24 Craziest Johnny Depp Transformations
Black Mass explores the real life unholy alliance between the FBI and Irish Mob, namely that of gangster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger who’s played by Johnny Depp. Depp is known as the actor with a thousand faces, a title earned after the end of his star-making TV show 21 Jump Street led to his obsession in seeking out bizarre and dynamic roles he could fully disappear into. His part in Black Mass — which manipulates his voice, eye color, and hairline — is no exception.
In this week’s 24 Frames gallery, we stare straight into the faces of Depp with some of his craziest acting transformations.
The 21 Jump Street TV show threatened to pigenhole Depp as a fading teenage heartthrob early in his career. So he lampooned his pin-up status (playing a greaser rebel who can drive girls wild by shedding a single tear) before setting off in search of weird movie roles.
The first in a long and fruitful artistic partnership with director Tim Burton saw Depp playing an unfinished mad science creation.
Playing neither Benny nor Joon, Depp is Sam, a movie nut with a talent for doing Chaplin/Keaton/Lloyd routines.
An endearing portrayal of a beloved director (who just happens to make the worst movies of all time).
William Blake (the accountant, not the poet) takes an allegorical, occasionally violent business trip in Jim Jarmusch’s postmodern Western.
Native American figures and culture frequently figure into Depp’s career (Benny & Joon was directed by Sherman Alexie, while Dead Man was lauded for its accurate portrayal of Native Americans). Depp plays one in his directorial debut, The Brave, but after negative reviews at its Cannes premiere, he prevented the film from ever showing in America.
The beginning of Depp’s on-screen association with gonzo writer Hunter S. Thompson (to be followed with Rango and The Rum Diary).
As Ichabod Crane, “Johnny Depp is an actor able to disappear into characters,” Ebert wrote, “Never more readily than in one of Burton’s films.”
Depp as a Romani performer. He would later show up in the 2006 Roma documentary When the Road Bends: Tales of a Gypsy Caravan.
Depp in Julian Schnabel’s autobiography of openly gay Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas (played by Javier Bardem).
First of four (and counting) movie appearances as Captain Jack Sparrow, setting off Depp’s great commercial and artistic run of the aughts.
Depp shows up in Robert Rodriguez’s closer to the Mexico Trilogy as a corrupt CIA agent.
Resembling an unmade bed, Depp plays a troubled novelist in this adaptation of the Stephen King short story.
More big budget bombast from Burton, who cast Depp as the unsettling owner of a candy empire.
As a barber flying in the face of the Better Business Bureau, Depp earned his third Oscar acting nomination (after 2005’s Finding Neverland and 2004’s Pirates of the Caribbean).
For the first time in decades, Depp played to his handsome traits in creating his version of gangster John Dillinger.
After Heath Ledger passed away in the middle of filming Terry Gilliam’s fantasy, Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell stepped in to play physical variations on the character.
Wearing all the colors of the rainbow as the Mad Hatter in this adaptation of the Lewis Carroll stories.
Depp as 200-year old vampire Barnabas Collins in this adaptation of the late ’60s soap opera.
Back in Native American garb as Tonto, though the movie bombed financially and critically.
In this ensemble re-working of classic fairy tales, Depp appears as The Big Bad Wolf.
Guy Lapointe, a frazzled detective whom Depp portrays with a purposefully obnoxious French-Canadian accent. Kevin Smith is releasing a sequel called Yoga Hosers, with Depp reprising the character (and co-starring with both their daughters).
Depp produced and starred in this vehicle, drawing some of the worst reviews of his career and necessitating a “comeback” role, which Black Mass seems to fill out quite nicely.
Depp’s last majorly lauded role was as Dillinger in Public Enemies, so it’s fitting he’s getting those critical mash notes again with his portrayal as true-life crook Whitey Bulger.
