Johnny Depp says becoming a father lifted a veil he hadn’t known was there. He had been questioning what his acting career was for and taking roles for the paycheck, and his first child’s birth gave him an answer he says he’s kept ever since.
“And suddenly, I understood exactly what everything had been for.” — Johnny Depp
The 63-year-old actor shares daughter Lily-Rose, 27, and son Jack, 24, with his former partner Vanessa Paradis. In a CBS Mornings interview that aired November 13, he described the change that came with his first child’s birth.
“I literally felt like a veil had been lifted from my vision,” Depp said.
“I never knew the answer to those questions until that veil was lifted, and instantly I knew,” Depp said. “This is why you’ve made every single move in your life. This is what it’s all about.”
He described that shift as something bigger than finding a reason to work: “Even if you’re not particularly, like, self obsessed person, it is the first real, selfless moment that one could have, when your child arrives, there’s nothing else in the world that exists.”
Depp said he has “for sure” held onto that sense of purpose.