JOHNNY DEPP UNPLUGGED
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Fifties' skirt-wearing cult film-maker Ed Wood was known as the worst movie director in the world. But with Johnny Depp slipping into Wood's clothes in Tim Burton's new movie, the offbeat director becomes more intriguing than Tarantino, Scorsese and Coppola combined. Interview by Jane Faulkner.

It's an all too familiar scenario - Johnny Depp turns down a swries of blockbuster film projects (Interview With The Vampire and Speed were both, apparently, on offer) in order to do yet another quirky role in yet another quirky movie. The difference is that this time - in Tim Burton's tale of cult, cross-dressing film-maker Ed Wood - Depp provides us with the performance of a lifetime. Slipping confidently into Wood's sensitive, frock-wearing persona, Depp's performance is the awesome culmination of a career of screwball movie parts. Contrary to tabloid rumours claiming that Depp is giving up acting for a year to concentrate on becoming a "rock-star" (though the response from his publicist as to whether his band, P, have signed a deal is an official "No comment"), he has recently signed up for his very first action movie, In the Nick of Time. He has also just completed the romantic comedy pastiche, Don juan de Marco(due for release this autumn) with a rather tubby Marlon Brando and Faye Dunaway as co-stars. We arrange to meet at aquiet LA bar but, for a split second, I don't recognise Depp. Gone is the familiar beaten-up leather jacket, plaid shirt and three-day stubble look - today he's sporting a midnight-blue suit a la Reservoir Dog, with slicked- back hair and two fat silver rings - one on his right hand and one on his wedding finger. He orders a beer, slips off his jacket and shakes me firmly by the hand.

JF: So, Johnny, you look pretty wearing those skirts in Ed Wood.
JD: I'm telling you, being a woman is hard [laughs]. You've got all the make-up and bras and stuff - it's a lot of work. You can never fully understand what it's like to be a woman until you have to wear those clothes. And playing a transvestite is even harder. You have to make a real commitment to it. You have to hide stuff and tuck it away and it's really quite painful. I'm telling you, I have a lot of respect for transvestites.

JF: Do you share Ed Wood's angora fetish?
JD: No way. I hate angora sweaters. Have you ever inhaled that stuff? I was hacking up fur-balls every day on the set.

JF: Were you a weird kid?
JD: Well, I had a strange upbringing. We lived in Kentucky until I was seven, then we moved to Miramar, in Florida. Miramar was like the town in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. It had two indentical grocery stores opposite each other and nothing much ever happened there.

JF: Did you always want to be an actor?
JD: Not really. When I was about 12, my mom bought me an electric guitar, and I started getting into music, and then when I was 16 I formed this group called The Kids, and that's how I came to Hollywood. I sort of just fell into acting when I got offered a job playing the boyfriend in Nighmare On Elm Street. That was my first real acting job and I thought to myself, "This is pretty cool."

JF: Why did you open The Viper Room?
JD: Well, I like to hang out with musicians, and most Hollywood clubs are so boring I just figured that it would be more fun to start my own. I just wanted it to be low-key, but then it got real crazy for a while.

JF: How did you first meet Kate Moss?
JD: Sorry to disappoint you, but it wasn't all that romantic. I went in to have a cup of coffee at a restaurant in New Yoek and she was sitting at a table with some friends, and I knew one of them and I just said "Come over and have some coffee with me," and so that's how we met and we haven't been apart since.

JF: So no big thunderbolt?
JD: No, it was an internal thunderbolt [laughs].

JF: You were married once, right?
JD: Yeah, but I was pretty young.

JF: Would you ever do it again?
JD: Hmm. It would have to be a private marriage, definitely. I'm not real good at planning for the future because it's not here yet. I'm much better thinking about things now. But I do have hopes.

JF: What's a typical Kate and Johnny date?
JD: We love going to Magic Mountain [a theme-park outside LA] and doing all the fastest rides, but you have to go first thing in the morning or you just end up spending all day signing autographs.

JF: Is it true that you once checked yourself into a hotel using the pseudonym Donkey Penis?
JD: No [laughs] I have never done that. But I have used names like Santa Del Vecchio, The Reverend Someting or other, even Oprah Noodlemantra...

JF: How do you feel, eight months on, about that infamous hotel-trashing incident?
JD: I think it's pretty funny that they put me in jail for assaulting a painting and a lamp. Ridiculous. And of course all the tabloids said I was drunk and had had a huge fight with Kate, which was total bullshit. I was just stressed out. I'm human and I get angry like everyone else. I get frustrated and I just lashed out. Big deal.

JF: What happens when you check into a hotel now?
JD: [laughs] They look real nervous.

JF: Do you believe in ghosts?
JD: Oh yeah. Completely.

JF: Have you ever seen one?
JD: I think so. Iwas staying at this hotel in London that used to be a hospital, and this face, like an evil surgeon's face, suddenly came right at me. I was just laying in bed, and I was asleep and I wasn't on any sort of drugs. It really scared me, which was cool.

JF: Didn't you once get to sleep Oscar Wilde's bedroom in Paris?
JD: Yeah, but I didn't see Oscar. It was definitely the bed he died in - I'm not sure if it was also the room, but there was all his furniture. I was a little paranoid that I might be buggered by his ghost at 4am [laughs].

JF: Is it true that you insisted on having Marlon Brando as your c0-star in your new movie Don Juan de marco [due out in the autumn]?
JD: Yeah. When I read the script all I kept seeing was Marlon Brando as the psychiatrist. So, when they asked me who I thought would be good in the role, I said Marlon Brando. They looked at me like I was insane.

JF: Were you nervous when you first met him?
JD: Initially. I mean, just the mention of name Marlon Brando makes you think about the myth and how huge it is. But I tell you, the first couple of times I spoke with him on the phone he was great. We had great talks and he just made me laugh. When it was finally time to go and meet him and talk about the film and get to know each other, I was real nervous on my way over to his house. But as soon as I saw him he instantly, magically, put me at ease, within two seconds of saying hello.

JF: Are you one of these luvvie actors who takes the role home with them?
JD: It's a weird thing - I don't believe that any actor actually becomes their character. But the strange thing is that sometimes it does rub off on you. Being Don Juan 14 hours a day meant that, around 9pm, I would start-a-talking-like-a-thees [assumes dodgy Spanish accent] in a restaurant. It's weird. You have to whack yourself back to reality.

JF: How did it feel to be playing the world's biggest superstud?
JD: The whole idea of being Don Juan is so foreign to me that it's funny. Here's a man who says "I am the world's greatest lover" to every woman he meet, and he really means it. He believes it. I could never go up to a woman and say anything like that. I just couldn't [laughs].

JF: So what kind of lover are you?
JD: Wow! I don't know how to answer that.

JF: Come on, you're not getting off the hook that easily: would you describe your bedroom technique as passionate or adequate?
JD: I'd say adequate [laughs]. I'm very. . . Jezz, I really don't know, You've stumped me there. I like to think that I'm very considerate of other people's feelings, and I was trained as a small child to always try my best at everything. So. . . [laughs] I like to think that I was raised well. And I like to have fun.

JF: What kind of fun?
JD: Lots of fun, silly stuff with putty or some string. . . you know [laughs] .

JF: Are you a romantic?
JD: I think I'm a mixture of romantic and realistic. I'm a realist about some stuff, but I also believe wholeheartedly that in a society where people get divorced every five minutes you can still stay married for 50 or 75 years. It's been done and it's beautiful.