Johnny Depp on His HAMLET Dreams

Johnny Depp is back on the big screen this season, this time opposite Angelina Jolie in The Tourist. Depp recently spoke with Vanity Fair's Patti Smith about the new film and his Shakespeare and musical dreams.

Says Depp: "Going into acting was an odd deviation from a particular road that I was on in my late teens, early 20s, because I had no desire, no interest, really, in it at all. I was a musician and I was a guitarist, and that's what I wanted to do." 

With so many accomplishments under his belt, Depp reveals that Shakespeare may be is next challenge: "[Marlon Brando said,] Why don't you just take a year and go and study Shakespeare, or go and study Hamlet. Go and work on Hamlet and play that part. Play that part before you're too old.... So what he was trying to tell me was: play that f-ing part, man. Play that part before you're too long in the tooth. Play it. And I would like to. I'd really, really like to."

To read the full report in Vanity Fair, click here.

Johnny Depp has appeared in Edward Scissorhands, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sleepy Hollow, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. Depp rose to prominence in a lead role on the television series 21 Jump Street. He has collaborated with director and close friend Tim Burton in seven films, the most recent of which are Alice in Wonderland and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007). Depp has garnered acclaim for his portrayals of real life figures such as Edward D. Wood, Jr., in Ed Wood, Joseph D. Pistone in Donnie Brasco, and George Jung in Blow (2001). More recently, he portrayed legendary bank robber John Dillinger in Michael Mann's 2009 film Public Enemies. Films featuring Depp have grossed over $2.6 billion at the United States box office and over $6 billion worldwide. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times, Screen Actors Guild Awards four times and Golden Globe Awards eight times, Depp won the Best Actor Awards from the Golden Globes for his role in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and from the Screen Actors Guild for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.