Johnny Depp Develops Movie Characters by Playing With Barbies—Watch Now!

Actor tells Jimmy Kimmel Live about his peculiar preparation method; plus, find out why he thinks daughter Lily-Rose is "amazing"

By Rebecca Macatee Jan 16, 2015 3:15 PMTags

Johnny Depp isn't ashamed to admit he's played with Barbie dolls as an adult. In fact, doing so has helped him to create some of his best work!

On Thursday's Jimmy Kimmel Live, the 51-year-old actor revealed that with the aid of the toys, he "used to test characters" on daughter Lily-Rose Depp when she was younger.

"We played a lot of Barbies, my daughter and I," he said. This imaginative back and forth with Lily-Rose, now 15, helped him to figure out the voices of some of the most iconic characters he's ever played, including Willy Wonka and Pirates of the Caribbean's Jack Sparrow!

But all good things must come to an end! "One day we were playing," he recalled, "and she said, 'Daddy, just do it normal. Cut out the voices.'"

"No more nonsense," he said laughingly. "And that was the day I stopped playing Barbies!"

Jimmy told the actor, currently engaged to Amber Heard, that if playing with dolls is "the testing ground" for his great roles, he "might have to have another kid!"

But Johnny, dad to Lily-Rose as well as 12-year-old son Jack, wasn't so sure about that. "Well," he said with a chuckle, "I've got a lot of Barbies in storage!"

Hmm... For what it's worth, though, he's quite proud of his kids—especially Lily-Rose, who makes her acting debut in Kevin Smith's Yoga Hosers.

Dad, who's also in the movie, said he "was nervous" about her first role, "until I saw her—about three seconds of her in a scene—and I saw she's amazing."