He moves to the couches in the living room and flips on the television. Depp has an affinity bordering on obsession with the bons vivants who had their late prime in the 1970s, whether it is Marlon Brando, Hunter S. Thompson or Don Rickles. "Rickles was the bravest comedian ever," says Depp. "He'd say anything." As proof, he finds a video of Rickles on a Dean Martin celebrity roast, turning to boxer Sugar Ray Robinson: "I want to thank Sugar Ray Robinson, who said to Rocky Graziano, ‘Hey, baby, you're hurting me.' Sugar Ray is a great champion. Sugar, we would ask you to talk, but you know the blacks, your lips lock."
"Jesus," says Waldman.
Depp insists it's ballsy, not offensive. I mumble, "I don't know about that." Depp isn't paying attention. He considers himself a funny man and tells me how in one of the early Pirates of the Caribbean movies Sparrow washes ashore and mumbles an incoherent curse.