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Can We Stop Pretending Johnny Depp Is a Victim?

Last Updated September 23, 2020 2:04 PM
Kate Prince
Last Updated September 23, 2020 2:04 PM
  • Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s marriage is still hitting the headlines, despite them splitting in 2017.
  • Heard broke the internet when she accused Depp of abusing her. Johnny denies it and says she made it all up.
  • The actor has brought a libel suit against The Sun newspaper, but does that make him innocent? Hardly.

There was a time when Johnny Depp was the apple of every movie lover’s eye. He was the epitome of cool, with killer good looks and the acting chops to match. Photographers loved to take pictures of him, high-flying stars loved to date him.

From Kate Moss to Winona Ryder, Depp has had his fair share  of the pie. When he hooked up with Vanessa Paradis in 1998, it looked like they were a match made in heaven. Nothing good lasts forever, and Vanessa and Johnny called it quits in 2012.

In a hot second, Johnny fell into another relationship with none other than his co-star from The Rum Diaries, Amber Heard.

We all know how that turned out.

johnny depp, amber heard
It’s time to confess your sins, Johnny Depp. | Source: Andrea Raffin/Shutterstock.com

Johnny Depp Needs to Take a Look in the Mirror

Fast forward to 2020, and Depp is still in a bitter public feud with his former lover. He says he was the victim of the abuse, with Amber constantly provoking him and instigating all the fights in their relationship.

She says that he was a drunken, drug-addled mess who mentally and physically intimidated her throughout their five-year relationship.

Despite the notion that we should believe women when they come forward, Johnny’s die-hard fans haven’t let the story rest.

It’s not hard to see why. There’s a barrage of evidence that suggests Amber may have been less than faithful  during their relationship – with names like Elon Musk, Cara Delevingne, and James Franco, no less.

Depp has plenty of people backing up his side of the story. Just yesterday, his former PA made a shocking claim in court:

At no point did Ms Heard ever mention any physical abuse and I never saw evidence of any injury to Ms. Heard… I knew that Ms. Heard was the abuser in the relationship and I was appalled that she would behave in this way.

The odds are certainly stacked against the Aquaman star, but is Dirty Johnny really trying to make the world believe he’s a bruised and battered victim of abuse?

Johnny Depp
Some fans relentlessly back Depp, but isn’t it just a toxic relationship? | Source: Twitter 

Has he forgotten about the time he said he would “burn” and “drown” Heard  – whom he was still married to at the time – before having sex with her corpse to “check she’s dead?”

It’s Time to Confess Your Sins, Johnny Depp

Earlier this year, during the pre-trial hearing for The Sun libel case, Johnny trotted to London to lay it all out for the court. He probably wasn’t expecting his former legal team to land him in the proverbial turd pile.

Johnny Depp libel case
One Twitter points out the hypocrisy, so why hasn’t anyone else noticed it? | Source: Twitter 

Over 70,000 text messages of Depp’s were handed over to the defendants in what was called an “accident.” Whoopsie.

Most of the text messages may have been mundane, but one set stuck out like a sore thumb.

A year after Johnny and Amber started dating, Depp sent actor Paul Bettany (best known as Vision in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe) a disturbing message:

Let’s burn Amber. Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will f*** her burnt corpse afterward to make sure she is dead (sic).

How exactly does one defend sending something like that when you’re literally in court trying to save your reputation? It didn’t end there, either. It just gets better.

The Infamous Plane Flight, Revisited

Heard has claimed for some time that Johnny kicked and slapped her in a blind rage aboard a private plane. That was after accusing her of having an affair with James Franco.

Depp has always said that he was never violent towards “any woman,” denying his ex-wife’s version of events vigorously.

In another text message to Paul Bettany in 2014 (clearly the two are BFFs), Johnny was a smidge more honest.

I’m gonna properly stop the booze thing darling. Drank all night before I picked Amber up to fly to LA this past Sunday. Ugly, mate… No food for days… Powders… Half a bottle of whiskey, a thousand red bull and vodkas, pills, two bottlers of champers on plane and what do you get??? An angry, aggro Injun in a f****** blackout, screaming obscenities and insulting any f*** who got near… I’m done. I am admittedly too f***** in the head to spray my rage at the one I love for little reason, as well I’m too old to be that guy. But, pills are fine!!! (sic.)

Despite this, despite recordings of Johnny’s behavior, despite pictures of him spread out after a bender looking like the ghost of Hollywood icons past, Johnny’s fans continue to stick by his side like glue.

What gives?

A Hollywood Icon Has Fallen, Don’t Pick Him Up

Amber may be lying about the extent of her abuse, but Depp is absolutely lying about the extent of his “victimhood.”

Johnny has always loved to party hard, running with the same set as ill-fated actor River Phoenix in the ’90s.  When the star stepped away from his relationship with Paradis, he was released from the shackles of mundane family life and given a second wind.

Depp wasted
Amber shared this picture of Johnny when he was wasted to prove her point. | Source: Twitter 

Just because Johnny is an icon with a legendary past doesn’t mean that we should blindly support him when someone says he’s problematic.

At this point, it isn’t even speculation. We know Johnny is problematic. Although Amber’s accusations may seem like a joke, the real tomfoolery is that Depp dares to say The Sun sullied his name.

He was always Dirty Johnny. He hid it well for a while, but the truth is finally coming out.


Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.