Not for the first time this year, an interview with Johnny Depp has stoked controversy.
In British GQ‘s November issue, the actor expressed frustration over being seen as a violent man in light of prior abuse claims made by his ex-wife, Amber Heard. “The thing that hurt me is being presented as something that you’re really as far away from as you could possibly get, you know?” he said, adding that he doesn’t consider himself a “bully” and he knew the allegation “was going to stick on me and it would get weirder” as time went on. “I ain’t going to get into a pissing contest with someone about it. Spit out what you need to spit out and, you know, my attorneys will take care of the rest,” he continued. “I never went out and spoke about the s–t.”
Depp also compared himself to The Hunchback of Notre Dame‘s Quasimodo, saying, “I could feel people look at me differently, because of the accusations towards you. And then people start putting things in magazines: ‘He’s insane. He needs to take a sanity test…’ You know, ludicrous stuff.” Defiantly, the actor added, “Ultimately, the truth will come out in all of this…”
Enraged, Heard’s team issued a statement Wednesday, sharing the star’s version of the truth. “It is outrageous that GQ never spoke to any of the multiple witnesses to Mr. Depp’s physical abuse of Ms. Heard prior to publishing its article,” a spokesperson told Page Six. “If GQ had done even a basic investigation into Mr. Depp’s claims, it would have quickly realized that his statements are entirely untrue. Mr. Depp has blatantly disregarded the parties’ confidentiality agreement and yet has refused to allow Ms. Heard to respond to his baseless allegations, despite repeated requests that she be allowed to do so. Mr. Depp is shamefully continuing his psychological abuse of Ms. Heard, who has attempted to put a very painful part of her life firmly in her past. One need only look at the physical evidence to draw the proper conclusion.”
Depp himself has not said anything further about it. But, as his attorney explained to Page Six, the actor was “simply defending himself against Ms. Heard’s lingering false abuse accusations.”
In the British GQ interview, Depp also described how the abuse claims affected his family. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy for my 14-year-old boy to go to school, you know what I mean? With people going, ‘Hey, look at this magazine, man. What, your dad beats up chicks or something?'” he recalled. “Why did he have to go through that? Why did my daughter have to go through that?”
Depp and Heard got married in 2015 and broke up 15 months later, but their divorce wasn’t finalized until 2017. At the time, they issued a joint statement indicating their “relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love,” adding that neither party “made false accusations for financial gain,” and agreed there was “never any intent of physical or emotional harm.” As part of their settlement, Depp gave Heard $7 million, which she later donated to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “The last three or four years has felt like a perverse situation that was inflicted on me,” Depp, who stars in the movie Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, reflected in British GQ. “It hurts.”