Johnny Depp on cover of the January 2008 issue of ESQUIRE

ESQUIRE Magazine starts 2008 with some fireworks–a great new Mark Hom photo of Johnny Depp on their January cover, and a joint interview of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton by Cal Fussman inside. “Burton and Depp are known as two of the strangest, quietest geniuses ever to work in movies,” Fussman begins. “Turns out they’re not that strange. Or quiet.” Fussman presents his subjects in their own words, offering a series of quotes from Johnny and Tim, like a question-and-answer session with the questions omitted. Johnny tells Fussman, “My life is my life because of Tim. Definitely.” He also tells Fussman about the convoluted way in which he was asked to become godfather to Tim Burton’s son with Helena Bonham Carter, Billy Ray.

Tim Burton philosophizes about the director’s lot, and how critical perceptions of his work tend to change over time: “When I did Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, it was on several of the ten-worst-movies-of-the-year lists. Then, a few years later, the same critics who put it on those lists looked back and called it a classic. And I go, ‘What are you talking about? You said it was one of the ten worst movies of the year. Now it’s a classic?’ So you learn that things have a way of balancing themselves out.”

Many thanks to Coruscate for breaking the news and also to addicted2depp for posting scans of the article. You can read the entire article on the Zone’s News & Views forum. To see a larger version of the ESQUIRE cover, click here: http://tinyurl.com/2rlxah –Part-Time Poet