BREAKING NEWS–Johnny Depp named Best Actor at the 2006 Empire Awards!

Johnny Depp won Best Actor at the 2006 Sony Ericsson Empire Awards on Monday, March 13th, for his portrayal of eccentric candymaker Willy Wonka in Tim Burton’s CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. Johnny was not present in London to accept his award, but he did send one of his tongue-in-cheek video acceptance speeches. The clip was evidently filmed in the Bahamas at the same time Johnny did his interview for the CBS SUNDAY MORNING feature on Tim Burton; Johnny is wearing the “escape. travel. live.” tee shirt from Island Company (available HERE) and his skull-and-crossbones bandanna, and the setting is identical.

After shooing an impostor (and his dog) out of his chair, Johnny thanks the voters for the award and declares himself “honored, certainly . . . touched.” He adds, “I think it’s absolutely mad that you gave it to me–but anyway, I appreciate it.” Members can see the acceptance speech on the Zone’s Video Clips forum; thanks very much to emma and to dharma_bum for posting the video. A full listing of Empire Awards winners is available on the News & Views forum; the Zone thanks Poppet for breaking the news.

The Zone congratulates Johnny Depp on his Best Actor Empire Award–well deserved, as always! We also congratulate Johnny’s co-star in THE LIBERTINE, Kelly Reilly, who won the BEST NEWCOMER award.