Johnny Depp Once Considered Retiring After Questioning His Acting Career as an ‘Insane Option’
Johnny Depp has contributed a lot to the film industry thanks to his extensive filmography over the years. And though Depp has shown no signs of slowing down in his field, the actor once flirted with the idea of early retirement.
What Johnny Depp hates most about acting
Acting wasn’t something Depp had an inherent passion for when he was younger. During his childhood years, Depp’s tastes leaned more towards music.
“I’ve been a musician since I was little,” Depp once said in an interview with Jonesy’s Jukebox. “I have played since I was 12. I started playing clubs when I was like 13 in Miami.”
But eventually, Depp fell into acting because it was the only way to financially support both himself and his music aspirations.
“I needed to pay rent. Somebody said, ‘Why don’t you go meet an agent. My agent is with Nick Cage,’ so she sent me on an audition for something and I got it,” he said.
After his band broke up, Depp would decide to pursue acting full time. It was a lucrative decision on Depp’s part, as it put him on the path to becoming a Hollywood success.
Depp would soon develop the same passion and appreciation for acting that he has for his music. But as much as he enjoys the craft, there’s one part of acting that Depp can’t stand. Depp has always enjoyed the process of filmmaking and getting a movie made. But he’s not too pleased with what comes after the movie’s finished.
“The drag is all the hoopla that happens after. Like, when a film opens,” Depp said. “That’s the part I hate.”
Johnny Depp considered retiring from acting after realizing it was an insane option for him
Despite Depp’s love of acting, there has been a time when he seriously contemplated bowing out of Hollywood’s spotlight. In his 2013 interview with BBC, he couldn’t provide a definitive retirement date. But at the time, he felt his retirement was coming sooner rather than later.
“I wouldn’t say that I’m dropping out any second,” Depp said. “But I would say it’s probably not too far away.”
The motivation behind his retirement came when he reevaluated his career. Eventually, Depp questioned the very concept of acting.
“At a certain point, you start thinking, and when you add up the amount of dialogue that you say per year, for example, and you realize that you’ve said written words more than you’ve actually had a chance to say your own words, you start thinking of that as a kind of insane option for a human being,” he explained. “So, are there quieter things that I wouldn’t mind doing? Yeah.”
What Johnny Depp would end up doing after retiring from acting
Depp already had a plan in mind for how he would spend his post-Hollywood days. In a resurfaced interview with Rolling Stone, the Fantastic Beasts star simply imagined just living life.
“Really living life,” Depp said. “And going somewhere where you don’t have to be on the run, or sneak in through the kitchen or the underground labyrinth of the hotel. At a certain point, when you get old enough or get a few brain cells back, you realize that, on some level, you lived a life of a fugitive.”
