Few actors have portrayed a more wide variety of quirky characters than Johnny Depp. He seems to search for roles in which he can display a character’s “individuality.” In his latest effort, “The Tourist,” he plays a relatively normal math-teacher. But a quick look back shows that, for Depp, normal in not the norm.

Of course his quirkiest role was as poor Edward Scissorhands… or was that Willie Wonka…or Captain Jack Sparrow… you get the idea. Even when his characters are based firmly in reality he finds the kinks, as he did in “Ed Wood,” and in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” You could say there is also a fair amount of quirk in the determined drug dealer in “Blow,” and something truly was eating Gilbert Grape.

The point is Depp develops the quirks to the point of parody. His take as Dr. Hunter S. Thompson was close to camp, but then Thompson was a caricature of himself. Depp reached full campiness as the feckless moviemaker Ed Wood, a man who took comfort in cross-dressing and enthusiastically made some of the worst movies ever filmed. In the hands of Depp, Wood is not just a kooky director; he is a sympathetic character who believes in his own dreams. And that may be a fair description of Johnny Depp’s particular genius.