The verdict in the trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard won’t mean the end of the #MeToo movement, according to Emma Thompson.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s “Woman’s Hour”, the 63-year-old actress weighed in on the blockbuster trial and its controversial verdict.
A jury in Virginia decided last week that Amber had defamed her ex-husband in an op-ed, alleging she was a victim of domestic abuse, and was ordered to pay Depp $10 million in damages.
Heard released a statement after the verdict calling it a “setback” for women. Many have worried about the trial’s effect on the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse and harassment.
Thompson, though, doesn’t see the case as particularly representative, and believe it doesn’t have to affect the movement so long as people don’t let it.
“One of the great issues to do with that case is fame and how people who are famous are treated differently and viewed differently,” she explained. “The #MeToo movement is not going to be derailed by that, but in order for it not to be derailed, we just have to keep on talking. We have to keep on talking and refuse to allow it to be derailed by a case [with] two very, very, very famous people.”
The “Cruella” star added, “A case where the two protagonists are that famous is not representative. And it’s just very important to remember that this movement—which is about human kindness and is just so simple, really, and has been made so complicated—cannot and will not be derailed by one case.”
Thompson herself has taken a stand in the past on issues related to sexual harassment. For instance, in 2019 she dropped out of the animated film “Luck” when production company Skydance Media hired former Pixar chief John Lasseter.
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Lasseter had been forced out of Pixar a year earlier when complaints surfaced about his treatment of women in the workplace, including unwanted touching.
Thompson wrote a letter to management at Skydance, which was published in the Los Angeles Times, and read, “It feels very odd to me that you and your company would consider hiring someone with Mr. Lasseter’s pattern of misconduct given the present climate in which people with the kind of power that you have can reasonably be expected to step up to the plate.”
According to Deadline, after he was hired at Skydance, Lasseter told staff in a town hall meeting, “I am deeply sorry for my actions, which were unquestionably wrong. I very much regret making women feel unsafe or disrespected. I will continue to work every day for the rest of my life to prove to you that I have grown and learned.”
