Johnny Depp Is Not A Good Actor

"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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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."

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

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.

Sometimes people mistake movie stars for actors.

And vice-versa.

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

"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