Johnny Depp reveals Willy Wonka inspiration

Johnny Depp says his Willy Wonka was informed by an ex-US president on drugs

Most people assumed Johnny Depp’s love-it-or-hate performance as Willy Wonka in Tim Burton’s ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ was informed by Michael Jackson.



Not so, according to the man himself, who revealed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show the real inspiration for the wacky confectionery magnate.

He said that after reading the first 10 pages of a script, he'll hit "certain ingredients you add to these characters".

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He continued: "Willy Wonka, for example, I imagined what George Bush would be like incredibly stoned.”

We're not sure he really nailed it to be honest.

And for his iconic turn as lonely man-boy Edwards Scissorhands?

"Scissorhands was a combination, the idea of a newborn seeing things for the first time and also a dog that I'd had... There was this unconditional love and purity in my dog."

It’s the sort of nonsense only a superstar as talented and handsome as Depp could get away with.

In Tim Burton's forthcoming 'Dark Shadows' he plays vampire Baranabas Collins, who is dug up in 1972 after being buried for almost 200 years.