In 2017, beloved actor Johnny Depp appeared to be on top of the world. He was starring in multiple films a year, including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), and Murder on the Orient Express (2017). His career had been solid for decades and showed no signs of slowing down. He was one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood, pulling in millions of dollars and loved by dedicated fans around the world.
Little did the actor know that in just one year, everything would change. He would become one of Hollywood’s most controversial actors, and his career would come to a near-screeching halt.
In December 2018, Depp’s ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, published an Op-Ed in The Washington Post. In the article, she called herself a victim of domestic abuse, and while she did not name Johnny Depp, the abuse allegedly occurred during the time she was married to Depp.
The accusations in her article led to swift backlash against the Ed Wood (1994) star. Both Disney and Warner Bros. dropped him, replacing him with Mads Mikkelsen in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. His untitled Pirates of the Caribbean 6 project was put on indefinite hold, with Disney reportedly looking into focusing the story on someone else and cutting out Captain Jack Sparrow.
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Mr. Depp sued Ms. Heard for $50 million for defamation, and Ms. Heard filed a countersuit for $100 million. After a six-week trial in 2022, a jury determined that both Mr. Depp and Ms. Heard had defamed each other, but Ms. Heard was more at fault. The jury initially awarded Mr. Depp more than $10 million, while Ms. Heard received just $1 million.
Since the trial, Ms. Heard has moved to Spain, and Mr. Depp has slowly made his way back into Hollywood. However, he has said that he would prefer to do more work behind the camera instead of starring in big-budget feature films.
With his name cleared, rumors are also circulating that Disney is working to bring him back into the Pirates of the Caribbean fold. The company received a lot of backlash for dropping him, and many fans have said they would boycott any Pirates movie that he was not in.
Related: Johnny Depp’s Return in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 6’ Will Cost Disney Tens of Millions
Depp has remained relatively silent about the whole ordeal, but has finally opened up in an interview with The Sunday Times.
In the interview, the actor called himself “a crash test dummy for the #MeToo Movement,” and said that, no matter what happened at the trial, his family would have to live with the consequences of his choices.
“Look, it had gone far enough,” he says firmly. “I knew I’d have to semi-eviscerate myself. Everyone was saying, ‘It’ll go away!’ But I can’t trust that. What will go away? The fiction pawned around the f***ing globe? No it won’t. If I don’t try to represent the truth it will be like I’ve actually committed the acts I am accused of. And my kids will have to live with it. Their kids. Kids that I’ve met in hospitals. So the night before the trial in Virginia I didn’t feel nervous. If you don’t have to memorise lines, if you’re just speaking the truth? Roll the dice.”
Related: Johnny Depp Compares Himself To Accused Murderer OJ Simpson After Amber Heard Trial
When it comes to his toxic relationship with Ms. Heard, the actor admitted that he had a “clearly obtuse” vision of what love was. He said that mainly had to do with his troubled relationship with his parents.
“So,” he continues, veering back to his trial and Heard, “what were my initial dealings with what we call ‘love’? Clearly obtuse. And what that means is, if you’re a sucker like I am, sometimes you look in a person’s eye and see some sadness, some lonely thing and you feel you can help that person.
“But no good deed goes unpunished,” he says. “Because there are those who, when you try to love and help them, will start to give you an understanding of what that malaise, that perturbance was in their eyes. It manifests itself in other ways. And the interesting thing is that it is merely a sliver of my life I have chosen to explore, because it is my mother and my father. Do you know what I’m saying?”
Despite everything he went through, Mr. Depp says that he does not regret anything, and that is mainly because there is nothing he can do about what happened in the past. All he can do is look towards the future.
While he does appear bitter about his time with Amber Heard, he has been very open about his disappointment and anger at those who turned on him after The Washington Post Op-Ed came out. Not only was he dropped by Disney and Warner Bros, but his former agent (whom he fired in 2016) testified against him in the trial, claiming that studios did not want to work with him due to his tardiness.
“As weird as I am, certain things can be trusted,” he argues. “And my loyalty is the last thing anybody could question. I was with one agent for 30 years, but she spoke in court about how difficult I was. That’s death by confetti, these fake motherf***ers who lie to you, celebrate you, say all sorts of horror behind your back, yet keep the money — that confetti machine going — because what do they want? Dough.
Related: Johnny Depp Feels That the Hollywood Elite Are “Disposable”
He continues:
“I’ll tell you what hurts,” he continues. “There are people, and I’m thinking of three, who did me dirty. Those people were at my kids’ parties. Throwing them in the air. And, look, I understand people who could not stand up [for me], because the most frightening thing to them was making the right choice. I was pre-MeToo. I was like a crash test dummy for MeToo. It was before Harvey Weinstein.” Heard’s accusations came a year before the producer’s fall from power. “And I sponged it, took it all in. And so I wanted from the hundreds of people I’ve met in that industry to see who was playing it safe.” He pauses. “Better go woke!” he hisses.
The #MeToo movement took off in 2017 after multiple women revealed that they were sexually assaulted by film producer Harvey Weinstein, who threatened to end their careers if they ever said anything. The hashtag flooded social media as women from around the world came together and revealed their sexual assault survival stories, including celebrities like Rose McGowan, Jennifer Lawrence, Reese Witherspoon, and Lady Gaga.
Mr. Depp currently has two projects in the works: Day Drinker, which is currently in production and scheduled for release sometime in 2026. The actor is also working on The Carnival at the End of Days, which is listed as “In Development”.
He continues to play music with his band, Hollywood Vampires. Depp formed the band in 2012, alongside bandmates Joe Perry from Aerosmith and shock rocker Alice Cooper.
Do you think Johnny Depp was a test dummy for the #MeToo Movement? Do you think he was judged too quickly, and studios like Disney should apologize to him for their actions? Would you love to see Depp return to Disney for Pirates of the Caribbean 6? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
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