Johnny Depp Stars as Donald Trump in Gloriously Absurd Funny or Die Movie

Johnny Depp as Donald Trump (Funny or Die)

Over the years, Johnny Depp’s roles have included a sad, Gothic man with scissors for hands; the Mad Hatter; a psycho who owns a chocolate factory; Ed Wood; a murderous singing barber; a drunk pirate loosely based on Keith Richards; and Mortdecai. But his latest role might be his strangest one yet.

As the New York Times first reported, Depp can currently be seen as New Hampshire Republican primary winner Donald Trump in a new, 50-minute Funny or Die movie that claims to be the long-hidden film based on Trump’s 1987 best-seller The Art of the Deal. (As Ron Howard explains in an introduction, the movie was “thought to be lost in the Cybill Shepherd blouse fire of 1989″ but turned up “last summer at a yard sale outside Phoenix, Arizona.” ) The film — which has the gauzy visual aesthetic of a late ‘80s movie that’s been preserved on a VHS tape and boasts a bombastic theme song by Kenny Loggins — started streaming on the site Wednesday morning. Apparently it was Adam McKay — director of _The Big Short _and co-founder of Funny or Die — who approached Depp about the project, which the actor shot during a four-day period in December.

A screengrab from ‘The Art of the Deal: The Movie’ (Funny or Die)

“We’re usually just slapping wigs on people,” Funny or Die editor-in-chief Owen Burke told the Times. “But Johnny brought, like, a whole team of professionals to help him get into character. Or at least style his hair.”

Yes, Depp sports the ‘80s version of that oddball Trump ‘do and just enough facial putty to transform him into the Donald. You can kind of tell it’s Depp in there, but it’s still a hilariously committed performance, one in which Depp-Trump attempts to wrestle the Taj Mahal casino and hotel in Atlantic City away from Merv Griffin (played by Patton Oswalt, obviously); breaks the fourth wall to share his “elements of the deal,” a device that, weirdly, feels vaguely reminiscent of _The Big Short; _raps with the Fat Boys; and says utterly amazing things like, “You’re supposed to avoid the Noid, a-hole.”

Johnny Depp at the ‘Black Mass’ premiere last year (Photo by Marc Andrew Deley/Invision/AP)

The rest of the cast is also amazing. It includes, but is by no means limited to, Alfred Molina as Trump’s attorney Jerry Schrager, Henry Winkler as former New York Mayor Ed Koch, Andy Richter as former NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, Stephen Merchant as Barron HIlton, Michaela Watkins as Ivana Trump, and, so help me God, ALF as himself.

Because of all their “rules,” the Academy doesn’t allow work in Funny or Die videos to be considered for Oscars. But since they’ve been massaging some of their guidelines recently, maybe some members will watch this epic Trump saga and reconsider? You can watch it here, right now, and decide for yourself whether they should.

Watch the trailer: