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Johnny Depp is a man who laughs in the face of death. While filming his new movie The Rum Diary, the 48-year-old actor took a private plane ride with director Bruce Robinson that nearly ended very, very badly (as in, with a crash). And Depp -- who, after all, has made a career of being unpredictable -- says the experience was actually quite funny in the moment.
"The sound of the engines stopped," Depp recalls in LIVE magazine (via Hollyscoop). "There was silence. Bruce and I were looking at each other and I think I said, 'Is this it?' It was like this weird extended moment when you're just floating for a second and you could feel this unpleasant descent."
"Nobody said a word except for Bruce and I, sitting next to each other saying, 'Oh sh-t! This is death; I guess this is how it goes down,'" says Depp. "Then we burst into hysterical laughter at the idea that this was how we were going to die."
Maybe you had to be there? Thankfully, the engines started back up and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Depp now describes the near-fatal ride as "a big bonding experience" for himself and his director -- probably because "for a moment there, we were going down together."
Perhaps Johnny was able to find joy in the terror because he was channeling his Rum Diary character, based on journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Also the subject of Depp's film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson was known for his dangerous and eccentric behavior. In fact, the first time Depp met Thompson (who committed suicide in 2005), the journalist approached the Oscar winner with a cattle prod in one hand and a taser in the other. Later that night, they admired his shotgun collection and built homemade bombs in his sink.
"I think that was my kind of rite of passage with Hunter," Depp has said. "I think that was my test that I was OK."
It's nice that Johnny Depp has such memorable bonding experiences with his friends -- but maybe it would be safer if he just took them out for coffee? We'd like to see the guy live to make Pirates of the Carribbean 25!
