Johnny Depp makes us smile from time to time with stories of his generosity and kind heart like this one from 2009 when the TV show “This American Life” approached him to voice the thoughts of a severely disabled man who was not able to read them himself.
Mike Philips, who was in his mid twenties at that time, has SMA (spinal muscular atrophy) and he needs a computer to communicate with other people. This disease attacks the muscles, including those used for breathing and swallowing. The show required Mike’s point of view, but he said that he would like to have either Edward Norton or Johnny Depp expressing his thoughts.
Mike Philips with Karen, his mother.
When Ira Glass, the producer and host for the show asked him “Who should we get for your voice?” he said through his computer: “Ed Norton or Johnny Depp.” Ira Glass then explains:
“It was kind of a throwaway. But Norton was in New York, and I figured he was a good guy, so we went to him, and he turned us down cold. [Laughs.] Three weeks before filming ended, the network president, Bob Greenblatt, said, “Have you tried Johnny Depp?” And we said, “No, no, no. Oh my God.” We didn’t think we had a chance. … But we got his manager’s number, called and heard back in five minutes. I explained it as easily as I could and pasted [Mike’s lines] into an e-mail. And I made it clear we weren’t doing the sad cripple story. That made sense to Johnny; it took him all of 5 or 10 minutes to do the lines. It was the easiest “get” ever.”
And Johnny Depp did a fantastic job of voicing Mike’s thoughts. Check out the episode below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-tGS-fDA08
