Were Johnny Depp And Marlon Brando Actually Friends In Real Life?

It's not that unusual for two notable actors to work on a film together, only to never work or speak with each other again. But when actors as iconic as Marlon Brando and Johnny Depp share the same space as they did in 1994's "Don Juan DeMarco" — one of Depp's movies that flew under the radar —  fans can only hope that the charismatic and enigmatic duo actually develop a friendship off-screen. By all indications, Brando and Depp became close friends because of the film, forging a bond that would remain strong until the two-time Oscar-winning Brando's death at age 80 in 2004. 

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of the actors' friendship is that it ever occurred at all. In an interview at the 2016 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Depp said (via Far Out magazine) that his request to cast Brando opposite him in "Don Juan DeMarco" was met with heavy skepticism. "That movie was key for me. They asked me who should play the doctor; they had other actors in mind," Depp recalled. "I don't know why, I just said, 'Marlon Brando.' They laughed, and I didn't [laugh]. They kept saying, 'He'll never, no, no, he'll never, he doesn't care."

Much to Depp's doubters' surprise, Brando did care. During the film festival interview, Depp recalled that he was in a New York hotel when he got a note that said, "Marlon Brando called at 9:37, here's his number."

Johnny Depp said during the Santa Barbara Film Festival interview that he returned Marlon Brando's call after getting "The Godfather" legend's phone number and was pleasantly surprised. "He was the absolute opposite of everything that they told me he was gonna be, which was some testy guy who wants to know that he's in control and a lot of stuff," Depp recalled. "That's not at all what the man was. No matter what he did, going to work, whatever, the most important thing on his mind was justice. Equality, justice, just justice."

This was the first but certainly not the last conversation Depp had with Brando. To begin with, Depp recalled during an event at ASU Gammage in 2016, he spoke with Brando for three hours in that first phone call. The next week, Depp said he returned to Los Angeles and Brando invited him for dinner, where the two made a connection on many levels.

In addition to being his friend, Depp described Brando as a mentor who would lend him advice. "He said, 'How many films do you average per year that you do?'" Depp recalled at the ASU Gammage event. "And I said, 'I don't know. Maybe two or three. He said, 'No, that's too much.' So I said, 'Well, why is that too much?' And he said, 'Because we only have so many faces in our pockets' ... Unfortunately, because of my madness, I feel like there's still a lot of faces in my pockets."

Johnny Depp said that he and Marlon Brando were such close friends that he was comfortable enough to make jokes about bodily functions around him. Depp shared an anecdote (via Far Out), about his friend in his introduction to the "Christies: The Personal Property of Marlon Brando" auction catalog. "He possessed the sense of humor — which we both shared — of a child," Depp wrote. "I once asked him why it was that farts were always funny. He replied, 'Because they are blatantly anti-social.'"

As such, Depp staged a prank one time while he was over at Brando's for dinner. "I had hidden in my pocket a brilliant little rubber device that ... would emit the most genuine-sounding farts in the history of counterfeit fart noises," Depp wrote. Claiming to Brando that he ate something weird on a plane, Depp ignited his machine in frequent intervals until Brando finally said, "That's not normal, John, you're not well. You're sick. You're ripping about three beauties a minute and ... ah that's just not right."

At that point Depp said that he had to reveal the prank, much to Brando's amusement. "Marlon's face lit up like a Christmas tree, the smile of a 5-year-old. I handed the fart unit to him. He held it up to the light and exclaimed, 'I've found God,'" Depp wrote, adding that the machine became "a source of entertainment for many years."