Johnny Depp has proven himself to be a formidable actor over a 30-year career. He’s shown charming innocence in stories like Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Benny & Joon (1993). His aptitude for musicals and genre pieces was made clear in Cry-Baby (1990), Sweeney Todd (2007) and Into The Woods (2014). He can manage all forms of drama, from the war-time seriousness of Platoon (1986) to romantic stories like Chocolat (2000) and Don Juan Demarco (1994). He’s handled action in Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), science fiction in The Astronaut’s Wife (1999), and fantastic genre pieces like Dead Man (1995) and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). And his comedic talents, obvious through all the Pirates films, 21 Jump Street (1987), The Lone Ranger (2013), and Dark Shadows (2012), are unarguably well-received.

But it’s that last category that has largely defined Depp’s career over the past 10 years. Aside from a few exceptions, namely Transcendence (2014), The Tourist (2010), and Public Enemies (2009), the first two of which were overall flops, the last decade of Depp’s career has been Disney and comedy-heavy. It’s been a long time since he’s had a truly engaging, challenging, drama-focused role (perhaps The Libertine or Finding Neverland, both in 2004).

And as anyone familiar with the full catalog of Depp’s work knows, some of his best work has been in the form of portraying on-screen versions of real-life gangsters: Donnie Brasco in Donnie Brasco (1997), George Jung in Blow (2001), and John Dillinger in Public Enemies (2009).

In Black Mass (2015), Depp returns to that field by taking on one of America’s most notorious gangsters, James “Whitey” Bulger. The film’s director, Scott Cooper, who has received praise for his two feature films Out of the Furnace (2013) and Crazy Heart (2009), called Depp’s work in Black Mass a “performance for the ages,” and said he is “certain that it is one that will move you.”

As Mike Vago of the AV Club noted, Black Mass gives Depp a chance to flex acting muscles that have “gone dormant through years of silly accents, silly hats, silly mustaches, and silly scripts.”

Depp underwent a physical transformation for the film that negates his unorthodox good looks and rendered him extremely similar to Bulger, to the point where he freaked out Bostonians familiar with the real man.

“When the actor stepped onto the set of the biopic of notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, the resemblance spooked, well, sorta everyone. “A lot of our crew were from South Boston and many of them knew Whitey,” says director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart). “They said it was like a ghost coming back.” - EW

Depp always remained in character on set in an attempt to embody the role. Co-star Joel Edgerton said “I’d see him roll up to work in the morning and walk to makeup, and then I’d spend all my time with what felt like a different person. You sort of forget what he really looks like.” He laughs. “By the end of filming I’d spent more time with Whitey Bulger than I’d spent with Johnny.”

While Johnny Depp’s last decade of comedic, light hearted films have certainly had their share of fans, Black Mass gives the actor another chance to connect with audiences that enjoy seeing him bringing dominant, powerful characters to life. Whitey Bulger is the type of role where Depp’s true abilities get the greatest opportunity to shine, and aims to be a film capable of reminding audiences there’s more to his repertoire than Mortdecai (2015), even though we haven’t seen it in a while.