Many of us turn to pricey potions and lotions as middle age approaches, but global megastar Johnny Depp has another way of keeping young – staring at carpets.
"I'm intrigued by everything," says the actor, by way of explanation. "I'm a pretty cheap date. I can be intrigued by the carpet. In fact, I am intrigued by the carpet. I've been staring at it for a while now, and it's still the same. I think curiosity keeps you young beyond numbers. I'm 60!" he adds, laughing.
Sixty may be pushing it but, jokes aside, it's hard to believe that Depp – let's face it, one of the coolest and most-fancied men on the planet – turned 50 this year. Today, he's promoting The Lone Ranger, Disney's new action-adventure movie based on the classic Western TV series. He plays Tonto, a native American warrior who battles alongside law-abiding cowboy John Reid, played by Social Network actor Armie Hammer, to avenge Reid's brother's death and bring a criminal gang to justice.
The film has a strong British cast, with Luther actress Ruth Wilson playing Reid's sister-in-law Rebecca, Tom Wilkinson as railroad tycoon Latham Cole, Helena Bonham Carter as a tough-talking saloon owner Red, and Fish Tank actor Harry Treadaway as Frank, the baddie with a penchant for wearing ladies' bonnets.
As you'd imagine, it's a fun-filled romp, with all the charging horseback chases and belting after baddies you'd hope for.
Depp, with his trademark raven hair and checked shirt slashed to reveal countless necklaces, hasn't changed a whole lot since his breakthrough role in 1984 horror A Nightmare On Elm Street.
For Tonto, who ages during the film, Depp didn't have to look too far to find his muse. "The old man I saw in Tonto was my great-grandmother," he says. "She did apparently have quite a lot of Indian blood [in her] and wore the braids and had tobacco down her bosom, so the idea was to sculpt me to look like her."
In the original series, being a Native American meant Tonto was never going to be a hero in his own right – something Depp and the film-makers were keen to move away from. The actor says that, growing up, he always rooted for the masked hero's partner in crime.
"When it came to playing cowboys and Indians I most certainly did not want to be John Wayne. I was always flummoxed, even as a child, about the idea of Tonto being a sidekick to the Lone Ranger. I found it unappealing," he says.
As well as being a leading man, Depp's an executive producer on the film and says he was conscious of being respectful to native Indian people: "I felt responsibility towards the indigenous people of the country and around the world. If I can make two or three kids watch the movie and feel proud to be Comanche [the name for the native Indian tribe] then I've done my job and I feel good."
Depp hopes audiences will like his interpretation of Tonto. One thing's for sure: he put blood, sweat and tears into the role – literally, when he fell off a horse during filming.
"The horse was magnificent so I'd say the accident was a user error," he explains.
"It decided to jump over a mound, where a cactus was, in the desert, and when we hit the ground, the thing which holds the saddle tilted to the left. The strange thing about it was there was no fear involved, no adrenalin – it was 'How do I escape this thing?' – and after far too long holding on to the horse I decided to let go and roll the dice. Madness!"
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