LOS ANGELES – Few actors make the leap from mere performer to movie star. Fewer still make a second leap, from movie star to mogul, becoming the sort of actor who doesn’t just get movies made by attaching his name to them, but instigates projects on his own.
Johnny Depp is one of those rarities. The actor who started out as a teenage heartthrob on the television series “21 Jump Street” seems hardly able to believe the transformation himself. When a reporter refers to him as a producer of his latest film, “Dark Shadows,” he demurs.
“I can barely produce an English muffin in the morning,” he says.
It’s not the first joke Depp makes during the interview — and it’s by no means the last. The actor had us reporters almost constantly in stitches throughout the Los Angeles news conference for the film, an adaptation of the 1960-’70s supernatural soap opera. He might play the very proper, serious vampire Barnabas Collins in “Dark Shadows.” But he himself — or at least the version of himself he presents to reporters — is an easygoing guy who can produce one-liners faster than most professional comedians.
And he’s modest. Because “Dark Shadows” was, in fact, his idea.
He recalls chatting with director Tim Burton when they worked together on the 2007 musical drama “Sweeney Todd.”
“God, we should do a vampire movie together, where you actually have a vampire that looks like a vampire,” Depp remembers telling Burton. “I certainly had this fascination with monsters and vampires, as did Tim, and this darkness, this mystery, this intrigue. And then, as you get older, you recognize the erotic nature of the vampire and the idea of the undead.”
You might think a film in a familiar genre would be a breeze for both men, longtime collaborators and veterans of the business. But it was just that juxtaposition of sensuality and necrosis that made the movie one worth working on.
“What was most interesting in terms of Barnabas was the idea of the combination. It was a real challenge, probably more for Tim than me, to make that guy, clearly a vampire, fit back into this odd society and this dysfunctional family. I think he did it rather seamlessly.”
But what does the actor mean when he says the impetus was to make a movie in which the vampire actually looks the part? The word “Twilight” wasn’t uttered by Burton, Depp or any of the other cast members present. But that film franchise certainly comes to mind when Depp later says, “It was a kind of rebellion against vampires that look like underwear models.”
And this vampire, unlike Edward Cullen, draws blood. After the 18th-century vampire is unwittingly freed from his buried coffin by constructions workers in 1972, Barnabas repays the favor by killing them. “It was a little like biting one of the Village People,” he remarks.
“Dark Shadows” might be based on a campy soap opera, but the film itself looks like nothing other than a Tim Burton film. Jackie Earle Haley, the Oscar-nominated actor who plays the Collins’ estate keeper, emphasizes that in discussing why he signed on.
“The thing with Tim that truly is separate and different and unique from other directors is that Tim represents his own genre. He’s a very unique filmmaker. His aesthetics, his stylistic storytelling, the choices that he makes,” he says “He goes beyond just making a film, and he builds this entire world. To get to go and help populate that world was a neat experience.”
I ask a question about the special effects — although I suspect the same magic was used in Depp’s last film, “The Rum Diary.” How does the 48-year-old actor still manage to look on screen like a man in his 20s? Barnabas refers a lot to the devil, especially in his guise as Mephistopheles from the legend of Faust, the man who sold his soul to the devil. Has Depp made a similar deal?
There’s a seriousness behind the query. I ask if that might be one reason why Burton has found Depp such a fruitful collaborator — the actor can play just about any part. But Depp uses my jokingly phrased question to continue entertaining the reporters, this time off screen.
“You’re missing the point. I am the devil. I am Satan. And I’ve been sleeping under your couch for months.”
Kelly Jane Torrance is The Washington Examiner movie critic. Her reviews appear weekly. She can be reached at [email protected].
