Johnny Depp on the Inspiration for the Character of Victor: Depp said he wasn’t thinking of anyone in particular when he began working on his character in “Corpse Bride.” “No. Not particularly, no. I was just trying to save my own ass basically for being ill prepared. Tim [Burton] was so helpful - as he always is. He's a character that's not so far away from other characters that I've played in the past for Tim, like Edward Scissorhands or a little bit of an outsider. A bumbling, deeply insecure nervous character. A lot like me in life.”
Johnny Depp Identifies with Victor: “Yeah. Feeling like a failure I suppose. Feeling inept, unable to be understood. That's a pretty consistent theme in a lot of people's lives. But it's like Victor kind of represented, in the same way that 'Scissorhands' did, that emotion of not quite feeling comfortable in life. It's that universal emotion of growing up, really, that we all drag around with us for the rest of our days.”
Johnny Depp on the Land of the Dead in “Corpse Bride:” “Well, Tim explained it really beautifully earlier, and so I'll butcher it but he'll fix it for me. It's the idea that in life there is this kind of constant fear and obsession with death and the mystery of what death is and all of that, to the point of where people are unbelievably tense about arriving there, even though we all know we're going to arrive there at some point. In fact, the land of the living in this thing is sort of super uptight and grey and heavy as a place and going down to the land of the dead where it could be heaven or hell or it could be purgatory, and it's like 1920s Paris. Flappers and craziness. I thought that it was pretty amazing.”
Johnny Depp on Working with Tim Burton: Depp said he hopes he’ll get to work with Burton in the future. “It's all up to him whether he gives me the job. Working with Tim, I've said it before, but it's the only analogy that works. Working with Tim is really like going home for me. It's this place that's very comfortable even with the knowledge that there's a lot of risks that have to be taken and you have to really be prepared to explore. But there is great comfort there and there is great safety there.”
Johnny Depp and Tim Burton – How the Relationship Functions: “It's always been, with Tim and I, aside from 'Scissorhands' which was kind of a general meeting, but after that you get these sort of mysterious phone calls out of nowhere after sometimes months, sometimes years. And he'll say, 'What are you doing?' 'Nothing. I'm just hanging around.' 'Can you meet me for dinner next week?' 'Sure. Where?' 'New York.' 'Okay.' 'Okay. I'll see you then.' 'Okay.' I mean, there's no subject. There's no project. There's nothing. It's just like, 'Okay. I'm going to go see Tim in a week.' It's always been like that.”
Does He Consider Himself Tim Burton’s Muse?: “No. For me, I see myself as just a very, very lucky boy who's been drafted to come along for the ride. I would say that the fact that he's chosen me these last times to interpret these characters is either great luck or a huge mistake on his part. No. I think that it's just that we're good friends and we understand each other. We have a similar sense of humor. A similar background. Similar fascinations. So I just feel really lucky. I felt lucky after 'Scissorhands.'”
On Playing Characters for Tim Burton that are Reflections of Himself: “Oh, I think that they definitely are to some degree. Reflections of me, too, but certainly the seed starts with Tim. I think that Edward Scissorhands was a character that Tim started drawing when he was a teenager and then that developed over the years, and clearly it's him. I think that there is a lot of Tim in this character. Quite a bit.”
Page 2: Johnny Depp on Box Office Success, Transforming for Roles, and Marlon Brando's Advice
