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Johnny Depp: off the deep end
By Sevanand Gaddala, Indo-Asian News Service

Mumbai, Jan 4 (IANS) Hollywood actor Johnny Depp was recently declared the most searched name in movies in 2005 by users of the massively popular website imdb.com. 

This is astonishing, considering that he neither starred in a blockbuster last year nor was involved in any salacious scandal to engross fans. But there is something intriguing about Depp that has made him one of the most unlikely popular actors of all time. 

He is boyishly handsome, departing from the more mainstream classic Hollywood leading men like Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman, who epitomised rugged good looks. 

Depp has maybe just one bona fide blockbuster in "Pirates of the Caribbean" to boast of. He is comparatively boring in his private life, being involved with French pop singer Vanessa Paradis. 

But to truly understand the enigma of Depp, one has to examine the almost nonchalant confidence, subtlety and sheer versatility of his talent. Depp is popular for doing mostly unpopular things.

In his acting, Depp expresses volumes just through his eyes. It is impossible to observe Depp on screen without being drawn in by those soulful eyes. They also make him seem passive but they are really taking in all that is happening around him. 

One director who truly understood the mesmerising power of those eyes was Mike Newell. They worked together on "Donnie Brasco" and the movie begins and ends with a close up of Depp's eyes. 

The expressiveness of his eyes and an understated strain of confidence have made Depp a very prolific actor. He is also one of the rare actors who tries intentionally to work just below the radar of mainstream Hollywood. 

Since his strong point is his subtlety, he is not flashy enough to be a superstar. It is impossible to try and find some logical explanation to the string of characters he has chosen to portray. 

He has played a pirate, a boy with scissors for hands, the author J.M. Barrie, and the weirdly eccentric journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Even if there is a sense of haphazardness in his choice of movies, he has rarely made bad movies.

Depp's start in the business was anything but promising. He got his first break on the TV show "21 Jump Street" and critics started treating him as a joke. The fact that he was good looking and that TV actors are not considered to be as good as movie stars was already crippling any efforts to break through. 

He was written off; but the real Depp was about to emerge. 

He got his first big break in director Tim Burton's "Edward Scissorhands". From there he went on with more movies with Burton, worked with acclaimed directors like Roman Polanski ("Ninth Gate"), Jim Jarmusch ("Dead Man") and Terry Gilliam ("Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"). 

In the 1990s he gave credible performances in Lasse Hallstrom's "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", "Ed Wood" directed again by Tim Burton and "Donnie Brasco". This was the role that truly marked a shift in maturity and complexity in his acting ability. 

In 1997, he tried his hand at directing with "The Brave", which featured a cameo by his good friend, the late Marlon Brando. But the movie was never released in the US. 

In the late 1990s and the early part of this decade he acted in more intimate movies with smaller roles, for instance "Chocolat" and "Before Night Falls". 

But it was only of late that Depp began getting critical acclaim in terms of nominations for awards. He won the Golden Globe and snagged an Oscar nomination for what might be his most popular role as pirate Jack Sparrow in "Pirates Of the Caribbean". 

He followed this up with a poignant portrayal of "Peter Pan" author J.M. Barrie in "Finding Neverland", which earned him an Oscar nomination. 

Depp is an intensely private man. He has had relationships with actress Winona Ryder and Kate Moss. In those early days, he was a hell raiser and was infamously affiliated with the Viper Room in Los Angeles. 

It was here that the young actor River Phoenix had a drug overdose and died. But Depp has now aged beautifully and matured. These days he pretty much keeps to himself and his family. 

But every once in a while he will come out of his private zone and step into the movie set to notch up yet another - if not acclaimed - truly versatile, poignant or just plain weird performance to never completely forget him. And it is no surprise fans are still crazy for him.