By Stephen Rebello

"Don't Say A Word To Nobody About Nothing, Anytime, Ever. . ." Johnny Depp is - cliche alert! - Hollywood's reluctant heartthrob. But the guy just can't help being a deeply gifted actor who choose weird but wondrous projects like this month's Ed Wood and Don Juan De Marco - or bedding stunningly beautiful women, for that matter. Stephen Rebello talks drug abuse, prostitution and intrusive armadillos with Hollywood's finest young talent. . .

IT'S A SAD FACT OF LIFE that fewer people caught Johnny Depp's charming work in Benny And Joon and What's Eating Gilbert Grape? than saw Speed or The Firm in their opening weekend. But the 31-year-old Depp still keeps getting hired by directors like Oliver Stone, John Waters and Tim Burton. The latter, for whom Depp played the razor-fingered title character in Edward Scissorhands, chose him to play another Ed, the transvestite, Z-budget movie director Edward D. Wood Jr. in Ed Wood, released this month. Also out this month is Don Juan De Marco in which Depp essays the title role, opposite Marlon Brando and Faye Dunaway, playing a patient who believes he is Don Juan, the world's greatest lover. It's a part that fits Depp like a glove.
Virtually every young actor I've ever spoken to in Hollywood admires Depp. Older actors say lovely, generous things about him too. And even though there are some who can't understand the perverse integrity that keeps him resisting the bait of box office certs such as Speed, few doubt his enormous talent.
But then again, maybe Depp's better off spurning the chance to defuse bombs on speeding buses. His doe-eyed, touchingly fragile, man-who-fell-to-earth qualities make him perfect casting for magical crazies and disaffected marginals.
Depp was born in Owensboro, Kentucky in 1963, but grew up in Miramar, Florida Where he dropped out of high school, formed a rock'n'roll band, and got married. After relocating to Hollywood in the early 80s, he divorced, and made his debut in Wes Craven's A Nightmare On Elm Street. His performance was notable for the fact that he was consumed by a bed. Then came a small role in Platoon and TV stardom as an undercover drug cop in the hit series 21 Jump Street. But Depp hated the programme and the "teen idol" tag it brought, and was saved from insanity by John Waters, who cast him against type in Cry-Baby.
As well known for his tattoos (including the fateful "Winona Forever" in reference to his ex Winona Ryder) as for a predilection for dating (and engaging) beautiful women (his latest squeeze being supermodel Kate Moss), Depp is currently filming what is his first overtly "commercial" movie, the John Badham-directed action thriller Nick Of Time. . .

Q: As an early tattoo advocate have you got any new ones recently, or had anything pierced?
A: No, nothing pierced. I'm glad people are off the tattoos though. I was really starting to get depressed about that. I remember when I made my first movie, everybody on A Nightmare On Elm Street was so freaked out, going, "Jesus, the kid's got tattoos!" Then tattoos became a huge trend. It's funny because people in ten years are gonna be depressed about some of the scratches they got on their bodies.

Q: Are you depressed about yours?
A: I've always respected tattooing as an art form. I always did it as part of an art that you wear, as a kind of journal. Your body is your journal.

Q: You've said that you believe speaking to the press about your relationship with Winona Ryder affected that relationship. Are you doing things any differently with Kate Moss?
A: I don't talk about it and she doesn't talk about it 'cause it's nobody's business.

Q: The tabloids regularly run pictures of you two nuzzling somewhere.
A: I haven't looked at one of those magazines since about 1988. Somebody may have showed me, but I haven't really looked at one. Because it's all just bullshit, and I really don't care man. People can think what they want. You're not gonna stop them. They're gonna say whatever the fuck they want, so piss on it.

Q: So you think the tabloids have hounded you?
A: They've been shitty to me, yeah. In their eyes, I've screwed everyone from the Queen Of England to the Pope.

Q: I'm guessing you didn't screw the Pope.
A: Oh, you know, we dry humped. It was all very innocent, very sophomoric.

Q: Did he take off all those rings?
A: Absolutely not. I wanted those things there.

Q: What bothers you most about the tabloids?
A: Well, the whole unfortunate thing with River (Phoenix) at The Viper Room. I mean, they were writing horrible things. They were really disrespectful to him and to his memory, to his family, to his friends, to his fans. The press was trying to tarnish his memory in the minds of all those people who loved him, when it all boils down to a very sweet guy who made a very big mistake, a fatal mistake, a mistake we're all capable of. I was really pissed off. What took place was so heavy that I didn't even retaliate on the accusations towards me. The fact is, I was there that night. The fact is, it was my club. I said, "I refuse to be a part of this morbid circus that you fucking ambulance chasers have going. Fuck off !"

Q: At that time someone told me you were thinking of shutting down The Viper Room.
A: The place became a scene instantly when we opened it. I never had any idea it was going to do that. I really thought it was gonna just be this cool little underground place.

