Johnny Depp considering retiring from film making

Home»NewsJohnny Depp, 50, will be a loss to the film industry, says Christopher Lee, 91.
Johnny Depp, the Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lone Ranger star, is one of the last real stars still working in films, says Sir Christopher Lee.

(L-R): Johnny Depp and Christopher Lee Photo: PA/REX
By Tim Walker
7:33AM BST 04 Aug 2013
Johnny Depp's announcement that he is “probably not too far away” from quitting the “insane” business of making films has dismayed Sir Christopher Lee, the 50-year-old actor’s friend and frequent collaborator.

“He is one of the major talents in the industry, and, God knows, we need them,” says the distinguished 91-year-old actor, who appeared with Depp in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sleepy Hollow and, most recently, Dark Shadows. “Johnny is a star – and that’s not a term I ever use lightly. There are not a lot of them around today. It makes me sad that such a genuinely talented person is considering giving it all up.”

Sir Christopher says he has never himself contemplated retirement. “There are frustrations – people who lie to you, people who don’t know what they are doing, films that don’t turn out the way you had wanted them to – so, yes, I do understand.

“I always ask myself 'well, what else could I do?’. Making films has never just been a job to me, it is my life. I have some interests outside of acting – I sing and I’ve written books, for instance – but acting is what keeps me going, it’s what I do, it gives life purpose.”

Sir Christopher appears in The Desolation of Smaug – the second of the Hobbit films – in December, and he is waiting, meanwhile, for a UK release date for Night Train to Lisbon, which –“mystifyingly,” he says – “appears to have disappeared without trace”. The film starred Jeremy Irons. “I’m realistic about the amount of work I can get at my age, but I take what I can, even voice-overs and narration”.