A divisive figure for almost ten years, Johnny Depp is the first to say the idea that he’s been ‘cancelled’ is laughable. ‘Honestly? I didn’t go anywhere,’ he said in a recent interview with The Times. Not only is he not short of work, with his directorial effort Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness, a biopic about the artist Amedeo Modigliani starring Stephen Graham and Al Pacino, out on 11 July, and his return to acting in Day Drinker expected next year, but he still has an ardent following. Whether online or outside the courtroom, Depp’s most loyal fans have never left his side, even if there’s less of them than there were a decade ago.

Regardless of such, Depp will always be a controversial figure. In 2022, his court case against his ex-wife Amber Heard, in which he accused her of defamation for alleging that she was a victim of domestic abuse in an article for the Washington Post, went beyond viral. 

The jury ruled in favour of Depp’s defamation claim, ruling her op-ed references to ‘sexual violence’ and ‘domestic abuse’ were false and defamed Depp with actual malice. However, the jury also ruled that Depp defamed Heard through his former lawyer, Adam Waldman, when he accused her of ‘roughing up’ Depp’s penthouse, the jury also said Waldman’s claim that Heard’s claims were a ‘sexual violence hoax’ and ‘abuse hoax’ were not defamatory. Depp was awarded $15 million in compensatory and punitive damages, while Heard was awarded $2million.

It’s worth noting that Depp lost his libel case against The Sun in 2020, where he was called a ‘wife beater’, with the judge ruling that the article was ‘substantially true’ and that 12 of the 14 alleged incidents of domestic abuse had been proved to the civil standard to have occurred occurred. Needless to say, it was the second trial in 2022 that piqued people’s interest and had a peak live stream audience of 3.5 million – and the one that led to an onslaught of misogynistic trolling targeted at Heard.

Now Depp’s reputation exists in a liminal space between ruin and the idea that he has been woefully wronged. Naturally, it seems the actor identifies more with the latter. He has no regrets about the way the second trial played out either. ‘It had gone far enough,’ he explained. ‘I knew I’d have to semi-eviscerate myself. Everyone was saying, “It’ll go away!” But I can’t trust that. What will go away? The fiction pawned around the f***ing globe? No it won’t. If I don’t try to represent the truth it will be like I’ve actually committed the acts I am accused of. And my kids will have to live with it. Their kids. Kids that I’ve met in hospitals. So the night before the trial in Virginia I didn’t feel nervous. If you don’t have to memorise lines, if you’re just speaking the truth? Roll the dice.’

Reflecting on his fateful relationship with Heard, the actor went as far as to suggest he had not loved Heard in a conventional way. The couple met on the set of The Rum Diary in 2011 and were married in 2015, before splitting the following year under turbulent circumstances. Heard cited irreconcilable differences in a petition for divorce and filed a temporary restraining order against Depp amid allegations of domestic violence. The divorce was finalised in 2016 with Depp paying Heard $7 million in the divorce settlement.

When asked whether it was difficult to watch someone he was once in love with go through the toxic events of the trial, Depp replied, ‘That I had been “in love with”, that’s where we could start, to look at the roots of “in love with”.’ He continued, ‘Because with regards to how I was raised, I wouldn’t say it was a house without love, but it was an intense love and I would not say that myself, or my siblings, or my pop and mom, experienced any great love or bliss.’

He went on to explain that the somewhat dysfunctional dynamics in his home growing up, particularly between his parents, shaped his understanding of what love looked like. Speaking about his mother in relation to his marriage he said, ‘I was in dreadful fear of this woman as a child but, at the same time, I loved her. So I’m not surprised I allowed myself to experience something – in some little psychological sphere – to help understand what it was like between my parents.’

It’s a curious interview and one that certainly put’s Depp’s head back above the parapet. He seems fully aware that he is not adored by the public en masse as he once was. ‘I have no regrets about anything,’ he doubled down, ‘because, truly, what can we do about last week’s dinner? Not a f***ing thing.’

Perhaps his only regret is to do with the ‘three people’ who ‘did him dirty’ throughout the whole legal saga. Depp did not name them, but he revealed they are people who have been at his children’s parties and worked with him for several years. Depp has two children, Lily-Rose, 26, who is also an actor and a model, and Jack, 23, with his ex-fiancé Vanessa Paradis.

Instead of focusing too much on those lost relationships, though, Depp simply suggests he was a ‘crash test dummy for Me Too’ – arguably one of his more galling claims in the interview. He seems to think those who failed to speak out and defend him in court or in public were ‘playing it safe’ and going ‘woke’.

Unfortunately, a lack of empathy for Heard still persists in the culture at large. It goes without saying that it is not her on the cover of The Sunday Times magazine, lifting the lid on her experiences of the trial and promoting her latest film. Her career has been almost entirely on pause since the trial, which is unsurprising given the response she faced on social media from those siding with Depp.

However, she too is making a ‘comeback’ this summer. In July, Heard is set to join the ensemble cast for Spirit of the People, a new play by Jeremy O. Harris that premieres at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Is it a coincidence that her return to the spotlight is on stage rather than the big or small screen? Or that she has not – at the time of writing – done much press to promote it? Who knows.  

The trial might have ended three years ago and been unfortunate for all involved, but hostility still exists on both sides. It’s just Depp’s voice, rather than Heard’s, that is being given the megaphone.