OLD GRUDGES

Johnny Depp Calls Himself a ‘Crash Test Dummy’ for #MeToo

The actor looked back on his legal feud with ex-wife Amber Heard in a new interview.

Johnny Depp had a lot to get off his chest about his highly publicized legal feud with ex-wife Amber Heard. In a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Times, the actor fumed at people in his inner circle who he said did him “dirty” as the 2022 defamation trial played out over Heard’s domestic abuse accusations against him. “My loyalty is the last thing anybody could question,” Depp said. “I was with one agent for 30 years, but she spoke in court about how difficult I was. That’s death by confetti, these fake motherf—ers who lie to you, celebrate you, say all sorts of horror behind your back, yet keep the money—that confetti machine—going because what do they want? Dough.” Depp went on: “I was pre-MeToo. I was like a crash test dummy for MeToo. It was before Harvey Weinstein. And I sponged it, took it all in. And so I wanted from the hundreds of people I’ve met in that industry to see who was playing it safe. Better go woke!” Heard unveiled her accusations against Depp in an op-ed for The Washington Post in 2018, a year before Weinstein fell from his Hollywood perch and triggered the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and violence. Depp won his defamation case, but the jury also ruled that he defamed Heard as he fought back against her allegations. Depp is stepping back into the spotlight with Day Drinker, a film coming out in 2026.