The Depth of Depp Trivia Quiz

Answer: Edward Scissorhands

Although it wasn't Depp's first movie, "Edward Scissorhands" (1990) was the first Depp movie I ever saw and it enchanted me. It was described as a 'dark fantasy film' but it was pure romance with the young, handsome and 'lost' looking Depp playing a guy with scissors for hands who falls in love with a real girl, played by Winona Ryder.

Although Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson, Tom Hanks, William Hurt, Robert Downey Jr. and Jim Carrey were considered for the role of Edward, director Tim Burton always had Depp in mind as his first choice.

When Depp was sent the script, he confessed that he "wept like a newborn" because he found deep personal and emotional connections with Edward - and that emotional depth came through clearly in the movie.

Answer: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

In "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (2009) Depp (and others) took over the role that Heath Ledger had played - Tony ('the hanging man') who was a disgraced philanthropist saved by a travelling theatre troupe whose leader, Doctor Parnassus (played by Christopher Plummer), had wagered his daughter, Valentina, with the Devil according to whoever wins five souls first.

When Ledger died during production, Tony's role was recast so that several actors could play him in his various 'transformations'. Playing Tony as the troupe's 'barker', Depp put on a rakish appearance to lure women through the magical mirror and give them their heart's desire, but successfully steered them away from the devil's motel and in doing so won four souls for Doctor Parnassus.

The next 'transformation' of Tony's character was then taken on by Jude Law. Actually, the only part of the movie I remember well was Depp's elegant dance with one of the ladies he beguiled! His deep compassion for her longings and his moral duty to steer her out of trouble was very touching.

Answer: The Brave

"The Brave" (1997) was adapted from Gregory McDonald's book of the same name and tells the story of a desperately poor Native American who sells his life to a snuff movie producer in order to provide for his family. Premiering at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, it was released internationally but NOT in the USA - probably because it drew too much attention to the shocking plight of Native Americans and the growing fascination for snuff movies (in which an actor dies for art). Depp was always drawn to injustices, inequalities and confronting issues and it is to his credit that he drew attention to social problems endemic in his own country.

Answer: The Rum Diary

"The Rum Diary" (2011) movie was adapted from Hunter S. Thompson's book of the same name, and was directed by Bruce Robinson. It tells the story of Paul Kemp (played by Johnny Depp), a failed author who accepts a newspaper job in San Juan, Puerto Rico where he is confronted by abject poverty, wants to write about it, but his editor rejects his articles.

The newspaper eventually goes out of business and Kemp raises money to print the last issue, exposing all, by placing a huge cockfighting bet. He wins, but then finds the printing presses had been confiscated. Returning to New York, inspired by social injustices, he becomes a successful journalist. Depp said of the Kemp character: "This guy's got something; there's an energy burning underneath it, it's just ready to pop up, shoot out" but the movie wasn't well received, especially by animal rights groups which objected strongly to the actual cock fight scene.

Answer: Hugo

Directed by Martin Scorsese, "Hugo" (2011) is based on Brian Selznick's book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" about a twelve-year-old boy in the 1930s obsessed with cinematography and building an automaton. He lives alone at a Paris railway station after his clockmaker father dies and his alcoholic uncle deserts him.

Despite receiving eleven Academy Award nominations the movie was financially unsuccessful, ostensibly due to competition from Disney's "The Muppets" and Summit's "Breaking Dawn Part 1" but more likely because it was too intellectual, too 'French' and gave too much emphasis to 3D cinematography.

As a movie about a poor orphan boy crawling out of poverty and making good, it was the sort of story that appealed to Depp's deeper emotions and had he appeared in it, the movie might have been more successful.

Answer: Dark Shadows

Televised between 1966 and 1971, "Dark Shadows" was a gothic horror comedy show upon which the 2012 movie of the same name was based. Directed by Tim Burton, Depp plays Barnabas Collins in the movie - a vampire imprisoned in a coffin for nearly two hundred years until workmen unearth him and he returns to his home to find his jealous spurned lover (a witch who had turned him into a vampire and killed his true love) had taken over a business once run by his family.

When he rejects her again, she buries him again - this time in a mausoleum - but one of his descendants frees him only to find the witch had destroyed the family business and turned the townsfolk against him.

A fight ensues, the witch offers her heart again to Barbanas but he refuses it again and it turns to dust. Barnabas is reunited with his true love by biting a girl who looks like her, and they both live happily ever after as vampires.

It was a very funny and entertaining movie and Depp seemed to really enjoy playing the part of his childhood fictional hero. What a sweet, sentimental softie!

Answer: Donnie Brasco

"Donnie Brasco" (1997) was based on the true story of an FBI undercover agent, Joseph D. Pistone (played by Depp). Using the alias Donnie Brasco, Pistone infiltrated the New York City Mafia Bonanno crime family during the 1970s by gaining the confidence of an old gangster called Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero (played by Al Pacino).

As Pistone embraces more and more the Brasco persona and less and less his own, the movie highlights this transformation by frequent scenes of heated arguments between him and his wife.

This aspect of the movie was portrayed brilliantly by Depp. He had to be believable, and he was. The depth of his feeling was shown most poignantly at the end of the movie when his true identity as an FBI undercover agent becomes known and he struggles deeply with the knowledge that he had double-crossed his friend Lefty.

Answer: The Lone Ranger

Depp was also the Executive Producer for "The Lone Ranger" and maintains that playing the part of Tonto was personal. He was on a mission to portray the Native American culture in a better light than that shown in the media. His characterisation of a wizened Comanche elder wearing black-and-white face paint and a dead crow on his head was inspirited by Kirby Sattler's painting entitled "I Am Crow" and was sensational! It's a flashback movie telling the story of how Tonto, as a young man, recruited John Reid (The Lone Ranger) to bring to justice those responsible for massacring his people and terrorising Texan frontier settlers during the 1800s. Directed by Gore Verbinski and based on a radio series, "The Lone Ranger" was a box-office bomb in the USA where few people, it appears, appreciate having their noses rubbed in their murky and racist history, but the rest of the world loved it (even though their histories are just as murky and racist, or worse).

Answer: Mortdecai

At least once in every actor's career he or she needs to break out of the mould in order to preserve sanity, and "Mortdecai" seems to fit that bill for Depp. In the movie Depp plays Lord Charlie Mortdecai, a nasty, swindling art dealer and Gwyneth Paltrow plays his wife. Described as an action comedy movie, produced by Depp and directed by David Koepp, "Mortdecai" has nothing much going for it - other than Depp himself - and its poor reception by critics and box-office patrons was probably deserved. Depp's fans were just not prepared for this departure from his usual movies dealing with social issues, downtrodden characters, vampires and swashbuckling pirates, but his obvious need to try something different further deepens his depth!

Answer: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (2007) won Depp his first Golden Globe Best Actor Award in the Musical or Comedy genre. As well as the three movies stated above as 'wrong' answers, Depp was also nominated for "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), "Benny & Joon" (1993), "Ed Wood" (1994), "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (2006), "Alice in Wonderland" (2010) and "The Tourist" (2010).