Johnny Depp is lending his voice to a good cause — helping coma patients. He recorded a series of physical commands (in the voice he used for his Pirates of the Caribbean character, Captain Jack Sparrow) for Sophie, a 17-year-old British girl who has been in a coma since last November and is now starting to respond to people and sounds.
Apparently, her response to famous voices has been remarkable — so much so that her family is working to make famous voices available to other families with loved ones in a coma.
It’s important for coma patients to be exposed to a variety of possible “keys” — one never knows what might get through to them and help bring them out of the coma. It could be a smell or a sound, even a voice. In this instance, the family knew Sophie was a huge Johnny Depp fan, so they got a recording of his voice, which proved to be extremely beneficial. They then realized how useful it would be to have a bank of celebrity voices, so no matter who a patient’s favorite star is, their family could play commands in that voice.
A number of other celebrities are signing on to help out, and Sophie’s family is doing even more — they’ll be holding a charity gala ball in June to raise funds for their project. For more information, go to the Sofie’s Gift website.
Photo courtesy of jacksparrow.moonfruit.com
The film roles I think of Johnny Depp playing are Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, Benjamin Barker in Sweeny Todd, and the title character in Ed Wood — and none of these characters are guys I would particularly like to have over for dinner. However, lest the eccentric roles and 
