feb 13, 2009 - CHICAGO TRIBUNE Johnny Depp lends a hand in 'American Life'

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Q. In "Escape," your subject, Mike Philips, has spinal muscular atrophy; he uses a computer to talk. Mike expresses a desire to have Johnny Depp's voice, and Depp actually narrates Philip's thoughts. How did you convince him to do it?

A. We didn't even ask him, at first, When we asked Mike, "Who should we get for your voice?" he said, "Ed Norton or Johnny Depp." 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.

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