Johnny Depp claims he was a ‘crash test dummy’ for #MeToo

Johnny Depp claims abuse allegations against him made by ex-wife Amber Heard turned him into a “crash test dummy for the #MeToo movement”.

Depp made the claims in a lengthy profile piece published in The Sunday Times and written by journalist Jonathan Dean. Dean says he spoke with the actor, a man he describes as someone who “cannot help but be excellent company”, for more than four hours and over “a broad range of drinks, starting with Aperol”.

Calling the fallout from his 2016 divorce from Amber Heard a warm-up for the cultural reckoning around misogyny and rape culture, the Pirates of the Caribbean star told The Sunday Times he was “a crash test dummy”. Credit: Marija Ercegovac

Ostensibly, the interview is a tool to promote Depp’s return to the industry with two new films: Day Drinker, starring Penélope Cruz, his first Hollywood movie from a major distributor since 2018’s Harry Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald; and Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness, a film Depp directed about Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani.

Yet, before long, Depp turns his attention to his high-profile separation from actor Amber Heard and the bruising 2022 courtroom battle that followed.

“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?”

Depp and Heard met in 2009 while filming The Rum Diary. They became engaged in January 2014 and tied the knot just over a year later, in February 2015. They separated in 2016.

Before it all went bad: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in 2011. Credit: AP

Two years later, Heard claimed she had been a victim of domestic abuse, in an op-ed piece for The Washington Post in 2018. Depp wasn’t explicitly named in the piece. However, he brought a defamation case against Heard in 2019, alleging that his ex-wife had claimed he had “perpetrated domestic violence against her”, calling it “categorically and demonstrably false”.

He also sued UK newspaper The Sun when it labelled him a “wife beater” in a 2018 article in the wake of the op-ed. During that case, the court heard of repeated altercations during an alleged three-day rampage on the Gold Coast while the pair were there as Depp filmed a Pirates of the Caribbean instalment.

The case was thrown out in 2020, with the judge ruling Heard was “the victim of sustained and multiple assaults by Mr Depp in Australia”. He was denied the right to appeal the UK decision.

In the US, Heard counter-sued Depp for $US100 million and the ensuing case became known as a trial by TikTok. Daily updates played out on social media and typically skewed in Depp’s favour (on TikTok, the hashtag #justiceforjohnnydepp amassed 7.1 billion views, while #justiceforamberheard has 53.1 million.)

A man holds a placard backing Amber Heard as supporters of Johnny Depp rally outside court in Fairfax, Virginia, in 2022.Credit: AP

Ultimately, in 2022, a US jury found in favour of Depp’s original suit, awarding him $US10.35 million in damages, while Heard received $US2 million after winning one of her three counter-claims against her ex.

Addressing the case, Depp says in the Sunday Times interview that he has “no regrets about anything”.

“I know who I am, what that was and, look, it was a learning experience.”

He says three close friends “did me dirty” but they were unable to stand up for him because it was too difficult.

“I was pre-MeToo,” says Depp. “I was like a crash test dummy for MeToo. It was before Harvey Weinstein.”

Heard’s accusations came a year before film producer Weinstein’s fall from power.

Throughout the interview, Depp keeps his references to the case vague and never addresses specifics of the various allegations or the “mutual abuse” that defined the relationship, a term used during the trial by clinical psychologist Laurel Anderson, Heard and Depp’s former marriage counsellor.

The Amber Heard-Johnny Depp courtroom battle in the US was live-streamed, with millions tuning in.Credit: AP

Instead, he seems to reframe his marriage and subsequent issues with Heard as part of a long-standing saviour complex.

“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 says. “But no good deed goes unpunished.”

He regularly reminds interviewer Jonathan Dean that he doesn’t need to be rich and famous (“If I end up pumping gas? That’s all right. I’ve done that before”), and criticises those he believes wronged him.

Take, for instance, his agent Tracey Jacobs. Jacobs signed Depp in 1988 and helped guide his career, before he dismissed her in 2016. During the trial, Jacobs took the stand and claimed studios had become reluctant to use Depp because of his tardiness on set.

“As weird as I am, certain things can be trusted,” he tells The Sunday Times. “I was with one agent for 30 years, but she spoke in court about how difficult I was. These fake motherf---ers who lie to you, celebrate you, say all sorts of horror behind your back, yet keep the money.”

Depp may be adamant his interview with The Sunday Times isn’t part of a redemption tour (“If I actually had the chance to split, I would never come back,” he says), but at the same time, the 62-year-old appears to covet a return to the industry that once feted him. “I don’t get out much. I’m stuck with my thoughts; just thinking, writing or watching weird shit on YouTube,” he says. “It can’t be healthy.”

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