Johnny Depp Proves He’s Oscar Worthy In ‘Black Mass’
https://youtu.be/pwKV4vS4Rn4
Johnny Depp is one of the most versatile and unconventional actors in Hollywood. Depp has portrayed odd characters such as Edward Scissorhands, Willy Wonka, the Mad Hatter, the Big Bad Wolf, and Jack Sparrow. These are beloved characters (well maybe not the Big Bad Wolf) of Depp’s fans. His portrayal of Whitey Bulger in Black Mass is not his first turn at dark and evil; Depp has played a demon barber (Sweeney Todd), a psychotic, delusional killer (The Secret Window), John Dillinger (Public Enemy), and as a drug dealer (Blow). However, his transformation into Whitey Bulger is his most chilling performance to date. Black Mass is also Depp’s biggest box office hit in awhile, not considering Into the Woods.
Johnny Depp's new movie #BlackMass is his biggest opening in several years: http://t.co/vdBShvQKRo pic.twitter.com/OTSIZsnW3Z
— JustJared.com (@JustJared) September 24, 2015
Whitey Bulger is a new persona that Depp has fully embraced as shown in the featurette above. Depp is completely transformed and almost becomes an entirely new person. There is a lot of controversy about Depp’s portrayal of Bulger, but Depp has once again completely immersed himself into a film character. This time, he really does become that character. You don’t see Johnny Depp at all. In fact, if I hadn’t known this was Depp, I would not have even guessed who this person was.
Depp has won countless awards from shows such as People’s Choice Awards, MTV Movie Awards, and the Golden Globes. He has been nominated for the Oscars a few times, but he has never won. The internet has sparked a lot of conversation about whether Depp should win an Oscar for Black Mass. From his chilling portrayal of Bulger in Black Mass, Depp has a very good chance of winning. After all, Denzel Washington won his first Oscar for his turn at the dark side portraying the corrupt cop Alonzo Harris in Training Day. Does it take an actor to turn completely dark in order to win an Oscar? If so, Depp might just get his Oscar yet!
Whatever the outcome of the Academy Awards, Depp has once again shown that he can do anything. Johnny definitely deserves an Oscar for this performance, and he has proven that he is very much Oscar-worthy. Why does Depp enjoy performing in makeup and costume so much? He recently spoke to the Daily Beast about why he dons makeup and costumes in film. He was talking about being the “poster boy” on 21 Jump Street and how it didn’t suit him.
“I was stuck in a TV series that was—you know, not to bite the hand that fed me, it put me on the map, so to speak—but it was very frustrating because you realize you end up saying more of someone else’s words in the span of a year than you get to say your own, especially when they’re badly written words,” Depp said. “My heroes were John Barrymore, Lon Chaney Sr., and certainly Marlon Brando, Timothy Carey, John Garfield—all of these guys who would transform. So I suppose it was just an obsession; I always wanted to try to be a character actor more than the ‘poster boy’ they tried to make me more than a hundred years ago. Aside from what it does for me, I think that an actor has some degree of responsibility with regard to their audience to change—to give them something different, to give them something new—each time.”
Johnny Depp definitely gives us something new each time he appears on film. Depp is also known for his ability to ad-lib his characters, such as Jack Sparrow. Apparently he does that because of what he said in the quote above. Depp is definitely a one of a kind actor.
[Image via Warner Bros. Pictures]
