Johnny Depp is looking back on his relationship with ex-wife Amber Heard and claiming that he was a “crash test dummy for #MeToo” in the years-long series of legal battles that followed.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, the 62-year-old actor reflected on the lengthy court case, in which he sued Heard for defamation in 2019 over an op-ed she wrote in the Washington Post, in which she referred to herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
In June 2022, a seven-person jury ruled in favour of Depp and awarded the actor US$10 million in damages. Heard was awarded $2 million in a favourable ruling on one of her three countersuit claims.
“Look, it had gone far enough. I knew I’d have to semi-eviscerate myself. Everyone was saying, ‘It’ll go away!’ But I can’t trust that,” Depp said. “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 memorize lines, if you’re just speaking the truth? Roll the dice.”
The Edward Scissorhands actor added that he knew “none of this was going to be easy,” but “thought, ‘I’ll fight until the bitter f—ing end.’ And if I end up pumping gas? That’s all right. I’ve done that before.”
During the legal battle, Depp faced some career backlash when Warner Bros asked him to exit the Fantastic Beasts franchise and he announced that he wouldn’t return to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies after Disney reportedly parted ways with the actor.
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He said that it “hurt” to see “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.”
“As weird as I am, certain things can be trusted,” the Secret Window actor added. “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.
“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.
“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. Better go woke!
“I have no regrets about anything — because, truly, what can we do about last week’s dinner? Not a f—ing thing.”
Depp went on to suggest that his troubled relationship with Heard was due to his childhood and how it has affected his relationship with love today.
“Well, that is the thing. ‘That I had been in love with.’ That’s where we could start, to look at the roots of ‘in love with.’ Because with regards to how I was raised, I wouldn’t say it was a house without love, but it was an intense love and I would not say that myself, or my siblings, or my pop and mom, experienced any great love or bliss,” he said.
“It was almost as if I was used to conflict,” he said about his childhood. “It was not abnormal. I did my best to just step in and out.”
“So, what were my initial dealings with what we call ‘love?’” he said. “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.”
Depp went on to say that “no good deed goes unpunished” 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,” Depp added.
The Black Mass actor said that his mother, Betty Sue Depp, “liked to escape from reality from time to time and learned how to live in a miserable state.”
“So, I’m not surprised. I allowed myself to experience something—in some little psychological sphere—to help understand what it was like between my parents,” he said. “I had to understand how my father dealt with it. So, it would be dumb for me to carry any bitterness.
“Eternal hatred? You want to put curses on someone? No. I know who I am, what that was and, look, it was a learning experience.”
Depp also spoke about his “comeback” in Hollywood following the legal battles.
“Honestly? I didn’t go anywhere,” he said, referring to the movies he’s done recently, including Jeanne du Barry. “If I actually had the chance to split, I would never come back.”
Heard filed for divorce from Depp, citing irreconcilable differences, in 2016 after the pair had been married for about 15 months. Depp and Heard met while filming The Rum Diary in 2011.
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