A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984. The following year, he starred in the comedy Private Resort and made his TV debut in one episode of the detective series Lady Blue.
Depp had a minor role in Oliver Stone’s Platoon before landing the lead role in the police procedural TV series 21 Jump Street, which established him as a teen idol. Although the series made him a widely known name in the industry, he wasn’t comfortable with the experience of being a teen idol and started choosing roles based on interest rather than box office success. This led him to star in movies like John Waters’ Cry-Baby, Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands, and the coming-of-age drama What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, and he started getting nominations for different awards.
Depp continued taking part in a variety of projects and his collaborations with Tim Burton became more frequent and popular, but his role as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. However, Depp didn’t win the Oscar on any of those occasions and hasn’t been nominated again, leading viewers to wonder why he hasn’t won an Oscar yet, and there are different reasons for that.
First off, it’s important to take a look at his fellow nominees and the actors who took the Oscar on those occasions: Sean Penn for Mystic River, Jamie Foxx for Ray, and Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood, all of them drama movies and some of them biographical ones, which are genres that the Academy always turns its attention to. It’s no secret that the Academy favors certain genres and types of stories, especially over those more popular with the audience, and in Johnny Depp’s case, the movies he has been nominated for (except, maybe, for Finding Neverland) have been among those that the Academy tends to overlook, so it’s not really about Depp’s talent not being “at the level” of winning an Oscar. Since Sweeney Todd, Depp has continued to take part in all types of movies that wouldn’t even be considered by the Academy, and in some cases, his acting wasn’t deserving of a nomination (as happened with, for example, Dark Shadows and Mortdecai).
It’s also worth noting that Depp isn’t interested in winning an Oscar, and he’s more focused on taking the roles he wants and likes. Speaking to Criticism towards the Academy and its criteria grows more and more each year, and while his fans would like to see him hold the golden statue someday, Johnny Depp prefers to focus his attention and energy on taking the roles he likes.
