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Johnny Depp on Box Office Success: ?I've learned to sort of condition myself to not have any expectations in terms of box office or result, to that degree, because as you all well know as well I do that kind of thing escaped me for many, many years. So it's relatively a new experience to have more than a few people go and see my films, but it's very exciting.

I literally, that whole part of the process is so foreign to me and so distant that I literally, maybe two or three weeks ago, called my agent Tracy and said, 'Is ?Charlie? doing okay?' She said, 'Yeah.

It looks like it's going to cross the $200 million mark domestically.' I didn't know what that meant and I said, 'Well, is that good?' She said, 'Yeah. It's very good. Don't worry.??

Depp admitted that while he isn?t aware of exactly how each one of his films is performing, he is definitely aware of the impact his recent success has had on the film industry. ?I've noticed a bit of a change and I've noticed certainly a change in the attitude towards me from the upper echelon of the industry, which is pretty interesting,? said Depp.

Depp said the change doesn?t mean that everyone wants him in their movies now, but it does help directors ? like Tim Burton ? get approval from the studio to cast him in their projects without having to do a song and dance act to get them to agree. ?Like, for example, Tim ? every time that Tim wanted to cast me in his films, he had to fight like a bastard with the studio to be able to cast me. He was telling me today that the funny thing was he sat down with the Warner's people who came to see him in London and said, 'Lets talk about cast.' Tim said, 'Yeah, let?s talk about cast.' And they went, 'What do you think of Johnny?' Tim said that he was like, 'Yeah, okay.

Good.' So the fact that they brought it up was good. Astonishing. It surprised him.?

Johnny Depp on the Challenge of Transforming for Roles: ?It's easier to play a puppet. No. Any actor with a semblance of sanity or insanity, probably our biggest fear is to go anywhere near who you are. It's okay to use certain truths.

It is a great challenge and I've kind of touched on it here or there with more sort of character type parts like 'The Libertine' coming up. But, yeah, it is a great challenge. Just more than anything I'm kind of interested in exploring one area and then saying, 'Alright. That's territory covered. Let?s see what happens next and where I can go next.'

I do have that voice of Marlon [Brando] reverberating in there. I have Marlon's words reverberating in there. One time he said to me, 'How many films do you do a year?' I said, 'I don't know. Two or three.' He said, 'You've got to watch yourself.' I said, 'Why's that?' He said, 'Because we only have so many faces in our pocket.' You get to a certain point and you've played all these different characters you start going, 'My God, he really was right.' But I don't know. One of the luxuries for an actor, one of the joys of the gig is that you get to observe people and by observing people you sort of find these little traits, these interesting little things that people do and you go, 'Oh, I'll have a bit of that. I'll have a bit of that.' And you just store it up and save it for later because you'll never know when you'll need it.?

On Fame and Being Able to Observe People: ?Yeah, that's the rub. That's the rub. That's one of the sort of occupational hazards because you want to be the observer and then suddenly you walk into a room and everyone goes, 'Isn't that that guy? What's his name?' Yeah, that's one of the dangers, but there are still ways to sort of do it. I mean, you can still kind of do it from afar.

What's fascinating for me is like the idea that you can watch the straightest couple in the world ? really straight laced, a super conservative couple having a meal or whatever and if you watch them for long enough you'll realize that they're absolutely insane. I mean they are insane. It's the things that we do that are insane. It's really fascinating.?

Johnny Depp on the Most Important Form of Validation: ?The thing for me that's most touching is that a couple of the people who have been with me have stuck with me since the early days. One being my agent, Tracey Jacobs. She really believed in me. You can hear the violin's starting. But she really believed in me when no one else did. I mean, they wouldn't even look at me and Tracey was always there. I didn't believe in me and she did. But more than anything, it's those kids, and I don't like the word fan ? I don't like to refer to anyone as a fan ? but the kids outside the movie theater. The kids who go and watch these things and the kids who have stuck with me on a very long, lengthy, strange, bumpy road. That's what means the most. They're the people who keep me employed. So I kind of look at them like they're my boss.?

Page 3:Johnny Depp on the Sequels to "Pirates of the Caribbean" and Playing Jack Sparrow Again