Johnny Depp is speaking out.
On Wednesday, the Hollywood star attended the press conference for his new French film, “Jeanne du Barry”, which opened the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
The actor arrived 42 minutes late to the press conference, which had already gotten under way, and was immediately peppered with questions about his return to the screen following his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard last year.
“The majority of you who have been reading for the last five or six years, with regards to me and my life — the majority of what you’ve read is fantastically, horrifically written fiction,” Depp said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “The fact is, we’re here to talk about the film. But it’s like asking the question, ‘How are you doing?’ But what’s underneath in the subtext is, ‘God, I hate you.’ That’s the sort of media thing.”
Depp successfully sued Heard over her 2018 Washington Post op-ed titled, “I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change,” which did not name him, but he argued insinuated he was an abuser, costing him work.
In 2020, Depp stepped away from the Harry Potter spin-off franchise, Fantastic Beasts, at the request of the studio.
“Did I feel boycotted by Hollywood? You’d have to not have a pulse at that point to feel [like], ‘None of this is happening, this is actually just a weird joke – you’ve been asleep for 35 years!’ he said at the press conference, when asked about previous comments about being boycotted by Hollywood.
“Of course, when you’re asked to resign from a film you’re doing because of something that is merely a bunch of vowels and consonants floating in the air, you feel a bit boycotted,” he continued, adding, “Do I feel boycotted now? No, not at all. I don’t feel boycotted by Hollywood because I don’t think about it. I don’t think about Hollywood. I don’t have much further need for Hollywood myself.”
Depp went on, “It’s a very strange, funny time where everybody would love to be able to be themselves but they can’t, because they must fall in line. You want to live that kind of life? I wish you the best. I’ll be on the other side somewhere.”
He also responded to the idea that “Jeanne du Barry”, in which he plays the French King Louis XV, is his comeback film.
“I keep wondering about the word ‘comeback,’ because I didn’t go anywhere,” Depp said. “I live about 45 minutes away. Maybe people stopped calling out of whatever their fear was at the time. But I didn’t go nowhere. I’ve been sitting around. ‘Comeback’ is almost like I’m going to come out and do a tap dance — dance my best and hope you approve. That’s the notion. It’s a bizarre mystery.”
