Once a troublemaker, Johnny
Depp of 21 Jump Street is now It's easy at first glance to think that
admired for his cool and his Depp is trying hard to stand out, but the
part in a series about teen people who know him best insist it's some-
problems thing altogether different: Johnny Depp
is simply the embodiment of the ineffa-
By Elaine Warren able, universally coveted quality called
Photo by Philip Saltonstall "cool".
"The coolest person I know," says Holly
On a lonely, rainy, anonymous street, Robinson, who plays Officer Judy Hoffs
Johnny Depp, running through a scene on Jump Street. "He's naturally cool. Ev-
from Fox's 21 Jump Street, roars up in erybody else tries to be cool, but Johnny
his blue Mustang, screeches to a halt, just is."
leaps out and starts talking tough. His "If this were the '50s, he'd move to
Jump Street character, Tom Hanson, is Paris or hang out with Jack Kerouac,"
a rookie cop who's gone undercover to suggests Patrick Hasburgh, creator and
infiltrate circles of teen-age criminals, executive producer of Jump Street.
but Depp's stance as a hoodlum would "What struck me about him when he
fool "anyone" with his angelic punk face auditioned was that he wasn't nervous,"
and his hair cascading James Dean-style says Steve Beers, supervising producer
into his eyes, he looks the perfect teen- of the show. "He was laid-back. He had
age rebel. this presence. He's an unusual personal-
It comes from years of real-life experi- ity. He's also one of the nicest people
ence. Depp, 24, grew up in Miramar, I've ever worked with."
Fla., where he wasn't exactly on the road How cool is Johnny Depp? He's so
to becoming a National Merit scholar. "I cool that he orders a $75 bottle of wine
hung around with bad crowds," he admits. without blinking as he sits down in his
"We used to break and enter places. favorite Italian restaurant (weird white rag
We'd break into the school and destroy still around his head) to explain how
a room or something. I used to steal he got that way. So cool that after a few
things from stores." And, like some of months in Vancouver he persuaded his
the kids Officer Tom Hanson has busted mother and stepfather to move there and
on 21 Jump Street, Depp was into drugs. live with him. So cool that when he was
"Pretty much any drug you can name," 16, shortly before he left high school,
he says, "I've done it." At 13 he lost his he moved out of his house to live in a
virginity, and at 16 he dropped out of car with his best friend, Sal, because
high school. that's the only place Sal had to live and
Fast-forward eight years to Vancouver, he didn't want him to feel abandoned.
where Jump Street is shot. Depp has It was a '67 Impala that they filled with
acquired a taste for $80-a-shot cognac empty beer cans, while living on subma-
and is a fan-magazine star, routinely rine sandwiches from the 7-Eleven. A few
mobbed by adoring teen-age girls. He months ago Sal went up to Vancouver
is also one of the stranger sights in Van- to visit Depp and impressed the produc-
couver, consistently wearing the same ers with his unusual, to say the least,
eccentric outfit: tattered blue jeans with ability to fill his mouth with air and blow
a hole in the knee, combat boots, a beat- it out like some strange-looking fish. Sal
up leather jacket, a weird white rag (actu- is now the character on Jump Street called
ally a first-aid sling) wrapped around his "Blowfish."
forehead, and several tarnished earrings. Back in blue-collar Miramar, where
It's a look he perfected in 1986 in the Depp's father was director of public works
Philippines while working on the film "Pla- and his mother was a waitress. Johnny
toon," in which he had a part as Lerner, and Sal were into drugs, girls, petty crime
small-town boy who serves as the and, most of all, music. Music was how
unit interpreter. they kept the faith within their iso-
end page 1
lated teen-age world of angry parents unproven television series was unpalat-
and threatening teachers. When Depp able to Depp, and he refused even to
was a kid, he heard a gospel group and look at the script. Another actor, Jeff
knew right then that he wanted to make Yagher, was hired for the role, and that
music. At 12, he paid $25 for an electric was that. But then three weeks into shoot-
guitar, locked himself in his room and ing Jump Street, Yagher was off the show
started playing. The next year, he started and Depp's name came up again. This
his own rock band and has since been time he read the script, liked it and won
in 15 different groups, supporting himself the part.
since leaving home at 16. The most suc- After a few glasses of wine, though
cessful group was called The Kids, and Depp will tell you that when he decided
it was while playing lead guitar with that to bend to the demands of television
group that he moved to Los Angeles in he never thought the show would be as
1983 to try to make it big. successful as it is, holding the possibility
of a long commitment. "I thought it would
At the same time, he took a seedy apart- go for one season, tops," he says with
ment in Hollywood and began peddling a sly smile. In other words, he thought
ball-point pens over the phone to make he'd get in and out in a matter of a few
enough money to live. He also got mar- months, gaining experience and public-
ried, got divorced and met actor Nicolas ity in the process, and then be on his
Cage, a former boy friend of his wife, way. Instead, he's in the strange position
who told him he ought to try acting. Cage of being trapped in a successful show.
set him up for a meeting with his agent, "I'm not trapped," he insists. "I mean,
who, despite Depp's utter lack of acting it's good. The best thing about the show
experience, took one look at his face is that kids learn from it, they're able to
and sent him to an audition for the movie see things that go on in their high school
"A Nightmare on Elm Street." Depp had and see them objectively. It teaches kids
an actor friend stay up with him for the about drugs and safe sex. The worst thing
next two nights coaching him on the lines, is that some of the scripts we do are
and he got the part. not important, they're purely for televi-
"He just had a very powerful and yet sion. But what I thought when I originally
subtle personality," says Wes Craven, di- started the show was, if I'm going to
rector of "Elm Street." "There was some do a television series, I want to do some-
sort of charisma about him." Craven also thing that means something. I don't want
admits, "My teen-age daughter and her to go out and do Dallas or Dynasty. You
friend were there at the reading, and know what I'm saying?"
they absolutely flipped out over him. He's
got real sex appeal for women." Outside a Vancouver high-school gym
Next came a role in a teen sexploita- where Jump Street is shooting, Johnny
tion film called "Private Resort," which Depp is trapped in the hallway, mobbed
Depp would just as soon forget. "It was by a group of teen-age girls intent on
a stupid movie," he says. Depp's lack getting autographs from him. It takes about
of experience caught up with him, and 30 minutes, but he stays, patiently and
he had trouble getting roles for about a politely signing and signing and signing,
year. He became so discouraged he con- giving each girl a meaningful look and
templated abandoning acting, until "Pla- engaging her in conversation as he hands
toon" came along and gave him the crea- her a scrap of paper with a sweet little
tive and professional boost he needed. message scrawled on it. First Carol. Then
Then immediately after returning from two Monica. Then Brandi-with-an-i. The girls
and a half months filming in the Philip- are in teen heaven.
pines, the Jump Street role came up as "He's so cute," sighs one.
a possibility. The idea of going from a "He's so cool," coos another
high-quality film like "Platoon" to a new, Yes. We know. Cool.
TV GUIDE JANUARY 23, 1988
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