Johnny Depp believes he was the trial run for the #MeToo Movement!
On Saturday, the actor told The Sunday Times that he was a “crash test dummy” for Hollywood’s reckoning.
As Perezcious readers will recall, after his divorce from Amber Heard in 2016, she accused him of verbal and physical abuse. They reached a settlement, but years later, Johnny went after The Sun and its publisher News Group Newspapers for libel after they called him a “wife beater.” He lost the court battle in 2020, but struck up new legal action against his ex over a 2018 article she wrote for The Washington Post discussing being the victim of alleged sexual violence. After a high-profile case, Depp won the legal ruling (and much of the public opinion) in 2022.
Related: THIS Real Housewife Says She Made Out With Johnny Depp!
His reputation really took a beating for a while amid the legal scandal, but he has since been making his return to the industry while Amber has largely faded away from the spotlight. While speaking to the outlet about what it was like to be cut off from so many colleagues and friends following the icky allegations, the Pirates of the Caribbean star said:
“I’ll tell you what hurts. 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.”
The Aquaman star made her allegations a year before the film producer came under fire in 2017, leading to the rise of the #MeToo Movement. Because of this, Johnny feels like those in his orbit were more quick to scatter:
“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!”
When the journalist wondered if it was difficult to witness the intense backlash Amber faced amid their Virginia-based trial considering they’d once been in love, Johnny had no remorse:
“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.’”
Relating this back to his turbulent childhood, he expressed:
“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 noted of his upbringing:
“It was almost as if I was used to conflict. It was not abnormal. I did my best to just step in and out.”
Getting back to the topic of his ex and their legal war, he continued:
“So, 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. 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?”
Seemingly explaining that he was drawn to the actress because he saw something in her that reminded him of his parents’ own relationship, Johnny went on to compare his late mother Betty Sue Depp to his ex-wife:
“So Betty Sue was an awesome woman who revealed herself to be kind in the end, though she didn’t know how to treat anyone when I was growing up. … She liked to escape from reality from time to time and learnt how to live in a miserable state. I was in dreadful fear of this woman as a child but, at the same time, I loved her. 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. I had to understand how my father dealt with it.”
Jeez. He added:
“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.”
As for why he went ahead with the court battle despite it putting his personal matters way more into the public light, the 62-year-old insisted he had no choice once the allegations were out there:
“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. What will go away? The fiction pawned around the f**king 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.”
With a “risen” and “shaking” voice, he furthered:
“Look, none of this was going be easy, but I didn’t care. I thought, ‘I’ll fight until the bitter f**king end.’ And if I end up pumping gas? That’s all right. I’ve done that before.”
Well, all the lawsuits ended up working out in his favor…
Thoughts? What do U think of his #MeToo claim?? Tell us (below)!
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available. Consider calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233, or text START to 88788, or go to https://www.thehotline.org/.
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