Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#370
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Johnny Depp represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 42 years in, and Johnny is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Johnny Depp appears in 71 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Johnny. Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary is the clearest case: a film rated 9.7 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for music, documentary, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Ti West, Sam Wrench, Alex Rudzinski and others, Johnny Depp helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary (2025) · I Am a Mutoid: A Glastonbury Hero (2021) as Self (Archive Footage) · Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan (2020) as Self (archive footage)
Career snapshot
Ranked #370 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
71
1984–2026
Career length
42 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.7
Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
9.7
Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary
Most frequent director
Tim Burton
8 films together
Longest collaboration
8×
With Tim Burton
Most common genre
Drama
31 titles
Average runtime
1h 54m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.0
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1980s
7.6 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Platoon, A Nightmare on Elm Street — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.6
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.6
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Platoon, A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Most productive era
2010s
24 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.71 film | 7.011 films | 6.88 films | 6.46 films | 5.65 films |
| Action | 7.71 film | 6.21 film | 7.44 films | 6.26 films | — |
| Thriller | — | 6.46 films | 6.53 films | 6.04 films | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.87 films | 7.12 films | 6.010 films | 0.01 film |
| Crime | — | 6.82 films | 6.83 films | 6.35 films | — |
| Romance | — | 7.25 films | 6.74 films | 6.21 film | 6.91 film |
| Horror | 7.51 film | 6.43 films | 7.02 films | 5.12 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Glen Lantz.
First Nutevio masterpiece
2021I Am a Mutoid: A Glastonbury Hero
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2025Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary
9.7 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026Ebenezer
The current state of the argument, as Ebenezer Scrooge.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
71 of 71 films
as Self (Archive Footage)
Directed by Unknown
as Jack Sparrow
Directed by Gore Verbinski
as Edward Scissorhands
Directed by Tim Burton
as Self (archive footage)
Directed by Unknown
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary
Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary (2025)
Performance score9.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. The role gives Johnny Depp a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Self (Archive Footage)
I Am a Mutoid: A Glastonbury Hero (2021)
Performance score8.9
I Am a Mutoid: A Glastonbury Hero asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self (Archive Footage) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Jack Sparrow
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Performance score8.6
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jack Sparrow is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Performance score8.4
Edward Scissorhands asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Edward Scissorhands is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
Start here. Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary is the clearest statement of what Johnny Depp does — accessible, 253 minutes, and rated 9.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Johnny at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
A deliberate change of key after Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Keeps the fantasy register of Edward Scissorhands but asks for a colder reading of it.
Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan (2020)
A deliberate change of key after Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
I Am a Mutoid: A Glastonbury Hero (2021)
Same director as Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Tim Burton
Director
8 films together
Notably Edward Scissorhands
Gore Verbinski
Director
5 films together
Notably Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Lasse Hallström
Director
2 films together
Notably What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Terry Gilliam
Director
2 films together
Notably Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Rob Marshall
Director
2 films together
Notably Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
David Koepp
Director
2 films together
Notably Secret Window
Kevin Smith
Director
2 films together
Notably Tusk
David Yates
Director
2 films together
Notably Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Wes Craven
Director
1 film together
Notably A Nightmare on Elm Street
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably Platoon
John Waters
Director
1 film together
Notably Cry-Baby
Rachel Talalay
Director
1 film together
Notably Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Emir Kusturica
Director
1 film together
Notably Arizona Dream
Jeremiah S. Chechik
Director
1 film together
Notably Benny & Joon
Jeremy Leven
Director
1 film together
Notably Don Juan DeMarco
John Badham
Director
1 film together
Notably Nick of Time
Jim Jarmusch
Director
1 film together
Notably Dead Man
Johnny Depp
Director
1 film together
Notably The Brave
Mike Newell
Director
1 film together
Notably Donnie Brasco
Rand Ravich
Director
1 film together
Notably The Astronaut's Wife
Roman Polanski
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ninth Gate
Albert Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably From Hell
Ted Demme
Director
1 film together
Notably Blow
Robert Rodriguez
Director
1 film together
Notably Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Marc Forster
Director
1 film together
Notably Finding Neverland
Michael Mann
Director
1 film together
Notably Public Enemies
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Director
1 film together
Notably The Tourist
Bruce Robinson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Rum Diary
Phil Lord
Director
1 film together
Notably 21 Jump Street
Wally Pfister
Director
1 film together
Notably Transcendence
Scott Cooper
Director
1 film together
Notably Black Mass
James Bobin
Director
1 film together
Notably Alice Through the Looking Glass
Espen Sandberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Kenneth Branagh
Director
1 film together
Notably Murder on the Orient Express
John Stevenson
Director
1 film together
Notably Sherlock Gnomes
Ciro Guerra
Director
1 film together
Notably Waiting for the Barbarians
Andrew Levitas
Director
1 film together
Notably Minamata
Soleil Moon Frye
Director
1 film together
Notably kid 90
Alex Rudzinski
Director
1 film together
Notably Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 4
Sam Wrench
Director
1 film together
Notably Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary
Ti West
Director
1 film together
Notably Ebenezer
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Tim Burton
Director
8 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 8 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Edward ScissorhandsGore Verbinski
Director
5 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black PearlLasse Hallström
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
What's Eating Gilbert GrapeDavid Yates
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find ThemTerry Gilliam
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Fear and Loathing in Las VegasRob Marshall
Director
2 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger TidesDavid Koepp
Director
2 films together · 6.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Secret WindowKevin Smith
Director
2 films together · 5.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
TuskSam Wrench
Director
1 film together · 9.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th AnniversaryOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PlatoonMike Newell
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Donnie BrascoWes Craven
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Nightmare on Elm StreetTed Demme
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BlowMarc Forster
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Finding NeverlandJim Jarmusch
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dead ManEmir Kusturica
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Arizona DreamSoleil Moon Frye
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
kid 90Jeremiah S. Chechik
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Benny & JoonAndrew Levitas
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MinamataPhil Lord
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
21 Jump StreetAlex Rudzinski
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 4Michael Mann
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Public EnemiesJeremy Leven
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Don Juan DeMarcoKenneth Branagh
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Murder on the Orient ExpressEspen Sandberg
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No TalesAlbert Hughes
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
From HellJames Bobin
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Alice Through the Looking GlassRoman Polanski
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Ninth GateScott Cooper
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Black MassJohn Waters
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cry-BabyRobert Rodriguez
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Once Upon a Time in MexicoFlorian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The TouristJohn Badham
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Nick of TimeWally Pfister
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TranscendenceJohnny Depp
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The BraveCiro Guerra
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Waiting for the BarbariansBruce Robinson
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Rum DiaryJohn Stevenson
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sherlock GnomesRand Ravich
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Astronaut's WifeRachel Talalay
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Freddy's Dead: The Final NightmareTi West
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EbenezerSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan
as Self (archive footage)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Edward Scissorhands
as Edward Scissorhands
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 4
as Self (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Johnny Depp has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
42 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
31 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Jeanne du Barry
as Louis XV
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Sleepy Hollow
as Ichabod Crane
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Andrea Bocelli - The Celebration：30th Anniversary
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Lone Ranger
as Tonto
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Rango
as Rango / Lars (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
as Jack Sparrow
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Ted Levine
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
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Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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