During the last part of the pilot, with Johnny Depp
(pictured) chasing a villain through Burrard Station.

whose character briefly interacts with
Depp's character, Tom Hanson. Berner says he
auditioned for the role and got it very easily.
“It was such a long time ago and | don’t remember... |
can’t even remember what | did last week!” chuckled Berner.
Other than his scenes with Depp, which were shot at the BCIT
Marine Campus in North Vancouver, Berner did not have
a chance to talk to him off camera. But Berner remembers
Depp as a quiet young man who had potential to become
a big star. “I just remember that he hated the series! He
was only 24 years old, a young man, and he knew that the
series was a stepping stone for bigger and better things.”
Berner says that as a young actor, Depp “was professional
and acquitted himself very well in our scenes together.” Berner
recalls a very funny story that happened on the set during
filming. In the pilot, Depp’s character, while making an arrest,
accidentally elbows a fellow cop named Charlie Donegan (actor
Barney Martin), in the nose. Martin is later seen wearing a
bandage on his nose. In between takes, director Kim Manners
set up a prank orchestrated with Depp inside a police locker
room with urinals in one section of the room. Pretending that
the cameras were rolling, Depp walked into the police locker
room, walked up to one of the urinals, pretended to take a
piss, then turned his head to look back at Martin’s character to
say, “Oh, Charlie, about your fuckin’ nose. | don’t give a shit!”
Amusing incidents aside, Depp seemed to be enjoying
his time in Vancouver, telling The Toronto Star back in
November 1987 during the filming of season two, “One of
the best things about the series is the Vancouver location.
We're shooting so far from Los Angeles that we can avoid
the press when we want. Vancouver isn’t the kind of city
where you can party every night. LA is wide open all night.”
But eventually as the series wore on, Depp’s passion for
the show faded. He let his frustrations be known during a 1989
interview on the set of the film Cry-Baby, telling a reporter, “In
the first two seasons, there was a lot of good stuff going on.
There were good important messages. But | think towards the
third season, it started to get a little showboaty. It started to
become false...I’m not in any way trying to say that it’s a bad
show. [But], it’s not what it started out to be. Now, it’s a product.”
While filming Jump Street in Vancouver, Depp lived at
the Sutton Place Hotel and in the 1900 block of West 4th
Avenue. In March 1989, during the filming of season 3, Depp
was attending a party at the Coast Plaza Hotel in Vancouver's
West End, and was later arrested for assaulting David Sulina,
a 19-year-old security guard, who was responding to a noise
complaint issued against the party Depp was attending. In
a September 1989 court hearing, Depp later admitted that
he got into a shoving match and kicked Sulina in the groin.
Depp’s Vancouver lawyer, Richard Israels, stated in court, “Like
many of us, Johnny resents the abuse of authority. He felt the

 

Part 1 of the season 3 finale called “Loc’d Out,’ Johnny Depp, undercover as a gang member,
is shown walking eastbound along Hastings Street outside the Army & Navy store.

—_—
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Riverview Hospital's West Lawn building was shown at the end of this
episode called “Swallowed Alive” (episode 9, season 3). Riverview Hospital
was used as the site for a juvenile detention centre in this episode.

security guard was being unreasonable and power-tripping.
Johnny overreacted, which led to the minor altercation.”
Depp pleaded guilty to assaulting Sulina and the judge,
Kenneth Scherling, gave Depp an unconditional discharge.

After season 4, Depp left the series, along with Peter DeLuise
and Dustin Nguyen (Officer Harry Truman loki). Holly Robinson
and Steven Williams (Captain Adam Fuller) would remain on for
the rest of the series. Depp would go on to have a prolific film
career, including of course, making the commercially successful
Pirates of the Caribbean films as pirate Captain Jack Sparrow. As
we reflect on the 30th anniversary of 21 Jump Street, it seems
fitting that Johnny Depp would return to Vancouver, the city
that launched his career, where he’s currently filming his latest
movie, Richard Says Goodbye. While 21 Jump Street made use of
many Metro Vancouver locations during its five seasons on Fox
television, it’s pretty cool that Douglas College’s New Westminster
campus played a role, albeit a minor one, in the show's legacy.

CC . . .
My impression Is
that 1t was a cool and
fun experience.’
— Dean Hill