Being one of the biggest and most notorious actors in the movie business certainly has its upside, but for Johnny Depp, there’s also a downside or two. Depp famously dislikes taking part in the Academy Awards, preferring to give his acting performances and letting them do the talking rather than needlessly go on about them in public.
In fact, whenever the Oscars are mentioned, Depp pretty much always talks them down and disrespects the event. The actor was once tasked with presenting an Academy Award, and the experience looks to have actually put him off from ever returning to the stage or even being awarded one of the highly-coveted prizes.
In an interview with the BBC, Depp said, “I don’t want to win one of those things ever, you know. I don’t want to have to talk.” Evidently, it’s the whole spiel of having to get up on stage and talk rubbish for a few minutes that puts Depp off, and he also doesn’t like being pitted against his fellow actors.
Back in the early 2000s, Depp had still been giving the Academy Awards a chance. He told Movieline about the time he was on stage at the Oscars to introduce some of his heroes in the form of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Still, he admitted to being “uncomfortable with the idea” of having to address a room full of famous people.
“I’m not very good at public speaking, and I didn’t want to make a complete fool of myself,” Depp said. “But somehow, I agreed because I was going to be introducing Neil Young,” he added. “It was so weird. And then they wanted me to read this endless speech about the importance of music in film, and I thought, they don’t want to hear this shit from me. So I just said two sentences, and then I said, ‘Please welcome Neil Young’. Then I left immediately.”
The experience was almost too much to bear for Depp, and he ended up chain-smoking until he nearly had a “nicotine seizure”. The escape from the event was not an easy one to make, though, as Depp’s limousine was missing and, apparently, the driver was out getting drunk somewhere, expecting the actor to be at the ceremony all evening.
There was another option, and Depp and his agent took it in good faith. “So we actually stole Harrison Ford’s limousine!” Depp explained. “We told his driver, ‘Listen, there’s still another hour and a half left to this thing. Just take us to the hotel, and then you can come back. He’ll still be here.’ All in all, it was an awful experience.” So Depp can always thank Ford for giving him an easy exit from the awards ceremony he hates so much.