Johnny Depp's Journey from Bad Boy to Family Man

June 20 -- — In a town where looks are the supreme currency and playing the role of handsome leading man is what most actors strive for, Johnny Depp has made his mark playing the unattractive, misunderstood, quirky character.

If you look back at the collection of characters he's brought to life — from Edward Scissorhands to Gilbert Grape — they're a quirky bunch.

"I always thought it would be interesting to see them all in the same room together," Depp told Vargas.

Drug use, arrests, high-profile romances and, ultimately, true love would shape an acting career that Depp basically stumbled into.

Born in Kentucky, he grew up in Florida. His father, a civil engineer and his mother, a waitress, clashed through much of Depp's childhood and eventually divorced.

Depp would take his guitar and lock himself in his room, escaping into his music. At 15, he dropped out of high school and started a garage band. A few years later, he and his buddies headed to Los Angeles to become rock stars. But the gigs were few and far between and Depp was forced to take odd jobs.

Depp said he and his friends got jobs as telemarketers, selling pens.

Falling Into a Remarkable Career

Depp said he didn't have much of a knack for it. "I was hideous, just awful. … Then I met Nicolas Cage … and Nick told me one day, 'you should try acting.' I just said, 'at this point, I'll try anything.'"

With zero training and no acting experience, Depp auditioned and landed his first role in the movie Nightmare on Elm Street.

"Here I was, this skinny kid with tattoos and spiky hair and all that. And miraculously, he hired me for the gig," Depp recalls.

Before he knew it, Depp's rock star dreams were being pushed aside when he landed another small part … this time in the movie Platoon.

And then came the role that catapulted him from failing musician to teen heartthrob — an undercover detective posing as a high school student on the 1987 TV hit 21 Jump Street.

But Depp says he hated the poster boy image that came along with the role. "I didn't want to be a product. I didn't want to be some sort of saccharine kind of bon bon, you know." So, he began looking for a way to turn that image on its head. But when his agent handed him the perfect script to do just that — the script for Edward Scissorhands — he became plagued with self doubt.