Johnny's Depth

"No, but see, in this one, my character is going to act bewildered." 

In the last ten years, Johnny Depp has collaborated with Tim Burton on five films. He wore pale make-up and crazy hair in four of those five, (the fifth was Corpse Bride, where Johnny's character, while made of clay, still had a pale face and weird hair), and while he was always enjoyable to watch, no character really stands out as particularly iconic; they're all mostly just eccentric, and they sound funny.

In this span of time, Depp has created only one character that almost everyone unanimously agrees was instantly iconic, and that's Captain Jack Sparrow, (a film Burton had absolutely nothing to do with), and I'd argue that his only other great movie in this period was Rango, which a) was awesome b) also had nothing to do with Burton. The 'Pirates' movies made more money at the box office than any of his collaborations with Burton by a wide margin, and I haven't found a single critic that thinks either Burton or Depp have made their best work together in the last ten years. I'd go as far as to say Burton's last great movie was Big Fish, which is suspiciously the only move he made in the last ten years that didn't feature Depp.

So, you know. Maybe knock it off for a while, guys.



Don't get me wrong, I'm not faulting them for not doing their best work together lately; no one can be expected to be constantly making their best work, and the fact that they struck gold once with Edwards Scissorhands is impressive enough. I am saying that when you enter into a creative relationship that is so comfortable and enjoyable, one of two things happen: 1) You challenge, enhance and bring out the best in each other, becoming greater as a pair than you ever were solo, [McCartney/Lennon, Coen Brothers, Trey Parker/Matt Stone], or 2) You agree and support each other so much that you lose objectivity; you can no longer gauge your ideas on their merits because you've turned two talented artists into each other's personal Yes Man, [Ferrell/McKay].

L-R: Depp, Carter, Burton. Not shown: Originality.

Burton and Depp seem to be in that second camp. From the outside, it looks like they're engaged in some kind of self-perpetuating circle of unflinching reassurance and back-patting, which is dangerous for creativity. It's worse than creating in a vacuum; it's creating in a vacuum that thinks all of your ideas are great and don't need to be edited or revisited or even questioned at all. It's one thing to have a collaborator that you're comfortable with and whose rhythms you understand and quite another to have a nodding mirror image of yourself. A disagreeing voice is one of the most valuable things to have in a creative environment. It's a good way to keep ones head out of ones ass, and it's why no movie has just one guy completely in charge of everything.

Johnny Depp creating an eccentric, pale character for Tim Burton featuring Helena Bonham Carter is one of the most bizarrely specific cliches I think I've ever come across. All I'm suggesting is a little creative break. Each artist should spend some time exploring other things, maybe having a different collaboration or two, then perhaps one day, after they've had some time alone to really figure themselves out, they can get back together and collaborate again, armed with new knowledge and experiences.

Because for fuck's sake, the last thing we needed was another vampire movie.