Johnny Depp is determined not to repeat his parents’ mistakes, says Brian Hiatt in Rolling Stone. Although the actor split last year from Vanessa Paradis, the mother of his two children, he remains a devoted father. “With my kids, they’re told 75 times a day that they’re loved,” he says. By contrast, Depp had what he calls “a relatively violent upbringing. If you did something wrong, you got hit. If you didn’t do something wrong, you got hit.” His home life was chaos, with his family constantly moving around the U.S. to escape the bailiffs. His civil engineer father and waitress mother “went into, like, a quadruple bankruptcy every Christmas.” Depp, 50, is now rich enough that he need never worry about money again. But his nomadic youth still troubles him. “When it’s time to pack, even to go on vacation, I’m a wreck, man,” he says. “Because it reminds me so much of having to move all the time. There are films that I still haven’t unpacked from. Somewhere in a storage locker I know I’ve still got a suitcase from [1990’s] Edward Scissorhands and Cry-Baby. These little time capsules just laying there because I couldn’t deal with it.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.