Inside Johnny Depp's Self-Made Implosion
Dec 10, 2020 15:07:30 GMT -5
Tim and SpnFanJackie like this
Post by BettyNewbie on Dec 10, 2020 15:07:30 GMT -5
This article is worth a read.
I haven't posted much about the entire Johnny Depp/Amber Heard saga of the last 4 years, and with good reason. Johnny Depp has a small, but completely insane fanbase that's extremely vocal online and has been constantly pushing this narrative of Depp being an innocent victim/Heard being an evil monster, despite evidence to the contrary. His fans have been dogpiling and harassing anyone who dares to see Depp as anything short of a pure cinnamon roll (Lindsay Ellis was forced to privatize a video she made about him because of all the harassment she got). Depp fanatics have a cultic level of celebrity worship and reality denial nearly on par with MAGAs, and given how many of them seem to be Red Pill/MRA types (who think Depp is being wrongfully smeared as an abuser because of "misandry" ), there's probably some overlap between the two groups.
Here's my take -- Either the abuse was mutual, or Heard was striking back in self-defense. But, everything points to Depp being the initial, main abuser. His own history literally points to it.
I get that he was a cool "bad boy" heartthrob for loads of people in the 80s and 90s and that he made several popular/iconic movies. They don't want to see the very flawed person he actually is. They don't want to see the washed-up middle-aged actor who's well past his prime and on the verge of going broke. The Johnny Depp of 21 Jump Street and Edward Scissorhands is long gone and never coming back.
It wasn't just erratic and violent behavior that wrecked one of the world's most bankable stars. It was his unquenchable thirst for revenge.
In the face of mounting bad publicity, Johnny Depp could still count on one friendly industry group — a Polish film festival.
On Nov. 21, the embattled star was poised to receive a career honor during the 28th EnergaCamerimage cinematography gala and had agreed to appear remotely from the U.S., with his virtual presence touted in the press. As an added seal of approval at a needed moment, the festival scheduled his latest film, the low-budget period drama Minamata, as its closing-night offering. But after a montage of clips showcasing Depp's "unique visual sensitivity," the 57-year-old actor failed to materialize onscreen. Instead, he sent along a bizarre picture of himself — open-shirted and with platinum blond hair peeking out from under a pair of colorful scarves. Inexplicably, he appeared to be standing behind bars in a Caribbean prison — resembling a carefree swashbuckler serving time for a crime that he doesn't quite take seriously. Minamata, featuring Depp as real-life war photographer W. Eugene Smith, never screened. MGM, the film's distributor, removed it during the seven-day festival citing piracy concerns.
Depp's absence offered a fitting denouement to a month of reputational and career devastation. On Nov. 2, a U.K. court had ruled against him in his high-stakes libel suit against tabloid The Sun over its description of him as a "wife beater." In fact, the judge made clear that he believed Depp had assaulted ex-wife Amber Heard on multiple occasions and that she frequently feared for her life. In the ensuing days, Warner Bros. excised him from its Fantastic Beasts franchise — a firing that played out publicly — while sources tell THR that he is no longer involved with a prestige Harry Houdini TV project produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, his most powerful remaining ally. Over the course of four short years, Depp has spiraled from an A-list star responsible for more than $10 billion in worldwide box office to Hollywood persona non grata, beginning when Heard's abuse allegations first surfaced in 2016 and continuing through a scorched-earth legal strategy that has seen him sue everyone in his path. The result is a tsunami of tabloid fodder as sensitive texts, emails and drug-fueled and violent anecdotes spilled out into the public view. Despite multiple attempts to contact him, Depp could not be reached for comment.
There are few examples of a movie-star implosion of Depp's magnitude that have been so sudden and spectacular. During the height of his stardom, a 13-year stretch ending in 2016, Depp earned some $650 million, including $55 million from his profit participation on 2010's Alice in Wonderland, a Disney tentpole that earned $1.03 billion worldwide. For Minamata, which opens Feb. 21, he was paid just $3 million. The claims made in at least six recent suits, along with multiple interviews conducted by THR, paint a picture of an out-of-control Depp, a casualty of Hollywood's sycophant culture in which his wild spending and substance abuse were rarely challenged. Or as one producer who worked on a recent Depp project notes, "He's just never been told no for the past 35 years. That's typical in Hollywood. But I've never seen it to this extent." November 2020 simply offered the punctuation.
