Johnny Depp says his Willy Wonka performance channeled a stoned George Bush

Ellen DeGeneres is known for asking the hard-hitting questions that get to the root of a celebrity's psyche. In a recent episode, Ellen was talking with Johnny Depp, when he revealed a shocking bit of his artistic life: he based his performance as Willy Wonka in Tim Burton's take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on "what George Bush would be like... incredibly stoned." 

One assumes he was talking about Bush the Younger, in which case an "incredibly stoned" version is basically just the real thing from 1962 to 1973 and most of 2003. Depp's claim is going to account for a lot of late-night college viewings of the film in the next few years, I imagine. Interest will peter out when marijuana is legalized, and college students are shocked to discover that back in the old days the President wasn't baked all the time. 

Depp goes on to explain the inspiration of a few other roles, he says Edward Scissorhands was like "a newborn seeing things for the first time."  Similarly, as most people are aware, Depp based Captain Jack Sparrow on Keith Richards, high on life. 

Here's hoping that Gene Wilder will finally come out and admit his version of Willy Wonka was based on "a kind of gay James K. Polk with a little smidgen of Winston Churchill on DMT," which, frankly, are pretty much the same thing.