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Johnny Depp on daughter Lily-Rose: 'I'll never stop worrying about her'

Johnny Depp isn't just a movie star and part-time rocker. He's got another job that keeps him busy: father to two teens.
/ Source: TODAY

Johnny Depp isn't just a movie star and part-time rocker. He's got another job that keeps him busy: father to two teens.

And one of those kids is on her way to becoming a household name herself.

Depp's 16-year-old daughter, Lily-Rose, is building a career in movies, modeling and social media. Frankly, she's growing up and growing successful so fast, it's caused some concern for dad.

"What’s happening to Lily-Rose is something that I didn’t expect to happen this early, that’s for sure!" he told the Daily Mail. "It’s such a funny thing when you see your daughter transitioning from your baby, your little girl, to suddenly being a young woman."

While he's taking all the changes in stride, Depp said it all snuck up on him.

"If you’re not really looking for it, you can miss it, and Lily-Rose is on that road already and there’s nothing I can do to stop it," he explained. "She’s been snatched up by Karl Lagerfeld — which is a coincidence, as he spotted her mother [Vanessa Paradis] when she was the same age, too — and when I see her with makeup and all that stuff, it’s really disturbing, because she’s a very beautiful girl, and it’s all happening so fast."

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The actor admitted he worries about his daughter, but it's not because she really gives him cause for concern these days.

"Lily’s really together — she’s a sharp kid and one of the smartest human beings I have ever met," he said. "She’s far surpassed myself there — and my friends, too!

But worrying is just what dads do.

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"No matter how grown up she gets, I’ll never stop worrying about her. It’s a father-daughter thing," Depp insisted.

Of course, there was one time his little girl gave him reason to worry. At the age of 7, Lily-Rose suffered a life-threatening infection from E.coli.

"They told us her kidneys had shut down and that she would be lucky to survive," he recalled. "For nine days we sat by her bed, and refused to move until she began to pull through."

Now, with the incident long behind them, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star has found a way to put all that old worry to good use.

"I still think of that time when I’m playing an emotional scene in a movie," Depp told the Mail. "It’s something that, when you’ve been through it, you can’t help but tap into."

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