Through Depp's journey to stardom filled with troubles, controversies, and relationships, the one who introduced this talent to Hollywood got lost along the way.
Most of the time we meet someone and believe they are our "one and only" but life reminds us that not everything works out the way we planned it. The things we think are going to last forever often end up being a memory of the past. Some of them might be the ones that have shaped us into who we are today.
While Johnny Depp has been in the news almost every day with his rather public and nasty divorce with Amber Heard, and libel action against a newspaper for referring to him as a "wife-beater" in an article published in 2018, things from his past are resurfacing, informing the people who he really is.
Long before the 57-year old actor met Heard, 34, and jumped into a stormy and unstable marriage which would list out the most intimate details in the public, and before his other relationships including with Winona Ryder, Kate Moss, and Vanessa Paradis, he was in love with another woman who was also his first wife.
According to Metro Uk, the Pirates of the Caribbean star met Lori Anne Allison through her sister who was at that time a bassist in Depp's band The Kids. Depp, who was just 20, fell head over heels for the 25-year-old makeup artist and the two got married in a traditional ceremony, on December 20, 1983, in their native South Florida.
While the couple worked together as a team and grew the band on to the Fort Lauderdale club circuit, they decided that it was time for them to hit big and moved to Los Angeles. In the actor's autobiography, Johnny Depp: A Biography by Michael Blitz and Louise Krasniewicz, he said, "We figured we were great in Florida, we'd be even better in California."
But as all "rags to riches" stories go, the band didn't land the kind of gigs they had expected and had to find alternate side jobs. The A-lister worked as a telemarketer, selling personalized pens, reported The Mirror.
During that time, Nicholas Cage was emerging as the new face of Hollywood with his role in Fast Times At Ridgemont High. He had also landed his first lead role in 1983’s Valley Girl. As it turns out, Allison was the nephew of film director Francis Ford Coppola and also a friend of Cage.
When she introduced Cage to Depp, she became his bridge to Hollywood. According to The Mirror, the two became drinking buddies and Cage helped him land an audition for the cult classic horror flick, Nightmare On Elm Street.
As far as the execs were concerned, they reportedly didn't believe Depp would fit the part but as luck has it, one of their daughters was impressed by his talent and succeeded in convincing them, to Depp's surprise.
Talking to Playboy about the whole experience, he said, "I got the job. I was stupefied. They paid me all that money for a week. It was luck, an accident. I did it purely to pay the rent. I was literally filling out job applications at the same time, any kind of job."
Revealing Cage's role in his journey he said, "Nic Cage said, 'You should try being an actor. Maybe you are one and don’t know it.' I began acting, and I thought, well, this is an interesting road; maybe I should keep traveling on it."
Not being from the film background and landing his first break so early, Depp sure was a little unprepared but didn't lack the confidence and perseverance.
"I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, so I started to read everything I could about acting—Stanislavsky, Uta Hagen, Michael Chekhov. I started soaking it up," he said. As soon as one door opened, other doors didn't take much time. The Ghost Rider star helped him get his first agent as well.
While his career was marking new steps, Allison and Depp had fallen out of love. Unfortunately, their young love couldn't handle the pressure that comes with building a new career and fame. Just two years after tying the knot, they filed for a divorce citing irreconcilable differences.
Unlike other celebrities and their divorces, the former husband and wife succeeded in continuing their friendship. So much that in 2016, Allison came forward in defense of her ex-husband and claimed that he was "soft-spoken" and wasn't capable of hurting anyone, as reported by TMZ.com. She also revealed that she had offered Depp condolences following the death of his mother, Betty Sue.
She couldn't stop gushing about her ex's acting talents while talking to Miami Herald in 2015 as well. She said, he’s a talented actor and can pull off the pirate thing like nobody’s business, but he’s also an extremely talented guitar player and started out in South Florida playing the local Hollywood/Fort Lauderdale club circuit."
A private person, after her divorce with the Gilbert Grape star, Allison continued as a makeup artist who goes by the name Lori A. Soon she launched Serendeppity, her very own range of lip glosses. Read carefully and you'll find her ex-lover and husband's name there too.
References:
https://metro.co.uk/2020/07/17/johnny-depps-forgotten-first-wife-reason-made-big-hollywood-13002631/
https://www.tmz.com/2016/05/28/johnny-depp-ex-wife-denies-abuse/
https://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/celebrities/article49009480.html
