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Thu 6 August 2026 18:45, UK
Once upon a time, Johnny Depp was a movie star. He hasn’t been one for a long time, and he’ll probably never be one again, but for a while, he was about the biggest the industry had at its disposal.
Ironically, for the first act of his career, Depp didn’t even want to be a movie star. He was enjoying his position as the face of idiosyncratic mid-level cinema, avoiding big-budget blockbusters like the plague in favour of working with a string of well-known auteurs in smaller-scale films.
However, because he looked like a movie star, carried himself like a movie star, and had the necessary charm and charisma that all movie stars inherently possess, it was only a matter of time before he found the right picture that would take his career to the next level, and he eventually found it.
Which is funny, because with the lingering stench of Cutthroat Island still hovering in the air, many people questioned why Disney would spend $140 million on a swashbuckler based on a theme park attraction with Depp in the leading role, with support coming from that guy from The Lord of the Rings and that gal from Bend It Like Beckham.
After Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl became a massive, franchise-spawning hit, landing the leading man his first Academy Award nomination in the process, he was suddenly everywhere. Increased visibility brings increased paycheques, and at one point, Depp was the single highest-paid actor in the business, bar none.
Obviously, his off-screen issues have made those days a thing of the distant past, and absolute shitters like Transcendence, Mortdecai, Alice Through the Looking Glass, and The Lone Ranger didn’t help, but even when he was flying at his highest, he still refused to acknowledge his appointed position.
For all intents and purposes, he was, but when he was asked about his newfound lofty status in 2004, Depp suggested that, compared to the pinnacle of movie stardom, he was basically a nobody. “Movie stars are guys like Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum,” he said. “Those are movie stars. I’m a guy with a strange job.”
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
That’s true, but it’s also the exact same job that Gable, Bogart, and Mitchum had. Clearly, he doesn’t see himself as being in the same league, and in terms of generational appeal, onscreen iconography, and the high esteem they were held in by both their peers and superstar successors, you’d have to say he’s right.
While there’s no such thing as Hollywood’s definitive movie star, the be-all and end-all that everyone wants to aspire true, what can’t be denied is that Depp wouldn’t be anywhere near that conversation, whereas Gable, Bogart, and Mitchum definitely would, so he’s got a point.
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