Johnny Depp has hit out at the Hollywood movie industry, saying they “threw me in the bin” to explain why he hasn’t worked within it for years.
Back in 2022, Depp won a defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard over a 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post. Two years prior, Depp lost a libel case against The Sun after it published an article that referred to him as a “wife beater” – claims Depp has always denied.
The situation led to Depp being dropped from the Fantastic Beasts franchise and as such has not landed any Hollywood roles of late. The majority of his recent roles have been in European cinema, including his latest role as King Louis XV in Jeanne Du Barry, where he performs in French.
Depp didn’t have many kinds words about Hollywood. “They’re disposable and they realise it. Glorified accountants who have the ability to press the green light and make studio films… but they press the green light, they spent shitloads of money,” he told Metro. “Budgets are ridiculous on these films… some romantic comedy with two very popular people. People – the real people – they’re sick of it.”
Elsewhere in the interview, he spoke about the effects fame has had on him. “I’ve been very lucky and I can’t complain about anything. None of it. I won’t,” he said.
“But fame does funny things to a man. ‘The thing hits you and then you can’t go anywhere without people looking at you. And that’s a very interesting way to grow up. But after 38 years of something like that…
“The first thing that’s really mad is to expect anyone who’s lived in that kind of situation to be anything remotely close to normal. Now, to make matters worse, I wasn’t normal before that. So I’ve had to adapt my world into the way that I have to live. How do I live? I live behind windows. I live behind car windows, train windows, plane windows, hotel room windows… fucking windows!”
Earlier this week, Depp was accused of verbally abusing Lola Glaudini on the set of the 2001 film Blow.
During a recent episode of the podcast Powerful Truth Angels, Glaudini claimed that Depp “reamed in [her] face” after being given a cue by director Ted Demme to laugh after the actor delivered a monologue.
“Day one, I haven’t even met Johnny Depp at this point […] I’m on a bear skin rug in a bikini […] Johnny Depp has this monologue that he does back and forth, back and forth,” she recalled.
“[Director] Ted Demme comes over to me, and he’s like, ‘OK Lola, when Johnny says this certain word, I want you to just burst out laughing like she just told you the funniest thing over here.’ We’re in the background, the deep background, right?”
She continued: “[Depp] says his monologue, I hear the cue, and I go haha, I do a big laugh or whatever.
“Johnny Depp, when they say cut, walks over to me, comes up to me, sticks his finger in my face – and I’m in a bikini on the ground like this – and he comes over and he goes, ‘Who the fuck do you think you are? Who the fuck do you think you are? Shut the fuck up. I’m out here, and I’m trying to fucking say my lines, and you’re fucking pulling focus. You fucking idiot. Oh, now, oh now it’s not so funny? Now you can shut up? Now you can fucking shut the fuck up? The quiet that you are right now, that’s how you fucking stay.’
“First day, on the set, I’ve never met him,” Glaudini added. “This was my first studio movie, I’ve just done indies until then. And I have the star who I have idolised, who I am so excited to work with, reamed me in my face. The only thing I have going through my head was, ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry.’”
NME reached out to Depp’s representatives for comment.