Q: You're kidding. A cool little underground place on the Sunset Strip, co-owned by Johnny Depp?
A: You can't even see the place. There's no sign on Sunset. It's just a black building and the only sign is on Larrabee, a tiny little sign, real subtle, and I figured it'd be low-key. What soured me was what happened after all that took place on Halloween, you know, the unfortunate passing of River. I closed it down for two weeks out of respect so the kids could write their messages and leave flowers. I thought that was real sweet of them. I knew for the next month or two it was gonna be a gawkfest, just filled with gawkers and tourists, Graveline Tours, all that shit. I just didn't go around for a while. We've weeded out the gawkers. Now it's back to being a good place.

Q: Speaking of rumours, despite the stuff about drugs and your relationships with beautiful actresses, at least nobody has gossiped that you might be gay.
A: No, but some tabloid said that I was a huge homophobe. Figure this out. One of my best friends is John Waters. We went for a drink in a gay bar in New York City. A guy comes up and says, "Hey John, I'm a big fan of your films," and, "Oh Johnny, I liked your movies." A real nice guy. He began to tell us about himself and said, "I'm HIV-positive." And what do you say to that kind of thing? At the end, when we were saying goodbye, he said, "John, would you mind if I gave you a kiss on the cheek?" John said no and the guy kissed him on the cheek. And he said, "Johnny, do you mind ?" and I said, "No, go ahead," and he gave me a kiss on the cheek too. We finished our drinks and split, went to some other bar or something. The next day, one of those tabloid shitheads said I was standing at the bar with John Waters and some guy came up and kissed me and I ran out of the place freaked out, all fucking weirded out by the whole scenario. If I was a homophobe why would I be in the bar and why would one of my best friends be John Waters?

Q: Could you see yourself paying for sex?
A: No, that's not my thing, paying for sex. Even if I did, I wouldn't talk about it. You're in a certain position, you gotta be careful, you gotta be smart, you gotta think a little bit. And the first thing is: don't say a word to nobody about nothing, anytime, ever. This is a rumour-fuelled society.

Q: It's a weird time to be famous.
A: It's a weird time to do anything. Not only do you have to worry about screwing and wearing condoms and shit like that, you have to worry about kissing, about being sneezed on and fucking flesh rotting off. It's violence and shit everywhere.

Q: I know you like to buy antiques, first-edition books, vintage stuff. So does your place these days look like Charles Foster Kane's house-full of treasure in crates?
A: Right on the money. I haven't bought a home yet and I don't know if, when I do, it's going to be in the States. It may be in France somewhere. I buy a lot of paintings and drawing and some photographs, shit like that. It's good to have things around that feed you. Once of the greatest things that Vincent Price, really a fucking sweet man, very, very smart, ever told me was: "Buy art." That's a piece of advice I'll treasure forever.

Q: I heard you two become very close when you made Edward Scissorhands.
A: I'd call him from wherever I was just to say hello. He called me every year on my birthday -he was a Gemini, too- and left me these beautiful massages. One of the most incredible moments I've ever had was sitting in Vincent's trailer and I was showing him this first edition book I have of the complete works of Poe with really amazing illustrations. Vincent was going nuts the drawings and he started talking about The Tomb Of Ligeia, then he closed the book and began to recite it to me in this beautiful voice, filling the room with huge sounds. Such passion! I looked in the book later and it was verbatim. Word perfect. It was a great moment. I'll never forget that.

Q: Now that you've played Ed Wood, share some things learned about cross-dressing.
A: The make-up, the brassieres, the garters, the whole deal is really work. You can never, ever understand fully what a woman's life might be like until you step into her shoes. The whole thing makes you appreciate and respect women, what their lives are like, to a certain extent. The same thing goes for transvestites.

Q: I know you can get plenty of tips from women about such stuff. How about tips from transvestites?
A: I have even more respect for them now. I mean, transvestites have made a choice to do something; when you actually put yourself in drag, you realise it's much more of a commitment than a choice. I mean, when you gotta tuck things away and hide things, it's painful. It's not comfortable. So I have the utmost respect for transvestites. I didn't get any advice firsthand, but I did get some literature sent to me from Miss Vera's Academy.

Q: What's that?
A: It's a school in New York that teaches boys how to be girls. How to be transvestites, how to be cross-dressers. I thought about visiting, but didn't have the time.

Q: How do you think the Ed Wood movie turned out?
A: It's very different from anything Tim's done before. It has its own little world. Our working relationship couldn't be better. If Tim said he wanted me to hold that bottle of water you're drinking and treat it as a lover, I would absolutely do it. I just love him, man. We have a similar view of things.

Q: How was it playing opposite Marlon Brando in Don Juan De Marco?
A: I thought I was gonna send a present to my laundry man before I first met him. Before we met, I talked to him on the phone and then I went and had dinner at his house. I thought I was gonna be freaked out, but he put me at ease instantly. He's just a guy, just a man, who happens to be incredibly gifted and brilliant. He has an extraordinarily gifted mind, heart, body, all that.

