Johnny Depp is currently working on Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald in London. He plays Grindelwald, a downgrade from Colin Farrell. The movie is being directed by David Yates who spoke to EW about Johnny, addressing the concern over his casting, given that Johnny was accused of domestic violence by Amber Heard. Before we get into David’s comments, let’s remember that we saw photos of Amber’s bruised face. There was a witness who heard Johnny hitting Amber on the phone. There were text messages referring to other times he had beaten her. And when they finally settled their divorce, she donated all the money to charity.
But he’s Johnny Depp. He’s Captain Jack. He used to be very goodlooking. And that’s a bullsh-t thing to say, I know, but it matters. We are less likely to want to believe bad things about pretty people. Johnny Depp isn’t so pretty anymore. But he’s pretty in memory. Thirty years of pretty memories is a powerful defence. That’s why so many of his civilian supporters have rejected Amber Heard’s claims. As for his celebrity supporters, well, David Yates is one of them. And here’s how he’s justifying casting Johnny:
“Honestly, there’s an issue at the moment where there’s a lot of people being accused of things, they’re being accused by multiple victims, and it’s compelling and frightening,” Yates said. “With Johnny, it seems to me there was one person who took a pop at him and claimed something. I can only tell you about the man I see every day: He’s full of decency and kindness, and that’s all I see. Whatever accusation was out there doesn’t tally with the kind of human being I’ve been working with.”
Yates added several of Depp’s exes have come forward to publicly defend him, including Vanessa Paradis, Lori Anne Allison and Winona Ryder — who said Depp was “never abusive at all … I only know him as a really good, loving, caring guy” during their four-year relationship.
“By testament, some of the women in [Depp’s] life have said the same thing — ‘that’s not the human being we know,'” Yates said. “It’s very different [than cases] where there are multiple accusers over many years that need to be examined and we need to reflect on our industry that allows that to roll on year in and year out. Johnny isn’t in that category in any shape or form. So to me, it doesn’t bear any more analysis. It’s a dead issue.”
“One person who took a pop at him.
It took over 60 women to come forward for people to finally believe that Bill Cosby was a predator. Every other predator who has popped out of the Hollywood Predator Advent Calendar comes with a long list of victims. And while it’s definitely encouraging that more victims are coming forward to share their stories it’s also, at the same time, very, very discouraging that these rising numbers are reinforcing the bullsh-t threshold of belief. Unless of course you’re one of the men benefiting from the threshold. If that’s you, the good news is, if you’re an asshole sexual harasser or a rapist or a wife beater and you’ve only messed with “only” one person – you’re good, don’t worry, you’re good. One is a powerless. One is not enough. We only turn against the assholes who come with multiples. And even then, sometimes we send them to exile in the highest office in the land.
