SEVENTEEN - October, 1994

johnny depp
17 questions

By Cindy Pearlman
Photography by Albert Sanchez

He's hot. He's sexy. And in his new movie he's wearing a dress. Is the world ready for Depp in drag?

When he was a teenager, kids at school tortured him by calling him Johnny Dipp. "I was an outsider," he remembers, which is probably why Johnny Depp can identify with other shy loners, like Edward Scissorhands and . Strangely, Johnny likes not belonging. Everything he does is a little, uh, different. Take the way he greets me in his fancy New York hotel room. "Hi, I'm wearing women's underwear," he says.

Nice to meet you too.

Is he really wearing girls' undies? (I must take him at his word. He's not Marky Mark, after all.) Actually, Johnny's just demonstrating his slightly "off" sense of humor about his role in the film Ed Wood. You see, Edward Wood, the flamboyant director of '50s cult movies like Plan 9 From Outer Space and Glen or Glenda?, was a transvestite who had this thing for pink angora sweaters and pantyhose.

Lucky for me, John Christopher Depp II has more normal taste and is wearing black pants and a white bowling shirt as he sits down to answer 17 questions.

1.) Had you ever worn a dress before you started filming Ed Wood?

[Laughing] Well, yes I have, but it's not what you think. I was in drag during an episode of 21 Jump Street. But that was only one scene. In Ed Wood, I'm in drag a lot.

2.) Will this role make you a better boyfriend?

Absolutely! Ed Wood made me realize exactly what girls go through to get dolled up for a date. Guys just shower, put on some clothes, maybe shave. All guys should try to put on pantyhose just once.

3.) Did Ed Wood's widow, Cathy, ever come to the set?

Yeah. She visited a bunch of times. I would be standing there in a dress and she would look at me like I was totally normal. One day she said, "Johnny, you look nice. You look like Eddie." That made me very happy.

4.) Speaking of happiness, you've had more fiancees than I've had dates. What happened between you and Winona Ryder?

I'm not really sure what happened. I feel real lucky for the time we spent together. She's a wonderful person.

5.) What are you going to do with your Winona Forever tattoo?

I don't know. Maybe I should put her boyfriend's name on top of it. [At presstime, it's Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner.] You have to look for the humor in these things, you know.

6.) I read somewhere that you have weird dreams. Can you tell us your strangest one?

Yeah, it was about Gilligan's Island. In my dream, the Skipper is chasing me all over town. And I'm running from him, but can't get away. What does this mean?

7.) Maybe is had something to do with your childhood. What were you like as a kid?

I was kind of like my character in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. I lived in a small town, Miramar Florida. All we had was a school, a drugstore, and a pizza joint. I was really frustrated and wanted to get out of there so bad. Everybody knew everybody. It was suffocating.

8.) Were you considered cool?

The cool kids were obsessed with going to the mall, driving fast cars, and hanging out at McDonald's. Or to be really cool, you had to wear a concert T-shirt from some show you saw in Miami. I was into none of the above.

9.) So you weren't exactly Mr. Popularity?

Not really. I was somewhere in between. I wasn't someone everyone always made fun of, nor did I participate in that.

10.) What was your family like?

We were really close. Still, there were times, especially as a teenager, when I wanted to be anywhere but with my family. You know that feeling when you're 15, and you get caught going out to dinner with your mother and father? That would happen to me and I'd be all mortified, like it was the end of the world.

11.) It's been almost a year since the death of River Pheonix at your club, The Viper Room. Any thoughts on that?

The thing is … it's still odd for me to be connected with what happened to River. My only connection is that I was there at the time. I still have feelings about it. It was unbelievably tragic that we lost such a young and talented man.

12.) On a lighter note, are you going to pull a Keanu and turn action hero?

Nah. I have this allergy to becoming an action stud. If something has been done a million times, why go ahead and do it again? Especially if someone else has done it better than you ever could.

13.) Why do you play such weird characters, like Edward Scissorhands, Gilbert Grape….

And Benny of Benny & Joon and Ed Wood an on and on? Edward Scissorhands was my first unusual character. I thought there was no way Tim Burton [who also directed Ed Wood] would hire me, because at the time I was an actor on a TV series. But he did. As for the other characters, there's something about all of them that I liked. They aren't boring.

14.) Does acting bore you?

I would hate to say that I'm an actor and that's all I'll ever be. It's important to do anything and everything you can in life. Otherwise, you'll never learn anything.

15.) So you're harboring a secret desire to be … what? Fill in the blank.

I'm harboring a secret desire to be a reverend. I also want to be a spy. And maybe a bassoon player, too.

16.) Tell us some personal details, like what book is on your nightstand?

I read a lot of different things. Oh god, this is going to sound so pretentious. I only read this so I can laugh about it, okay? I'm actually reading Chekhov short stories. I'm like a psycho. I read five books at a time and then don't read any of the scripts I'm supposed to.

17.) Do you speak any foreign languages?

I don't speak French at all, but I can say "The peanut is in my belly button" in French. I think it's good to learn absurd things in different languages. If I meet someone who barely speaks English, I love to teach them the most obtuse things, like "Eat my shorts." In German I can say, "My father's a bullfighter" and "I am a watermelon." That stuff amuses me.

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