“Boycotted” by Hollywood, Johnny Depp comes out of silence to defend his latest film

Is Johnny Depp’s film career over for good? Breaking a silence that has lasted for several months, the 58-year-old actor discusses his professional situation in an interview granted this weekend to Sunday Times on the occasion of the exit across the Channel of Minamata. In this historical drama filmed in 2019, the American star plays photojournalist W. Eugene Smith, famous for revealing in the 1970s the mercury poisoning of the inhabitants of a Japanese village by a petrochemical plant for several decades.

Last month, director Andrew Levitas publicly criticized MGM for putting his film on the shelf because of his star’s personal setbacks. In the Sunday Times, Johnny Depp discusses his personal case in favor of a question on the victims of Minamata. “We looked these people in the eye and promised them that we would not exploit their history. That the film would be respectful“, he explains.”I think we have respected our end of the bargain but those who arrived later must do so in turn“, he adds, implicitly denouncing the attitude of the studio.

“Some films touch people. And this situation affects those in Minamata and people who go through similar things. And all that for what… for the boycott of Hollywood towards me? A man, an actor in an unpleasant and messy situation in recent years?“Asks the actor who intends to defend the film which does not yet have a release date in the United States and in many countries such as France. In Japan, it should be on screens next September.

Johnny Depp could speak again on the subject in the coming weeks since several film events are preparing to pay tribute to him. He should therefore go to the Karolvy Vary Festival in the Czech Republic at the end of August, to the San Sebastian Festival in Spain at the end of September and earlier this month to that of Deauville in France, although his presence has not yet been confirmed.

These invitations have aroused the anger of several feminist associations in recent days, Johnny Depp having been accused of domestic violence on several occasions by Amber Heard, his ex-wife. Facts that he has always denied, hence his defamation complaint against The Sun who had called him “women slugger“in an article from 2018. The actor was dismissed by the British courts, the case giving rise to a media report that has further tarnished the image of one of the box office champions over the past 20 years Ousted from the third tier of Fantastic Beasts last fall, he hasn’t toured since.