When executives at Paramount heard Johnny Depp's plans for bringing "Sleepy Hollow's" Ichabod Crane to life, they thought he'd finally gone and lost his head. The actor wanted to a wear a long, pointy nose and big, floppy ears. He wanted to glue extensions on his fingertips so his hands would appear out of proportion with the rest of his body. In short, he wanted to look as unattractive as possible.

"I had just re-read Washington Irving's novel when I got on the phone with the studio," recalls Depp. "I said, 'Let's get some good makeup people together. I'll need a whole lot of prostethics.' There was this sort of long silence at the other end of the line. The upper echelons at Paramount weren't very enthusiastic about it. It was one of those, ‘Well, maybe not, Johnny.'

The actor laughs before lighting up another of his hand-rolled cigarettes. "I think they thought it was bad enough that they'd cast Johnny Depp. That was enough already."

Depp is a hard guy to peg, and that's the way he likes it. Ever since he became a teen idol courtesy of the Fox-TV series "21 Jump Street," he's resisted becoming a standard screen dream. Though he's a beautiful man with cheekbones as chiseled as Matt Damon's and eyes as penetrating as Tom Cruise's, he's consistently rejected glamorous roles.

Instead, Depp has given life to an odd assortment of waifs ' and loners. He's played a not¬quite-human misfit with blades for fingers in "Edward Scissorhands," a cross¬dressing B-movie director in "Ed Wood," a grocery-store clerk with a 500-pound mother in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and a psychiatric patient who imagines he's a fourteenth ¬century seducer in "Don Juan DeMarco."

To almost every role, Depp brings a certain dignity and an unexpected romantic streak. Think Monty Cliff and Buster Keaton in one loopy package, probably with nicotine strains.

"Johnny has this elegance about him," says Tim Burton, who's directed the actor in "Edward Scissorhands" and "Ed Wood." "He gave all of the physical stuff in 'Sleepy Hollow' a very graceful feeling. And he has no vanity.' From my point of view, it makes the whole process easier when you're dealing with somebody who doesn't care one bit about the way he looks."

Unlike buddy Nicolas Cage who makes a point of alternating indie fare with big-budget action films, Depp doesn't exactly have a head for business. He turned down the starring roles in "Interview With a Vampire," "Legends of the Fall" and "Speed."

"If you study the sheets, you'll see that I'm a box-office failure," announces Depp cheerily. "I've made movies that have done okay like 'Donnie Brasco,' 'Edward Scissorhands' and 'Benny and Joon.' They’ve done alright, thank God.

''But I have this sneaking suspicion that somewhere, somehow, when directors bring my name up, the studio executives go, oh, no. That, guy who fancies himself a character actor! The weird guy! "'.

The only weird thing about meeting Depp in his Manhattan hotel suite is realizing how normal the man seems. Sure, he looks more like a garage mechanic than a movie star in worn Levis, paint-splattered work boots and a thick gray shirt with the name of his band P stenciled on the back. And if there's the odd jewelry choices: skull rings, leather bracelets and a couple of gold teeth.

But at 36, Depp comes off as one of the least pretentious and most intelligent actors in Hollywood. He apologizes before asking permission to smoke. He makes eye ¬contact when he talks. And when the subject of his 5¬ month-old daughter Lily ¬Rose Melody Depp comes up, he waxes poetic without really trying.

"I truly believe that for thirty-¬six years I didn't know why I was alive," says the former bad boy who was once as famous for trashing hotel rooms and scuffling with paparazzi as he was for his eccentric movie roles.

"I was walking around in kind of a haze, sort of a dense fog at times. I didn't really understand what the point was. Over the years I've used words like integrity. Just the idea of using that word, I didn't know why I was using it, but now I know why - for my daughter and for my family."

Depp pauses and adds quietly. "As of May 27th at 8:25 p.m., I learned how to breathe. I learned how to see. I know that sounds probably really corny. But the kid, she gave me much more than I had."

Depp met Lily-Rose's mother, 27-year-old French actress/singer Vanessa Paradis, in Paris while he was shooting a movie called "The Ninth Gate" for Roman Polanski. Once the movie wrapped, Depp decided to remain in the City of Lights. A few months later, Lily-Rose was born.

Depp, who has been engaged to such beauties as Winona Ryder, Sherilyn Fenn, Jennifer Grey and Kate Moss and briefly married to make¬up artist Lori Allison, has no plans to wed Paradis. But that could change at any moment.

"It's really up to the kid," he says. ''The kid rules the roost."

Next to Lily-Rose, "Sleepy Hollow" is Depp's proudest achievement of the year. The fog-filled fairy tale, which opens Wednesday in area theaters, reteams the actor with Tim Burton for an adaptation of Washington Irving's classic tale of a neurotic New York constable named lchabod Crane who is sent upstate to go head-to-head, so to speak, with the headless Horseman [Christopher Walken). Christina Ricci and a bevy of the best English actors, including Miranda Richardson and Michael Gambon, co-star.

While creating Ichabod, Depp drew on '50s Hammer horror classics as well as his memories of late friend Roddy McDowell. I really wanted to use Roddy's accent," explains Depp. I thought, what if Roddy McDowell and Angela Lansbury could be mated, and they had a child? What would that child be like? I thought it would be something like Ichabod."

For a guy who feels like an outsider in Hollywood, Depp works continually. He's already finished March's "Ninth Gate" as well as a Holocaust movie for "Orlando" director Sally Potter called ''The Man Who Cried." Next, he'll star with "Sopranos" tough guy James Gandolfini in a drug drama called "Blow."

Depp's own directorial debut called ''The Brave" has yet to find a distributor two years after it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. But the actor is still hopeful it will be seen.

"I've done another version, shortened the film for the United States and Canada, and I'm talking to a couple of different distributors about maybe putting it out next year," Depp relates. "The movie got beaten up pretty bad at Cannes and I just want it to get a little respect."

Getting slammed at Cannes hasn't lessened Depp's love for all things French. A native of Kentucky who grew up in small-town Florida, the actor says he feels at home in Paris.

"In Los Angeles, there's this obsession about movies and making movies and acting. In Paris, people talk about movies too, but not all the time."