Johnny Depp the next Marlon Brando?

Originally written the week of Sept. 22nd/03

Since when did Johnny Depp become Marlon Brando? I mean, I’ve always been a Depp fan. In my opinion he’s one the best actors of my generation but he’s always been known as one of those actors that you see all the time, but never really stood out or been associated as a superstar, kind of along the lines of Ethan Hawke, rather than Tom Hanks or Al Pacino. However, in the past few years he’s really come into his own.

I’d say it started in 1999 and hasn’t stopped since then. In 1999, he pleased critics and audiences alike as his portrayal of Ichabod Crane in Tim Burton’s “Sleepy Hollow”. This became Depp’s first film to top the 100 million dollar mark at the box office. After that, it was his excellent supporting role in “Chocolat”, followed by his remarkable performance in the late Ted Demme’s film “Blow”. Even though the film was not well received by many, even the coldest critic could not deny how well Depp was in the lead role. After that, he did another good job in the Hughes Brothers’ film “From Hell” playing a detective tracking Jack the Ripper. But this summer seems to be the relative turning point for Depp. After starring in the second highest grossing movie of the summer, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, Depp then brought to life what could have been a disaster with “Once Upon a time in Mexico.” Surely this seems to be Depp’s time, which could very well propel him to superstardom status and maybe even the infamous “20 million dollar club”. I could never see him taking that much money per role though. He seems to be the kind of actor to option for more roles more often rather than more money. You’ll notice that Depp has at least one movie every year, where as a twenty million dollar actor such as Bruce Willis or Tom Hanks has one every three or four.

I think Hollywood needs more actors like Johnny Depp, who option for enforced performances, interesting roles, less money and working on a regular basis, as opposed to slacking off, one-dimensional roles, bags of money, and doing one role every three years.

The shame is that actors of this caliber such as Depp, Morgan Freeman, Ethan Hawke, and Benicio Del Toro, are constantly overlooked by critics, awards academies, and moviegoers alike, because in this twisted day and age, the majority of viewers would rather watch Vin Diesel blow something up than see a real actor perform a real role that would be something deep, and hard-hitting and would give us something to think about and really digest. Audiences need to remember what a good steak tastes like and let go of the Big Mac.