Johnny Depp told BBC Breakfast that his retirement from acting is probably in the not-too-distant future — and probably gave a half-dozen Hollywood producers a heart attack in the process.
"Are there quieter things that I wouldn’t mind doing? Yeah," Depp asked and answered when prompted on quitting. "I wouldn’t say that I'm dropping out any second but I would say that it's probably not too far away."
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In an interview that focused on similarities between Jack Sparrow and Tonto as well as Depp's highly-stylized nails, the big question on walking away was saved for the end.
Here's his explanation for the decision — whenever that may come:
"At a certain point, you know, you start thinking … when you add up the amount of dialogue that you say per year … and you realize you've said written words more than you actually had a chance to say your own words, you start thinking of that as an insane option for a human being."
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The man who played the role of Tonto in this summer's mega-flop "The Lone Ranger" is certainly not the first actor to threaten to quit. Ryan Gosling recently announced a break from the profession, and multiple Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis now-famously quit acting in the late 1990s to become a shoemaker — fortunately that didn't stick.
And of course there's Joaquin Phoenix, who fake-quit acting to become a fake rapper — albeit for a real bomb of his own.
So which producers did Depp send to their cell phones for assurance this morning? He's currently filming the artificial-intelligence drama "Transcendence," Wally Pfister's directorial debut — so that's safe.
Now sweating it in pre-production are "Mortdecai," "Into the Woods" and "Pirates of the Caribbean 5." And Depp's involvement with the upcoming "Alice in Wonderland 2" was recently announced.
Oh come on. We kid. Like he's really retiring.
Watch the interview: