Johnny Depp: "I built a career on flops"

Johnny Depp has joked that he built his career on flop movies.

Speaking to the Cannes press conference for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the actor said that he always tries to be faithful to himself when choosing roles.

Depp said: "I've been pretty lucky to try and work out a balance in terms of angling my way towards doing what is true to me.

"It just so happens that for 20 years or so I made these films that were considered for the most part - failures. Flops. And I built a career on flops, so I was quite comfortable in that arena. And then a couple of things hit. It's a very strange little ride and you get used to it pretty quick."

He added: "I've always had that throughout my whatever - this career thing. I did have wonderful opportunity - and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life - after Pirates 1, to make a film called The Libertine about John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, which about seven-and-a-half people saw.

"There's been a couple of other things here and there. And I've got this film called The Rum Diary, with Bruce Robinson of Withnail & I fame that's coming out in September, October.

"Nobody knows what a big film is until it goes out and people go to see it and it makes money and then they start calling it a big film. Then they even start calling it a blockbuster, but nobody really knows what anything's going to be until people shell out for it, ultimately."

> Cannes review: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
> Trailer: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
> Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides UK premiere: In Pictures
> Interview: Johnny Depp

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