14 DAY TRIAL // Johnny Depp, for many years stuck in the limbo of box office success, has just capped off what was an amazing year (2009) and an even more amazing decade with a win as Actor of the Decade at Wednesday’s People’s Choice Awards 2010. As E! Online can confirm, Depp was presented with the award by Sacha Baron Cohen who, as expected, did not fail to deliver a hysterically funny speech, while also truly honoring the actor.
From pirate in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” to killer barber in “Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” and the Mad Hatter in the upcoming “Alice in Wonderland,” Depp’s selection of roles continues to be as interesting as it is warmly received by critics. For this and for his ever-soaring popularity with audiences, which inevitably also translates in box office success, Depp is definitely Actor of the Decade – and not only where People’s Choice Awards are concerned.
“Depp received the Actor of the Decade nod, but Sasha Baron Cohen’s hilarious presentation came close to overshadowing the big honor itself. Before Depp came out to accept with a short, gracious speech, Cohen thanked the performer for roles such as Willy Wonka, which made it OK for ‘creepy middle-aged men to approach children and offer them candy’,” E! says of Cohen’s speech before presenting Depp with the award.
As the British comedian, famous for his Borat and Bruno alter-egos, put it, Johnny Depp does not follow trends because he’s too busy setting them. The world can offer him thanks for making being a pirate “fashionable” again (with his Cpt. Sparrow in the “Pirates” franchise, the part that brought him mainstream commercial success) – except for the pirates off the coast in Somalia, Cohen said. He then moved on to enumerate the other things the world can thank Depp for, as also noted above.
Below is the video of Sacha Baron Cohen’s hilarious speech at the People’s Choice Awards 2010, right before presenting Johnny Depp with the Actor of the Decade award. Enjoy.