I like Alice in Wonderland.

I like Johnny Depp.

I’m just not sure I like them together.

Evidently Johhny Depp is playing the Mad Hatter in Disney’s live-action adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, coming out in 2010. You can watch the trailer here if you want.

But personally, I think it’s kind of freaky.

I’ll probably shell out the money to see this one in the theater anyhow, and just hope it’s not as bizzaro as the trailer makes it out to be. I mean, bizzaro in the classic Alice in Wonderland way is fine. Bizzaro in the “I sipped too much absynthe while doodling in math texts” is okay, as far as I’m concerned. But the trailer looked bizarro in the “lock the doors and hide your children” sort of way.

Ew. I love all these adaptations of childhood favorites, but seriously? If I were Johnny Depp (which I’m not) I think I’d retire before playing one more mentally unstable weirdo who hangs out with kids. *shudders* I mean, how much time can you spend in those sort of character’s psyche’s without coming completely unhinged yourself?

Maybe that’s why I’m a writer, not an actor. I find it hard enough to keep the things happening in my character’s lives from impacting my own life–probably because I try to infuse my writing with real emotions, no matter how far removed the situations are from anything I’ve faced. But at least in writing there is a level of physical distance involved. A writer has to understand the character–an actor has to BECOME the character.