Back in London, Burton's partner of six years, Helena Bonham Carter, is seven months pregnant with their second child. (Their first, Billy Ray, is now 4.) She's due to deliver in December, around the time the film opens, and sounds unsure about which labor will be more difficult: the movie, or the baby.
''It was one of the toughest, most grueling rites of passage we went through in our relationship,'' says the actress, who appeared in small parts in Burton's Big Fish and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as well as in a key simian role in Planet of the Apes. ''I think I had to be righter than right to prove I was right to play Mrs. Lovett. But it had been in my blood. I wanted to be her when I was 13, when the show came out. I went around with a Mrs. Lovett hairdo.'' Unlike Depp, Bonham Carter studied for months with a renowned vocal coach, Ian Adam. ''He was famous for making actors sing who couldn't previously,'' she says. Sadly, he died the week filming wrapped.
With the premiere of Sweeney Todd approaching, Bonham Carter knows she's in for a barrage of innuendo about nepotism, having scored a lead role that show-tune fans on chat boards had envisioned for a more seasoned singer-actress like Meryl Streep. ''I'm sure people will think, Aah, it's because I've slept with Tim,'' she says. ''But I didn't sleep with Sondheim. And he ultimately chose me.'' The composer says he watched a dozen or so audition tapes and insists that Bonham Carter's performance was the best. ''Even in a recording studio, wearing a schmatte, she is as beautiful and sexy as they come,'' he says. ''She knew what she was doing, more than the others.'' Sondheim is equally pleased with Depp. ''There are very few people who can act and sing at the same time,'' he says. ''He's one.''
Depp remains nervous about it all. In the spectrum of actors-turned-singers, he has no idea if he'll be received the way Ewan McGregor was in Moulin Rouge! (huzzah!), or more like Burt Reynolds in At Long Last Love (boo!). He may be the poster boy for cool, but he's sweating. ''I always freak out when any of my films are about to come out,'' he says. ''I think it's totally normal.'' It probably doesn't help that Sweeney Todd is an oddity, even within the anything-goes confines of Depp's filmography. ''Somebody sent me this thing from online,'' he says. ''Somebody said after they saw the trailer, 'I don't understand why, in the middle of that trailer, Depp broke into a song.' Like, 'Whoa! What is he doing?''' Forging his own path, as always. This time with a razor.
Want more Sweeney Todd? Check out our extended Q&A with Johnny Depp
See more from the EW 2007 Holiday Movie Preview:
Beowulf: High stakes for a 3-D epic
Mr. and Mrs. Noah Baumbach invite you to their Wedding
First Listen: The title song from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
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