JohnnyDepp-Zone.com

In an honor sure to mortify its recipient, Johnny Depp was voted the #1 Hottest Hunk of the summer in a viewer poll taken by ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT. “Stay tuned for the unlikely choice for number one,” said the ET announcer at the opening of the show; no doubt conventional wisdom would have predicted one of the summer’s action heroes rather than the pale, fragile, socially inept Willy Wonka. But no matter how Johnny transforms himself onscreen, he can’t hide his appeal. After the parade of action hero-hunks had run its course, the chocolatier in the velvet coat and top hat nabbed the top spot. Thanks to Intodadepps for posting the ET results on the News & Views forum!

Although Johnny Depp loves living on his Caribbean island–“The house is [. . .]very rustic and true to the surroundings. Very simple structures and very simple life there, but it’s beautiful”–he always refers to it as “the” island. “I have difficulty saying ‘my’ before that word,” he told interviewer Ruben V. Nepales modestly. “I’ve always enjoyed the water and being on the ocean so that has been a consistent theme in my life. At the end of filming the first PIRATES movie, there was a part of me thinking, ‘God, hope I get to see this [the Caribbean] again.'”

Regarding Willy Wonka’s distinctive look, Johnny confided that once again his friend Tim Burton quashed his hopes of altering his appearance by wearing “a long prosthetic nose.” “[A]s soon as Tim and I got together, one of the first things he said to me was, ‘You’re not going to wear a prosthetic nose, right?'” As for Wonka’s extreme pallor, that comes from his isolation within the factory. “It’s almost as if he hasn’t seen the sun in many years. That’s where that pasty look came from [. . .] .” And the unusual purple eyes? “In the book, Roald Dahl mentioned twinkling eyes,” Johnny explained. “We checked out a bunch of different colors for contact lenses. I saw these lavender ones and popped them in. They were perfect.” The sparkling white teeth connect to Wonka’s family history: “[B]ecause his dad was a dentist, I thought that he would have perfect, too-white teeth.”

Asked to explain what events led to him becoming “one of the top actors around,” Johnny burst into laughter. “Someone made a mistake somewhere. After the release of PIRATES, I started meeting people on the street, 5-year-olds, 70-year-olds, who would say, ‘I really liked Captain Jack Sparrow.’ Or, ‘I really like BENNY & JOON.’ It has given new life to these other films that I did that made about $3.75 at the box office,” Johnny confided. “I really don’t know what happened but I am not going to question it.”

The Zone thanks theresa for posting the interview on the News & Views forum, and for the Showbiz Tonight screencap at left. You can see a larger version of the picture HERE. Be sure to read the full interview–don’t miss Johnny’s account of his visit to Lily-Rose’s kindergarten class!