him in 2 films. Edward Scissorhands and Cry Bably. But I think it's because of the way he looked and not necessarily his acting.

I think he has a "Prince-like" attitude, only with Prince, it's okay.

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 6:03pm

I've seen worse, but his career peaked a while back. Though I am looking forward to seeing him play the Wolf in 'Into the Woods'.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 6:21pm

He's not as bad as Meryl Streep. At least when Depp plays character parts he doesn't look like he's trying to impress Oscar voters.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 6:24pm

Other than the Pirates franchise,almost every movie he has been in has tanked at the box office. Why he is paid tons of money by studios escapes me.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 6:25pm

He's acting for paychecks at this point. Depending on directors, Burton and him have over-exhausted each other and need a break but I think him and Verbinski still do good work (the floppage of The Lone Ranger aside), he can be engaged. The issue is his trajectory is pointing to working with less of those directorial presences.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 6:38pm

Strikes me as a case of confusing being a not good actor with not giving a very impressive performance in a very long time.
They are two very different things.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 7:07pm

Goth, you do realize that it's not Streep's fault she has received more Oscar nominations than any other actor, right? Nor is it her fault that she's largely considered the greatest living screen actor. She just goes to work and does her job. What others think of it, she has said, is really none of her business.

[Patronus]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 7:17pm

Not true Roxy.

Of Depp's 41 films, 18 of them have made over $100M worldwide in Unadjusted Box Office numbers. 14 if you take out the Pirates movies.

That's almost 14 out of 41 breaking $100M is pretty good.

Alice in Wonderland actually out grossed 2 of the Pirates films.



Updated On: 4/29/14 at 07:17 PM

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 7:29pm

Hmm, so Meryl Streep is a worse actor than Johnny Depp. Goth, who do you consider to be among our greatest actors?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 8:24pm

"Goth, who do you consider to be among our greatest actors?"

Emma Thompson
Judi Dench
Beverly D'Angelo
Karen Black
Marica Gay Harden
Whoopi Goldberg
Cate Blanchett
Jean Stapleton
Brenda Blethyn
Michelle Williams
Kathy Bates
Sandra Oh
Jodie Foster

Daniel Day Lewis
Guy Pearce
Heath Ledger
Anthony Hopkins
Keifer Sutherland

I'll think of more men later

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 8:27pm

No, that's ok. I really wasn't interested. It was a rhetorical question.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 8:38pm

Streep's great but there are definite complaints since quite early in her career that she refuses to work with a director that is ever bigger than her. Some exceptions like Mike Nichols, Clint Eastwood, and that one time she worked with the then up and coming Spike Jonze, but often anonymous, semi-competent directors, John Wells was supposedly the director of August: Osage County, where her performance is the star. This often puts her at odds with auteurists critics as well as critics like Pauline Kael who never really got her choices in projects. That probably factored in his 80s-90s decline, as those films didn't really make money, until she came back with work like The Devil Wears Prada and was suddenly, for the first time, a marketable commodity. Now she can do whatever she wants and get any role she wants which I think produces more frustration than animosity as we know she's talented but still chooses questionable projects. Like, if she just stopped at The Devil Wears Prada nobody doubts she is one of the greatest American actresses and I don't think any performance after takes away from that but it also adds almost nothing to her legacy, except that maybe she can sing from the ABBA catalog quite well. Angels in America/Adaptation. period is basically what I prefer to remember with her comeback.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 8:44pm

I don't really get involved too much in the why's, how's, where's, and when's behind the actual performances. I like that I enjoy what I see, and appreciate it for what it is. I think she's the best.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 8:47pm

Yeah, I've been tired of Depp's whacky performances and characters for a while but I'd never call him a *bad* actor.

That's an interesting point about directors and Streep, Strummer. I'll have to think about it a bit more--but you may have a point. I do think she looks at the script first and foremost (and her character. I personally think Karel Reisz is an underrated actor, but Streep probably did French Lieutenant's Woman due to Pinter's celebrated screenplay--to use one example. Of course that was still fairly early in her career. (No matter what anyone thinks about the film of Osage County--and I actually still need to see it, I kinda forgot it must be on DVD by now--the play had a rep for being a showcase for female actors.)

