THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 22, 1995 TAG: 9511220065
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
JOHNNY DEPP has made a career of playing quirky characters in offbeat movies. But his new outing is a real departure from the norm, so to speak.
In ``Nick of Time,'' the thriller opening today, he plays an ordinary guy! Gene Watson is an accountant and father of a small daughter. He wears granny glasses. Nothing exciting is likely to happen in this man's life.
Why the change?
Partly because the pressure is on Depp, the star of ``Ed Wood,'' ``Edward Scissorhands,'' ``Benny and Joon,'' ``What's Eating Gilbert Grape?'' and the underrated ``Don Juan DeMarco,'' to pull off a ``Speed'' - the action flick that landed Keanu Reeves in the mainstream.
Gene Watson is a coat-and-tie type who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. While passing through Union Station in Los Angeles, he's blackmailed by Christopher Walken into assassinating the governor of California (Marsha Mason). Walken is holding Watson's daughter hostage, and if he doesn't pull the trigger in 90 minutes, the girl will be slaughtered.
A righteous man faced with a terrible choice.
Depp shook his head and said: ``For me, it's always more difficult to play a square. Playing a real straight guy is a real challenge - and wearing that suit every day! I've never played an executive before.''
For one scene, he had to fall 90 feet off a ledge.
``I wanted to do the stunt because only if I did it could the camera get close enough to see that it was really me,'' Depp said. ``But it was a little, well, man, a little much. It was a 97 percent free fall.
``They had a rope, or whatever, around me, but when you're falling, it didn't feel as if anything was there. I looked over and the stuntman was eating a doughnut and saying, `You're doing fine, Johnny. You're doing good. Just go ahead.' Sure, that's easy for him to say.''
Depp also did fine with his young co-star, 7-year-old Courtney Chase. ``Hey, I don't mind working with kids,'' he siad. ``This was a great kid. She won a lot of money off me. We'd bet on how many takes a scene would require. The bet was $20 each time out. She won about $60. A pretty sharp kid.''
Born in Kentucky and raised in Florida, Depp formed a rock band named Kids when he was a teenager. After some regional success, the band moved to Los Angeles, but instead of a gold record, Depp landed his first major acting job, in the original ``Nightmare on Elm Street.''
He broke into the bigtime, though, on TV, playing undercover detective Tom Hanson on Fox's ``21 Jump Street'' for four years. Although ``a lot of good came out of that series,'' Depp said it isn't exactly the high point of his career.
``I was this teen `thing,' '' he said. ``They were selling T-shirts with my picture on them. They were selling posters. Fox was a new network and needed an identity. They decided that their identity was going to be as the young people's network and they used me to sell that idea.
``They wanted to reinvent me. I had no control over it. I didn't like that aspect of it, but I'm not complaining.''
Besides, music remains his first love. Depp's band, P, just put out an album on Capitol. Other members include Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers, ex-Sex Pistol Steve Jones and bassist Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
``With the band, I can forget who I am,'' Depp said. ``We did this set of music about eight months ago. I kinda feel sorry that they're going to release it. It's good, but I don't care so much about the release. It was just the experience of doing it that was great. I had a great time.''
On the personal front, his on-again, off-again romance with supermodel Kate Moss makes tabloid news daily.
``That sort of thing cheapens my career,'' Depp said. ``They've had Kate and me married and divorced six times by now. It's almost as if they, whoever they are, think that type thing is more important than my acting.
``They like to write about me trashing a hotel room, or something, more than about my acting. I'm young and, hey, I've got a right to live. That sort of reporting, they say, is human nature, but it's not my human nature.''
Depp is then asked to name the three most pivotal events in his life. He thought for only a moment before answering.
``First was when my parents split up. I was 15. Second, was when I switched from musician to actor. Third, I guess, was when, suddenly, I went from not being able to pay the rent to having people start talking to me about making deals. I'm still not used to that aspect of it all. I don't care about deals. I just want to do the work.''
His next job is a Western called ``Dead Man,'' directed by maverick filmmaker Jim Jarmussh. Then he'll direct himself in ``The Brave,'' based on the novel by Gregory McDonald. Depp co-wrpte the script with his brother, D.P. Depp. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
BRUCE W. TALAMON / Paramount Pictures
Johnny Depp plays Gene Watson, a coat-and-tie type who happens to be
in the wrong place at the wrong time, in ``Nick of Time.''
KEYWORDS: PROFILE INTERVIEW by CNB