Johnny Depp has revealed that he considers his job as a salesman to be his first acting role.

The actor sold pens over the phone in LA while attempting to make it big with his band The Kids in his late teens.

He recalled: "You're reading a whole spiel. There was a character on the soap opera General Hospital - the name stuck in my head - so I would call people up and say, `How do you do, this is Edward Quartermaine.'"

However, he revealed that he was terrible at the job because he struggled to lie to customers about the gifts they would receive.

He said: "You'd guarantee them a grandfather clock or a trip to Greece. The couple of times that I actually got people to buy the pens, they only agreed because they wanted the grandfather clock.

"When the supervisor wandered off, I would say, 'Listen, don't buy these pens. The clock is made of corkboard. I'm a thief; we're ripping you off.'"

Depp's latest film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street won the award for Best Film (Musical or Comedy) at last night's Golden Globes.