Q: Was Brando spoofing when he said he thinks you should study acting at RADA?
A: I don't think he was saying it as a goof. He fells that actors in the States don't have the same learning opportunities.At RADA, you learn and study Shakespeare, the iambic pentameter, the whole fucking dilemma.It's a different kind of suit.

Q: One you might like to try on?
A: It's something that I would be very interested in doing. I've seen five or ten minutes of footage of John Barrymore doing Richard III and it fucking flipped me out. I'd like to give it a shot, you know? Maybe I will.

Q: One hears that you keep turning down movies that at least sound like they could be hits: The Three Musketeers, Speed, Sliver and Legends Of The Fall. Have you ever considered alternating a Speed, say, with an Ed Wood?
A: (Laughs) So your question is: is there a way for me to sell out?

Q: Would you consider that to be selling out?
A: I understand why guys alternate between doing something that's obviously geared towards big, popular, commercial success, then doing something along the lines of what I want to do. I really don't want to make choices in those terms. If there's something good that has commercial potential, I would be ready to dive into it. But I just can't do that for the sake of the box office, although maybe I will at some point. (And indeed he is, currently shooting John Badham's action-fest, Nick Of Time- Ed.)

Q: Does it bug you that the studios tend to sell movies like What's Eating Gilbert Grape? as "small" and "special"?
A: I think the stuff I do could be accepted by the wide moviegoing audience if the audience weren't programmed to think in certain ways. Say you haven't eaten in a few days and somebody puts a meatloaf here, a turkey sandwich here, shrimp cocktail here. Which are you gonna go for? You're headed straight for the fucking meatloaf, like nobody gets in my way. Why? Because you want to get the big meal down. You don't want to think about it, you just wanna fucking do it. Maybe it's a strange metaphor, but people want to escape from their lives, from their brain, for an hour-and-a-half. Maybe it feels good to go watch somebody blow away 50,000 people with a submachine gun. Maybe that's a great means of escape because there's no thinking to it, but maybe we'd be better off it there were more films around that made you think, made you have to use your own brain to figure things out. That's why people don't read any more. They don't want to chew their food. They just want to swallow it, get it fucking down, then move on. If movie companies had a bit more balls, they could put more money into promoting a thing, then, bang, people would go see it. Or more people would go see it, anyway.

Q: Ever worry about the size of your penis?
A: I haven't up till now. Should I start pondering? Nah, it has been a good friend to me. I'd certainly miss him if he were gone.

Q: What's the most ludicrous thing you can remember happening when you were about to put on a condom?
A: I know it sounds far-fetched and you're probably not going to believe me, but I was on the 23rd floor in a hotel room in New York City and suddenly, out of nowhere, this armadillo burst out of the closet and ran across the room. It jumped on my back and we fought and I threw the fucker out the window. They have this real hard armour and I was so freaked out by it, that I just ran and ran and ran. I never went back to the hotel.

Q: Is this like an armadillo version of that old Groucho line, "One morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got into my pyjamas, I'll never know"?
A: I think it was an armadillo. It felt it was an armadillo. It may have been an elephant.

Q: Were you alone at that time?
A: Yes, I was alone.

Q: So you were going to put on a condom for the hell of it?
A: Just cause you never know, you know? Like I said before, you could walk out in the street, somebody sneezes and bing, your thing drops off. So you wanna be ready. But, anyway, all that was about 17 years ago, and I don't like to talk about it. By the way, is this interview about penises now? Is this National Penis Month? It's fine, fine, fine with me. I think we should talk about vaginas as well. And some breasts, too.

Q: I know you're very into smells. you're been know to travel under the alias "Mr Stench". Movie sets must be a bonanza for you.
A: There's, like, 150 varieties of stink on every movie set.

Q: Such as?
A: Normally the make-up girl smells real pretty, she's usually got on a beautiful cologne, while the grip stinks like a gut wagon. Meanwhile, I'm working on my own funk, which is probably permeating the area like the Plague. Everybody's got their own scent, it's all mixed together and those big fucking hot lights cook every up real nice. So, you got a funk-and-a-half on a movie set.

Q: How about co-stars who smell?
A: You mean, where there's a slight problem?

Q: Right.
A: Yeah.

Q: Man? Woman?
A: Both. I'm an equal opportunity sniffer.

Q: What was the source of the smell?
A: Armpit. Could have been breath. Could have been feet.

Q: Gentleman though you are, have you ever spoken up to the offending party and said. . .
A: "Fix it"? No, I just step away between takes.

Q: What do you do when you're close to someone who's hygenically challenged?
A: You could just use it when you're shooting. It's so incredibly weird that it may make you smile. there are all kinds of things you can be thinking about when you do a scene, you can use anything. Smells, Too. Available stimuli, right? Maybe we should change the word from "actors" to "smellers". . .

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