Johnny Depp recently sat down to discuss his career and somewhat shockingly revealed that he feels he’s not that far away from quitting acting.
The actor who most recently played Tonto in The Lone Ranger, which failed financially and critically, says that he’s “probably not too far away” from quitting this whole acting gig of his.
THR reveals that in an interview with Rolling Stone, Depp said that he recently decided to add up all the words he says per year and oddly realized that he says more words written by someone else than he does on his own.
He was obviously baffled by this realisation saying, “You start thinking about that as kind of an insane option for a human being.” We doubt anyone would disagree.
Collider reports that while he still has some acting years left in him, he’s interested in focusing on a “quieter” life. Which isn’t surprising, as he mostly lives in France and on his own private island in the Caribbean.
The actor broke up with his longtime partner Vanessa Paradis over a year ago. They have two children together: Lily-Rose Melody, born in 1999 and Jack, born in 2002. He says that they continue to stay close despite the split.
Depp turned 50 this June, and he’s reportedly been dating actress Amber Heard for over a year, who is 23 years his junior. Fans may recall that the two actors met on the set of The Rum Diary, which they co-starred in back in 2011.
Insert midlife crisis joke here – but we’re seeing a guy who has worked himself to death with oddball roles and being turned into a franchise poster boy by the Hollywood machine, which is the opposite of what he always wanted with his career.
While Depp says he’s definitely not “dropping out any second,” it seems he’s more interested in living a normal life than being in the spotlight – not exactly a radical change for the reclusive actor who spends his off time strumming a guitar alongside Keith Richards.
Johnny Depp fans know that music has always been his passion, and he’s been around the world with iconic musicians, including jam sessions with Paul McCartney from The Beatles.
He originally came to L.A. back when he was in his teens to play in a rock band. The only reason he got into acting was to pay the rent according to Depp, and we imagine the rent is covered by now.
We can’t say we’re surprised by this, but it doesn’t mean we’re excited about it either. While Depp’s latest film, The Lone Ranger, was a total miss, we wish he’d get back to doing smaller, more character driven films.
Despite his latest films, Johnny Depp is one hell of an actor, and from what we’ve seen he’s one hell of a nice guy. He’s certainly not the kind of actor we want bowing out this early in his life.
But maybe this is the best thing for someone like him, leaving the game before his star burns out. We’ve seen it many times before, actors past their prime doing paycheck films, it does appear to cheapen their careers.
Still, Johnny seems like a young 50-year-old, and we hope he sticks around for another decade or so. Maybe we’ll see him dive back into the types of mesmerizing roles that originally sky rocketed him into superstardom.