I've had my share of friendly arguments with my daughter over the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard case. I suppose I should wait until a decision is reached, but it struck me as pretty amazing that Johnny actually thought he could win a case like this. Even if he does, where is Amber going to come up with 50 million dollars? It's not like she's palling around with Elon Musk these days. Besides, the damage is done. It is pretty hard to look at him the same way after all those voice recordings.
It's well recorded how he quickly went through his 50 million dollar paydays from Pirates of the Caribbean. He went through money like water, or should I say wine, and now that he no longer has such lucrative roles he blames Amber for ruining his good name. I personally don't know how much truth there is to either one's stories, but it is pretty clear that this guy doesn't understand the value of money, and has now reached a late mid-life crisis where he no longer has the steady flow of income to support his lavish lifestyle.
I admitted to my daughter that I never was a Johnny Depp fan, although I did enjoy Edward Scissorhands. I remember his destructive relationships from his early days, such as his bad romance with Kate Moss, leaving many battered hotel rooms in their wake. His friends thought he had turned the corner with Vanessa Paradis, but then came his flirtation with Hunter S. Thompson, which rekindled the bad boy in him, chasing after Amber Heard on the set of The Rum Diary. He would have been wise to have left Hunter behind with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is another movie I liked him in.
You have to admit Amber sure was tempting on the set. My daughter says she lured Depp into this toxic relationship, but I don't think it was as simple as that. He was at the peak of his career and seeming to be enjoying a light diversion when everything went South a few years later. Amber Heard settled a domestic abuse case that obviously left a bad taste in Johnny's mouth, like a $30,000 bottle of wine that had gone sour in the cellar.
The settlement was supposed to keep all the tawdry details of their violent relationship under wraps. A few details leaked out, but Depp seemed to be on the rebound with several high profile roles, including that of Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts, which was sure to be revived multiple times until Depp himself chose to put their tumultuous relationship under the spotlight with this defamation case.
The complaint stems from a 2018 opinion piece Amber Heard wrote for the Washington Post, in which she spoke of the domestic abuse she suffered. Many accused her trying to jump on the #MeToo bandwagon with dubious allegations leveled at Johnny Depp, although she didn't mention him by name. Most likely in accordance with the settlement. Since then, he claims, he lost numerous roles including a future POTC installment. I guess being the voice of Johnny Puff just doesn't cut it.
He paraded his severed finger around like O.J. Simpson's bloody glove, believing that this would show the world just how violent Amber was. In the end it was no worse than cutting off the tip of your finger while dicing vegetables, and he garnered very little public sympathy. Amber just rolled her eyes, waiting for her turn on the stand. He had to know she would come back at him tooth and nail!
What's worse is that all that respect he thought he had in Hollywood turned out to be a charade. Brian Cox was particularly rough on poor Johnny. The best thing the famed Scottish actor could say of his fellow thespian is that he is "personable." Otherwise, he "is so overblown, so overrated." When offered the opportunity to play Governor Swann in POTC, Brian politely declined. Whether because of Johnny, he did not say.
Making matters worse, Fantastic Beasts fans love Mads Mikklesen! Many are asking why Mads wasn't cast as Grindelwald in the first place. So, there's no chance Johnny would ever get this role back even if he wins his defamation case.
He tended to get upstaged in his earlier movies as well. I remember What's Eating Gilbert Grape? more for a young Leonardo DiCaprio than I do Johnny Depp. In the POTC franchise, he was outshined by pretty much everyone around him, even Keith Richards, whom he apparently modeled his character upon. As a result of the trial, Johnny has been written out of any future installments of POTC. He's not going to win any daytime Emmy for his role as an abused husband in this defamation trial. Once again, he finds himself upstaged by his co-actor.
Amber's telling of the time Johnny hung her dear little Yorkie out a car window during one of his drug-induced moments had to make quite an impact on jurors. It also recalled the time the couple tried to smuggle their dogs into Australia during the filming of the last POTC film Depp starred in. That was quite an ugly incident as well that almost led to the two pups being euthanized by Australian officials.
I'm sure Amber used Johnny to some degree. She was pretty much unknown before The Rum Diary. However, he only has himself to blame for his debauchery. Something he could have easily avoided if he had just tied the knot with Vanessa, with whom he has two children, rather than some tart he met on a movie set. The only merciful thing about all the attention this show trial is getting is that afterward the two will be quickly forgotten.
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