Freddie Highmore, Tim Burton
Image credit: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Mary Ellen Mark

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

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If Depp were ever going to choose a moment to let his freakiest of freak flags fly, Charlie is probably the best chance he'll get. After all, Pirates of the Caribbean — during which Depp notoriously battled with nervous Disney execs over how far-out he was playing the sozzled, swashbuckling Captain Jack — became a sort of vindication for Depp's outré instincts, plundering more than $300 million at the box office. ''Success speaks volumes,'' says Burton. ''For people in Hollywood, it means everything. But I'm sure the Warner Bros. executives were still lying awake at nights, sweating, thinking what the f--- are they doing? And maybe appropriately so.''

Depp says he never heard a word. Which made him even more anxious. ''We had been shooting Charlie for about a month,'' he says, ''and I was beginning to get nervous because there weren't any phone calls. I called my agent and asked, Has no one called from the studio to complain or say, 'Hey, what's he doing?' or 'Hey, he's freaking us out?' And when she said no, I thought, 'Christ, I'm not doing enough! Something's wrong!' Then some of the studio brass came over to the set, and they were sitting in my trailer and I was all decked out as Wonka with the little bangs. And I just had to know. So I said, 'Okay, who was the first one, when you started seeing the dailies, that got a little worried?' And there was this beautiful 30-second silence. And [Warner Bros. president] Alan Horn finally said, 'Yeah, that was me.' I felt better instantly.''

(This is an online-only excerpt from Entertainment Weekly's July 8, 2005, cover story.)

Originally posted Jun 30, 2005 Published in issue #828 Jul 08, 2005 Order article reprints
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