There are few movie stars in Hollywood history who have built as unique a career as Johnny Depp. And yet at the same time, few actors are criticized as much as he is for playing the same kinds of roles so frequently.

Depp has slipped so often into the skin of others, whether outlandish or historic, that he has almost ceased to be seen as himself.

It’s a conundrum that no doubt baffles 52-year-old Depp, especially this week — as his second turn playing the Mad Hatter in Disney’s new “Alice Through the Looking Glass” is released, and as he endures the revelation that his wife, actress Amber Heard, filed for divorce after just one year of marriage.

While their marriage and divorce are private matters, Depp hinted at marital discord as far back as January at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Accepting an award, he said, “I also have to thank my wife, Amber, for putting up with me. For living with all these characters, which can’t be easy. It’s hard for me — it’s gotta be hard for her.”

Indeed, one can only imagine what it must be like to share life with the man who has played Willy Wonka, Sweeney Todd, Tonto, vampire Barnabas Collins, the Mad Hatter twice, and Captain Jack Sparrow four times, all since 2003. All of these roles in special-effects spectaculars required a mascara budget that no doubt dwarfed the entire budgets of countless indie films, and yet aside from the notorious flops “Dark Shadows” and “The Lone Ranger,” audiences keep lining up for more.

What’s really surprising is that Depp has managed to parlay most of these roles into family films, becoming a fairly reliable performer for 21st-century parents who want their kids to see something inventive that also won’t destroy their innocence. At the same time, the sheer psychedelic weirdness of his turns as Willy Wonka and the Mad Hatter might have creeped out some kids, but has helped him maintain an edgy hipness with his legions of adult fans.

And yet, for all the critiques that imply Depp just slaps on pounds of makeup and a crazy wig before vamping for movie cameras, it is also true that he has built his career around bringing an eclectic array of real-world people to life on the big screen. In fact, since playing the notoriously eccentric filmmaker Edward D. Wood Jr. in 1994’s “Ed Wood,” Depp has portrayed a total of 11 real-life characters, including Hunter S. Thompson in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” John Dillinger in “Public Enemies,” and “Whitey” Bulger in “Black Mass.”

So, why is Depp criticized so much for spinning his wheels? In a recent interview, rising filmmaker Max Landis (“Chronicle”) singled Depp out as a prime example of why Hollywood is in creative stasis and “no one lets you take chances anymore.”

Said Landis: “Look what happened to Johnny Depp. He was a good actor in the 90s, right up to the point where he was Jack Sparrow. And now  he’s Jack Sparrow in every movie. Willy Wonka and Mad Hatter were Jack Sparrow, just variations.”

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The transformation, starting with 2003’s first “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, overruled his formerly wild private reputation as a guy who bedded and got engaged to a string of hot young starlets, trashed hotel rooms, and co-owned the Viper Room club, where River Phoenix infamously went on the drug bender that killed him.

Yet even this year, Depp joked about killing his dogs and eating them when he and his wife ran afoul of Australian authorities, who busted them for sneaking two tiny-yet-banned pooches Down Under.

Perhaps the reason he makes it all work out for himself is that Depp has managed to become an expert chameleon (a creature whose voice he portrayed in 2011’s “Rango,” ironically). Depending on what you choose to see, he’s either an innovative movie star for kids, a bizarre hipster icon, or a serious artist intent on bringing unique historical figures to life.

In a recent Daily Mail column, Piers Morgan called for an “intervention” before Depp becomes a “fat, old, lonely weirdo” like Marlon Brando.

In other words, Depp has slipped so often into the skin of others, whether outlandish or historic, that he has almost ceased to be seen as himself. And he gets away with it by maintaining a child-like personality through all of his many personas.

“There is a part of me that feels like arrested development at 17,” Depp said in 2010. “At 17, you were a grown man. Everything in life was in front of you but you couldn’t get in too much trouble. You could get in trouble but you wouldn’t go to jail. I have a feeling that at the age of 17, somehow I locked off and stayed there.”