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 9:11pm

At his best, Johnny Depp is the greatest actor of his generation, delivering performances of great wit and versatility in disparate works like WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE, ED WOOD, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, FINDING NEVERLAND, FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS, BEFORE NIGHT FALLS and his magnificent work in Burton's criminally under-appreciated SWEENEY TODD.

At his worst, he's still more interesting than Kevin Spacey, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, and George Clooney will ever get around to being.

Updated On: 4/29/14 at 09:11 PM

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 9:19pm

More interesting than Kevin Spacey? You're either delusional or haven't seen him in House of Cards.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 9:25pm

Saw Spacey in the first 45 minutes of HOUSE OF CARDS -- his robotic monotone droning was unwatchable, the writing and direction unendurable. Spacey's among the worst out there, delivering the same rote recitation of words he saw written down someplace in every film -- only Keanu is worse. I'd sooner endure another viewing of Burton's appalling ALICE IN WONDERLAND with Depp's embarrassing Mad Hatter (to my mind Depp's one real miscalculation as an actor) than ever set eyes on the Spacey creature again.

Bottom line: Depp's a great actor. Spacey is neither.

And really, Liza, someone who appreciates Kevin Spacey's pathetic posing in HOUSE OF CARDS is in a glass house when it comes to accusing anyone else of being "delusional."

Updated On: 4/29/14 at 09:25 PM

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 9:50pm

We probably wouldn't have gotten the 'Into the Woods' film if it weren't for his participation in it. In the main thread on the Broadway message board, a source very close to both Sondheim and the production company said that Depp signing on for the Wolf was KEY into getting the film green light. Up until now, he was a box office draw and he sort of saved the film adaptation of this beloved musical from development hell where it stayed for 15 years.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 10:09pm

House of Cards is just 'slow Scandal' at this point and Spacey is basically doing the same affected, look at me act he always has. Him being put in the same conversation as the best male lead performance in a TV series with Jon Hamm and Bryan Cranston is a joke. I'm still bitter that David Fincher on simply name recognition has Michelle MacLaren's Directing Emmy. Seriously, screw that show- except Robin Wright. Let that show be about her.

Pitt's better in ensemble roles and pretty good in comedy but his looks push him to center. At least I can admire his choices in running an excellent production company with Dede Gardner.

"We probably wouldn't have gotten the 'Into the Woods' film if it weren't for his participation in it."

That's an all-star cast. It would've been made with or without him. The Lone Ranger, however, wouldn't have been made without him because goodness, as much as I admire the film's gusto for existing, I cannot for the life of me pinpoint the target audience for that film at all.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/29/14 at 10:15pm

You know, and we say this all the time, and it's true - there's no correct answer as to who's a good actor and who isn't. As hackneyed as it is, "Art is all subjective" is apropos here.

Discussions and exchanges of opinions are good though.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/30/14 at 7:38am

Sometimes people mistake movie stars for actors.

And vice-versa.

Updated On: 4/30/14 at 07:38 AM

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/30/14 at 8:47am

Examples, besty?

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/30/14 at 12:47pm

"Streep's great but there are definite complaints since quite early in her career that she refuses to work with a director that is ever bigger than her."

What are we, chopped liver?

Robert Altman, Jonathan Demme, Alan J. Pakula, Jerry Zaks, Robert Zemeckis, Wes Craven, Mike Nichols (countless times), Fred Schepisi (twice), Sydney Pollack, Spike Jonze, Carl Franklin, Nora Ephron, Robert Benton, Fred Zinnemann, Woody Allen, Michael Cimino, Nancy Myers, Robert Redford, Susan Seidelman, Hector Babenco, Tommy Lee Jones, Phillip Noyce, Jerry Schatzberg, Clint Eastwood, Albert Brooks, Bille August, Phyllida Lloyd, Lajos Koltai, Stephen Daldry, Wes Anderson, Stephen Spielberg, Karel Reisz, Rob Marshall

Updated On: 4/30/14 at 12:47 PM