Johnny Depp Quitting Acting? Star Says It's 'Not Too Far Away'

Is Johnny Depp getting ready to sail away from the big screen? For the second time in recent weeks, the 50-year-old "Pirates of the Caribbean" star has said in an interview that retirement is crossing his mind.

“I wouldn't say that I’m dropping out any second, but I would say it’s probably not too far away,” he told the BBC in an interview this week.

“At a certain point you start thinking,” Depp said. “When you add up the amount of dialogue that you say per year, and you realize that you’ve said written words more than you’ve actually had a chance to say your own words, you start thinking about that as an insane option for a human being.”

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Fans already appear to be going through withdrawal.

“Johnny Depp is quitting acting? SAY IT AIN’T SO,” tweeted @SugarScape.

“Excuse me while I go cry in the corner,” tweeted @s_petey.

“Johnny Depp close to quitting acting? The Lone Ranger wasn’t that bad,” tweeted @TheJimJams.

In fact, Depp was in Britain to help promote the opening of "The Lone Ranger" in that country. The film has been panned by critics as one of the worst movies in recent memory.

The BBC interview wasn’t the first time Depp dropped hints of retiring. He recently told Rolling Stone that thoughts of retirement pop up “every day” and that he’d like to “just take it down to the bare minimum and concentrate on, I guess, living life. Really living life. And going somewhere where you don’t have to be on the run, or sneak in through the kitchen or the underground labyrinth of the hotel. At a certain point, when you get old enough or get a few brain cells back, you realize that, on some level, you lived a life of a fugitive.”

If Depp were to retire soon, he wouldn’t have to worry about being taken care of. The "Pirates of the Caribbean" films alone have grossed a reported $3.7 billion worldwide.

Depp, who is 50, still has more than 20 projects in various stages of development, according to MSN Entertainment. Among them are commitments to the "Pirates of Caribbean" series and "Alice in Wonderland."

“In other words,” wrote MSN, “don’t expect him to retreat to his island paradise anytime soon.”

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