her voice: movements and gestures, wig, makeup,
eyeglasses, costumes, and props.
On the other side of the acting scale is the
chameleon actor—named for the lizard that can
make quick, frequent changes in its appearance in
response to the environment. Chameleon actors
adapt their look, mannerisms, and delivery to suit
the role. They surprise us as persona actors when
they are cast, as Jack Nicholson or Charlize Theron,
in a role we do not expect—one that extends their
range. Take, for example, Jeff Bridges, who often
looks so different in roles that he’s unrecognizable
at first: Starman/Scott Hayden in John Carpenter’s
Starman(1984), Preston Tucker in Francis Ford
Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988),
Obadiah Stane in John Favreau’s Iron Man(2008),
or Rooster Cogburn in Ethan and Joel Coen’s True
Grit(2010). Indeed, along with such multitalented
colleagues as Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and
Christian Bale, he is a marvel of flexibility.
Johnny Depp, an actor who makes quick and fre-
quent changes in the roles he plays, has reached
star status without any fixed persona. Although
he’s earned the reputation as the ideal nonnatural-
isticactor for such Tim Burton movies as Edward
Scissorhands (1990), Sweeney Todd: The Demon
Barber of Fleet Street(2007), Alice in Wonderland
(2010), and Dark Shadows(2012), he’s also played
an astonishing range of very different roles,
such as Raoul Duke/Hunter S. Thompson in292 CHAPTER 7ACTING
123The versatile Johnny Depp A contemporary actor of
style and substance, Johnny Depp has exhibited impressive
flexibility both in the roles he chooses and the techniques he
employs to convey his characters’ often complex emotional
lives. [1] As Gilbert in Lasse Hallström’s moving drama
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape(1993), he plays a man who
tenderly looks after Arnie (Leonard DiCaprio, left), his
younger brother with a developmental disability. [2] In Mike
Newell’s Donnie Brasco(1997), in a complete change of pace,
Depp plays an FBI agent who, under the alias Donnie
Brasco, infiltrates a New York crime family. Benjamin “Lefty”
Ruggiero (Al Pacino), a minor gang member who’s going
nowhere in the mob, makes Donnie his protégé with the hope
that he’ll be successful. In this image, Lefty tells Donnie
(right) that if he successfully kills an adversary he’ll be a
“made man” (i.e., a full-fledged member of the gang). Donnie
knows that he’s betrayed Lefty and that when this
assignment is over, Lefty will be arrested. Depp masterfully
shows how Donnie undergoes a fascinating psychological
change, slowly becoming attracted to a life of crime rather
than fighting it, but ultimately remaining true to his real
job. Lasse Hallström’s romantic comedy Chocolat(2000) is
a slight tale about two free spirits who find themselves in a
very conservative French village, some of whose inhabitants
regard them as undesirable. Depp is Roux, a roguish, Irish
“river rat,” seen here [3] with Vianne (Juliet Binoche), a
French chocolate maker. Their affair doesn’t amount to much,
but this is a role that Depp was born to play, and he makes
the most of it, Irish accent and all.