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In 2003, shortly after the first Pirates of the Caribbean film came out, Johnny Depp sat down with EW to discuss his career. Up to that point, Depp had somehow managed to spin an oddball string of performances into a unique kind of stardom. His movies didn't make much money, but all that ''best actor of his generation'' talk rightfully persuaded the studios to keep hiring him. The success of Pirates was totally foreign to him, and Depp was both charmed and spooked by it. It had also just been announced that he'd be reteaming with his longtime collaborator, Tim Burton, for a remake of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. And when Depp was asked if he would sing in the film, as Gene Wilder had in the 1971 original, he coolly replied, ''Sure, if that's what Tim wants.''
That response, brief as it may be, underscores two things: that Depp has no fear (he'd never sung in a movie, but didn't seem the least bit nervous), and that he'd do anything Burton asked. Over the course of six films together — the latest being 2007's Broadway musical adaptation Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, now out in single- and double-disc editions — that faith has served Depp better than any Hollywood agent's advice ever could have.
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