Johnny Depp Announces Plans To Retire: “It's Probably Not Too Far Away”

Johnny Depp announced that though he’s not leaving the acting world immediately, retirement may be coming soon. “I wouldn't say I'm dropping out any second,” Depp told the BBC. “But I would say it's probably not too far away.”

Depp, 50, elaborated on why he may soon leave the industry, which includes letting it take over his life. “When you add up the amount of dialogue that you say per year, for example, and you realize that you've said written words more than you've had a chance to say your own words, you start thinking about that as an insane option for a human being,” Depp said.

This is not the first time Depp has suggested retiring from acting. Though Depp currently wants to keep working, he has expressed wishes for a quieter life, eventually. “I think while I've got the opportunity and the desire and the creative spark to do the things that I can do right now, I should do them," Depp told Rolling Stone in June, 2013. "And then, at a certain point, just take it down to the bare minimum and concentrate on, I guess, living life. Really living life. And going somewhere where you don't have to be on the run, or sneak in through the kitchen or the underground labyrinth of the hotel. At a certain point, when you get old enough or get a few brain cells back, you realize that, on some level, you lived a life of a fugitive."

Depp, who is a three-time Academy Award nominee, is known for dozens of major roles spanning decades of work, including the title character in Edward Scissorhands, Benjamin Barker in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates Of The Caribbean films, and most recently Tonto in The Lone Ranger. However, he began his rise to fame on television as Officer Tom Hanson on the 1980s television show 21 Jump Street.

Depp isn’t retiring quite yet, though – a fifth installment of the Pirates Of The Caribbean is in development and scheduled for release in 2015, and he is rumored to be making an appearance in the sequel to the 2010 film Alice In Wonderland as his character, The Mad Hatter.

Depp has been linked to many actresses over the years. He has been married once to Lori Anne Allison and engaged four times – to Jennifer Grey, Sherilyn Fenn, Winona Ryder and Kate Moss – and was in a long-term relationship with Vanessa Paradis for 14 years. Depp and Paradis have two children together, but broke up in 2012. Depp has recently been linked to actress Amber Heard.

— Ava Butler