Johnny Depp a great character actor

Tim Burton loves working so closely with Johnny Depp - who has starred in eight of his films - because he's such a character actor.

The director has worked with the 49-year-old star on eight films - including 'Edward Scissorhands', 'Ed Wood' and 'Sweeney Todd' - and says its great filming with him because he always brings something different to the role.

He said: 'It's enjoyable working with him. I like actors that like to become characters. Some actors make a career out of being themselves in a movie. But I've always enjoyed those real character actors that just like to become different creatures, and he's that way. In 'Scissorhands', he didn't speak. On 'Ed Wood', he didn't shut up! On 'Sweeney Todd' he sings. He's always trying something different on every movie. It's always a new territory with him.'

Tim says one of the great things about Johnny is the fact that he's unpredictable and nobody knows what he's going to do next.

He added to Total Film magazine: 'He can do almost anything. I've seen it. It's just a process really. I remember on 'Scissorhands', same thing. In your heart, simply he's the guy and everybody knows it. But the thing that always amazes me about Hollywood, they see somebody do one thing and that's the thing they think they do. So somebody like him, who really does change, I think it makes people uncomfortable. They don't know what he's going to do.

'I've had that same thing for myself. I think some people recognise that we do good things together and some people get freaked out by that.'