Johnny Depp has captivated audiences for decades with his ability to fully inhabit the eccentric characters he portrays on screen. From the mad hatter in Alice in Wonderland to pirate Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, Depp is known for losing himself completely in his roles. His total commitment to character is legendary among fans and fellow actors alike.
In a revealing new interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Depp shed light on one of the quirky rituals he uses to help slip into character, especially for scenes involving sensuality or intimacy. “I have to eat a lot of garlic before those scenes,” Depp confessed. “It really helps me get into the right headspace.”
While eating raw garlic may seem like an odd acting technique, it’s just one of the many ways Depp has discovered to tap into a character on a deeper, more visceral level. For Depp, the pungent garlic breath puts him in touch with a more primal, embodied sense of self, allowing his inhibitions to fall away.
“The garlic helps me feel more confident and sensual,” Depp explained. “It also helps me lose my inhibitions.”
Depp traced this ritual back to early in his career, when he was cast as a romantic lead and struggled with doing intimate scenes. “I was so nervous that my breath would smell or that I would seem awkward that I could barely get through the scenes,” he said.
On the advice of a fellow actor, he tried eating garlic before filming a love scene, and found it had a profound effect on his performance. “It was like a switch went off and I suddenly felt this power and machismo. I felt sexy and daring instead of nervous.”
Ever since that early experience, Depp has made a tradition of ingesting copious amounts of raw garlic before playing any character requiring him to perform intimate or sensual scenes on camera. Over decades of filming, he has developed a seasoned garlic palate.
“You have to eat a lot of it for the full effect,” Depp noted. “Just one clove isn’t going to cut it. I’m talking a full bulb or two, chopped up fine and swallowed down quickly.”
Depp has inspired other actors to try the pungent technique as well, though not all have had the same fortitude to endure the unpleasant breath and body odor that lingers afterwards. Depp shrugs off those drawbacks, saying the benefits for his performances outweigh the social costs.
“To really inhabit a character, you have to be willing to take risks and go all in,” Depp said firmly. “If that means having garlic breath for a few days, so be it.”
The garlic ritual is just one aspect of Depp’s famously immersive approach to acting. Over the years, he has fully embraced whatever is needed psychologically, physically and emotionally to embody a role.
For his Academy Award nominated turn as Captain Jack Sparrow, Depp lived for months as a pirate, speaking and behaving like Sparrow even when not on set. He says the garlic practice helps unlock that sense of living completely as the character.
Depp’s talent for transforming himself is part of why his fans find him so captivating. In film after film, he disappears completely into the role, often rendering himself unrecognizable under layers of makeup, wigs, costumes and adoptive behaviors.
While other actors rely more on surface techniques like accents, costumes and gestures to construct a character, Depp marinates his very soul in the psyche of the person he’s portraying. He taps into modes of being so different from his own that he risks getting lost in strange personas.
“Once you’ve really become someone else, it can be tough to find your way back,” Depp admitted. “I try to mind the balance, but slipping out of character doesn’t always come easily.”
Depp refers to a period after filming Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas when he says he “lost sight of where Johnny ended and Hunter S. Thompson began.” He credits his children for helping him re-center himself and distinguish reality from acting again.
Still, Depp pursues total transformation without reservation. “The more layers I shed of my own identity, the closer I can get to my character’s core,” he said. This raw vulnerability enables him to access the full spectrum of human emotions needed for highly convincing performances.
By stripping down his sense of self and inhibitions, Depp allows room for a character’s essence to take over. Garlic is one device in his kit for crossing that threshold into uninhibited expression. But even more important is Depp’s courage to explore his own darkness through his art.
“All the most inspiring characters have deep pain inside,” Depp said. “To portray that honestly, you have to be willing to go to those painful places yourself.”
