Not only was 21 Jump Street’s Johnny Depp cameo a complete shock to moviegoers, but Depp’s undercover attire actually fooled people behind the scenes, too.
In celebration of the first Jump Street film’s tenth anniversary, co-director Christopher Miller shared multiple “photos and memories” from the film’s production, including its third-act hotel set where Depp and Peter DeLuise revealed themselves as DEA agents. Describing how effectively the actor’s costume concealed his identity, Miller not only noted that “Brie Larson thought he was an extra” but said Depp “realized an opportunity & disappeared for 3 hrs over meal break & returned saying he’d never been to Bourbon St in NOLA so he walked it incognito.”
Our 1st week was the climactic shootout with Johnny Depp. Unrecognizable in his biker costume (Brie Larson thought he was an extra) he realized an opportunity & disappeared for 3 hrs over meal break & returned saying he’d never been to Bourbon St in NOLA so he walked it incognito pic.twitter.com/TlUaOpW9cR
— Christopher Miller (@chrizmillr) March 16, 2022
Created in 1987, the 21 Jump Street TV show followed undercover police officers Tom Hanson (Depp) and Doug Penhall (DeLuise), who regularly infiltrated high schools and colleges as students to catch criminals and drug dealers. Though widely seen as Johnny Depp’s breakout role, the actor hated working on 21 Jump Street and left the show after four seasons. Shortly afterwards, he would star as the titular character of Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands, leading to a longtime partnership between Depp and Burton on films like Ed Wood and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
For Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s movie, Depp agreed to cameo so long as DeLuise joined him and the film gave both of their characters finality. The two actors inconspicuously appeared throughout 21 Jump Street as members of a motorcycle gang whose operations become directly involved with Jump Street agents Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko’s (Channing Tatum) criminal investigation. However, after dropping their disguises, Hanson and Penhall are quickly killed off by their former gang members.
Tonally, Lord and Miller’s 2012 film 21 Jump Street adaptation eschewed the show’s procedural drama setup in favor of a buddy comedy premise. The film regularly poked fun at not only action movie tropes, but also its own source material, ranging from meta-jokes about Schmidt and Jenko looking too old as “teenagers” to Jump Street‘s status as an obscure revival from the 1980s. 21 Jump Street became a surprise critical and commercial success upon release, with Hill and Tatum reprising their roles for a sequel, 22 Jump Street, two years later.
Since 21 Jump Street, Lord and Miller have worked on a number of successful animated and live-action products, including The LEGO Movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Apple TV+’s The Afterparty. Both recently served as producers on Netflix’s The Mitchells vs. the Machines, which won multiple awards at the 2021 Annie Awards including Best Feature. Lord and Miller are also writers and producers on the upcoming Spider-Verse sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One), which comes out this October.
Source: Twitter
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