NEED TO KNOW
Johnny Depp was ready and willing to dive into his decades of friendship with Tim Burton for a new documentary on the filmmaker.
When Tim Burton: Life in the Line director Tara Wood sat down with PEOPLE recently to discuss her four-part docuseries on Burton, 67, she said she spent four hours talking to Depp, 62, over the course of two days in France while compiling interviews for the series.
“I wish everybody could meet Johnny Depp, because that’s another one — you can’t explain Johnny Depp to anybody,” Wood says. “You walk in, and first of all, he’s so disarming and kind that you’re immediately at ease. He was very open. I think Tim Burton is his favorite topic, so he was very willing to [chat].”
Depp is among a number of A-list actors and frequent Burton collaborators who appear throughout Life in the Line, including Michael Keaton, Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder and Helena Bonham Carter. In the series, Depp dishes on everything from his first meeting with Burton before they made Edward Scissorhands to Burton’s show of friendship during difficult moments for Depp’s family.
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“He shared a lot,” Wood tells PEOPLE of her conversations with Depp. “That’s why I’m really happy to be releasing independently, because the bonus material, we could have done a documentary on just Tim and Johnny. There’s so many interesting things about their relationship and why they are friends and how deep their friendship is.”
Life in the Line details nearly every facet of Burton’s life and career, from his upbringing in Burbank, Calif., to his most recent movie, 2024’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Throughout the series, as Wood tells PEOPLE, Burton’s collaborators and friends find a through line in what Wood calls Burton’s “ode to Frankenstein” throughout his career.
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“The misunderstood monster — you see that in all of his films,” Wood says of Burton. “That’s Dumbo, that’s Sweeney Todd, that’s Corpse Bride, that’s [Depp’s Sleepy Hollow character] Ichabod Crane, to a certain extent. That character — that’s Tim. That’s Johnny. That’s Winona. I think that’s what everybody would come back to, is the misunderstood monster. That’s his career.”
Tim Burton: Life in the Line is available to purchase and stream directly on the series’ official website.