In the face of mounting bad publicity, Johnny Depp could still count on one friendly industry group — a Polish film festival.
On Nov. 21, the embattled star was poised to receive a career honor during the 28th EnergaCamerimage cinematography gala and had agreed to appear remotely from the U.S., with his virtual presence touted in the press. As an added seal of approval at a needed moment, the festival scheduled his latest film, the low-budget period drama Minamata, as its closing-night offering. But after a montage of clips showcasing Depp's "unique visual sensitivity," the 57-year-old actor failed to materialize onscreen. Instead, he sent along a bizarre picture of himself — open-shirted and with platinum blond hair peeking out from under a pair of colorful scarves. Inexplicably, he appeared to be standing behind bars in a Caribbean prison — resembling a carefree swashbuckler serving time for a crime that he doesn't quite take seriously. Minamata, featuring Depp as real-life war photographer W. Eugene Smith, never screened. MGM, the film's distributor, removed it during the seven-day festival citing piracy concerns.
Depp's absence offered a fitting denouement to a month of reputational and career devastation. On Nov. 2, a U.K. court had ruled against him in his high-stakes libel suit against tabloid The Sun over its description of him as a "wife beater." In fact, the judge made clear that he believed Depp had assaulted ex-wife Amber Heard on multiple occasions and that she frequently feared for her life. In the ensuing days, Warner Bros. excised him from its Fantastic Beasts franchise — a firing that played out publicly — while sources tell THR that he is no longer involved with a prestige Harry Houdini TV project produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, his most powerful remaining ally. Over the course of four short years, Depp has spiraled from an A-list star responsible for more than $10 billion in worldwide box office to Hollywood persona non grata, beginning when Heard's abuse allegations first surfaced in 2016 and continuing through a scorched-earth legal strategy that has seen him sue everyone in his path. The result is a tsunami of tabloid fodder as sensitive texts, emails and drug-fueled and violent anecdotes spilled out into the public view. Despite multiple attempts to contact him, Depp could not be reached for comment.
There are few examples of a movie-star implosion of Depp's magnitude that have been so sudden and spectacular. During the height of his stardom, a 13-year stretch ending in 2016, Depp earned some $650 million, including $55 million from his profit participation on 2010's Alice in Wonderland, a Disney tentpole that earned $1.03 billion worldwide. For Minamata, which opens Feb. 21, he was paid just $3 million. The claims made in at least six recent suits, along with multiple interviews conducted by THR, paint a picture of an out-of-control Depp, a casualty of Hollywood's sycophant culture in which his wild spending and substance abuse were rarely challenged. Or as one producer who worked on a recent Depp project notes, "He's just never been told no for the past 35 years. That's typical in Hollywood. But I've never seen it to this extent." November 2020 simply offered the punctuation.
I haven't posted much about the entire Johnny Depp/Amber Heard saga of the last 4 years, and with good reason. Johnny Depp has a small, but completely insane fanbase that's extremely vocal online and has been constantly pushing this narrative of Depp being an innocent victim/Heard being an evil monster, despite evidence to the contrary. His fans have been dogpiling and harassing anyone who dares to see Depp as anything short of a pure cinnamon roll (Lindsay Ellis was forced to privatize a video she made about him because of all the harassment she got). Depp fanatics have a cultic level of celebrity worship and reality denial nearly on par with MAGAs, and given how many of them seem to be Red Pill/MRA types (who think Depp is being wrongfully smeared as an abuser because of "misandry" ), there's probably some overlap between the two groups.
Here's my take -- Either the abuse was mutual, or Heard was striking back in self-defense. But, everything points to Depp being the initial, main abuser. His own history literally points to it.
I get that he was a cool "bad boy" heartthrob for loads of people in the 80s and 90s and that he made several popular/iconic movies. They don't want to see the very flawed person he actually is. They don't want to see the washed-up middle-aged actor who's well past his prime and on the verge of going broke. The Johnny Depp of 21 Jump Street and Edward Scissorhands is long gone and never coming back.