Johnny Depp Thinking About Retirement?

[Mitch Henessey]

LONDON -- Johnny Depp stirred up the U.K. press corps Monday, telling the BBC that he's "probably not too far away" from quitting acting.

Depp, talking to BBC Breakfast ahead of the U.K. rollout of The Lone Ranger in British cinemas on Aug. 9, said while he isn't going to be "dropping out any second," he's mulling over retirement from screen work.

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The star, who recently told Rolling Stone magazine he was thinking of ending his acting career, said he recently added up all the words he says per year and realized that he says more dialog written by others than his own personal utterances. "You start thinking about that as kind of an insane option for a human being," he added.

Depp, a global A-lister, always attracts a media frenzy when he's on the road pushing his latest release.

He said he would like to focus on "quieter" pursuits soon, without revealing what those might be.

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His comments to the BBC were picked up all around the world, making the news as far afield as TVNZ in New Zealand.

Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer will be hoping that Depp and his headline-grabbing retirement threats provide a box office bump to The Lone Ranger as it hits international screens after being declared a flop at the U.S. box office by industry analysts and casual commentators alike.

Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski have worked with Depp regularly, having brought the highly lucrative The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise to the screen together.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/johnny-depp-not-far-giving-594878

The retirement talk starts at 2:19

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I think you could take this with a grain of salt. Even with the comments coming from Depp himself, I'm always skeptical of an actor or actress announcing a possible retirement. Jodie Foster is always on and off about wanting to call it quits with acting, but I have a feeling some big paychecks changed her mind over the years. I can't imagine anything being too different with Depp. He's made a shitload of money off of Jack Sparrow, and the Pirates films. In fact, his portrayal of Sparrow in Black Pearl earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor (the other two Oscar noms in Depp's entire career for Best Actor come from Sweeney Todd and Finding Neverland). And like him or not, Depp is still one of the more popular actors in Hollywood, so he'll have his fanbase no matter what.

Although, I can't say I've enjoyed too much of Depp's recent films. Shit, the last high quality Depp films were Finding Neverland and Secret Window in 2004. And you can throw Sweeney Todd in there. Plus, Dead Man's Chest and The Curse Of The Black Pearl were enjoyable popcorn flicks.

But let's face it. Depp's been dishing out mediocre and shit films for years now. At World's End is easily the worst Pirates film for my money, and On Stranger Tides was somehwat better, but nothing to really brag about. But The Tourist, The Rum Diary, and Dark Shadows? Awful, awful films. Alice In Wonderland is still a mystery to me. I have the damn thing on DVD, and there are times when I enjoy it, but other times, I have to shut it off, because the zany bullshit drives me nuts. As far as The Longer Ranger goes, I actually liked it. Good mindless fun, but 2+ hours feels like 3+ hours or more.

With all that said, I think it's safe to say Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Donnie Brasco, Eating Gilbert Grape, Blow, or Edward Scissorhands Johnny Depp is gone, and he's not coming back. Depp is at the point in his career, where he'll be able to cash-in off of his name value and star power alone. He can put everything on cruise control, but I believe the retirement stuff, when I actually see it.

Any thoughts on Johnny Depp's career and his potential retirement?

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Johnny Depp has always been one of my favorite actors. Captain Jack Sparrow made Pirates of the Caribbean. His first feature film was in my favorite horror franchise. He's just so good at playing character roles. Shoot, him and Tim Burton have to be best friends by now, you'd think.

All that said, I'd have no problems with this. He's done so much. You'd think at some point he'd want to live it up with all the millions he's made.

Now do I think he's really going to retire soon? Probably not. But at least now if he does I won't be surprised.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Eh, it's hard to take a lot of what actors say seriously when so much of what they do, say and talk about is planned out by press agents. This is obviously something that Depp & his people had to know would generate a good deal of buzz. Over the course of his career thus far, Depp has acted in more than 50 different films since the mid 80s, he's one numerous film critic awards, he's won 11 People's Choice Awards, 4 MTV Movie Awards, 1 Golden Globe Award with 9 other nominations, 3 Academy Award nominations and has been a major box office draw for more than a decade.

Depp is known for doing a lot of movies that are kind of artsy and he's really only been thought of as a major and consistent box office player for the past decade or so. I don't mean that in a negative way or anything, only that most of Depp's films haven't been mega, big budget blockbusters When you tally the various revenue generated by his biggest movies since the first Pirates film, his movies have made a good $5 to $6 billion worldwide; not counting DVD sales & rentals.

At only 50 years of age, it's hard for me to imagine Depp just deciding to walk away from a lucrative career. If I'm not mistaken, he's contracted for at least one more Pirates film due out in 2015. But, at the same time, it's not impossible. Barring severe illness or accident or foul play; Depp has a very long life ahead of him and it certainly can't be argued that he hasn't had an amazing film career. After all, what's left to do when you've done damn near everything?