Johnny Depp said he wanted to say a “proper goodbye” to Jack Sparrow
Johnny Depp testified Monday that he wanted to keep shooting “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies so he could say “proper goodbye” to Jack Sparrow and the rest of the cast.
In a courtroom in Fairfax, Virginia, where his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard is still proceeding, Depp took the stand for the fourth time. Depp claims he was dismissed from the “Pirates” franchise after Heard penned an op-ed in December 2018 in which she referred to domestic abuse allegations. He disputes the charges and is seeking damages in the amount of $50 million.
Last Monday, during cross-examination, Heard’s attorney Ben Rottenborn asked if Depp had been fired before the op-ed was published, which would undermine Depp’s argument. He also inquired about Depp’s comments that he was dissatisfied with the series and would not want to reprise his role as Jack Sparrow.
On Monday, Depp’s attorney Jessica Meyers attempted to prove that Depp was still interested in filming the franchise’s sixth movie in late 2018.
Depp claimed, “My feeling was that these characters should be able to have their proper goodbye. There’s a way to end a franchise like that… I planned on continuing until it was time to stop.”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” the fifth “Pirates” film, was released in 2017. After that, Depp stated he was approached by the creative team to help write the screenplay for the sixth “Pirates” film. According to Depp, the project is presently in “dangle phase.”
During cross-examination, Rottenborn inquired about an article in the Daily Mail in October 2018 — two months before the op-ed — that he was ousted as Jack Sparrow owing to “financial concerns and personal dramas.”
Depp testified, “I wasn’t aware of that, but it doesn’t surprise me. Two years had gone by of constant worldwide talk about me being this wife beater. So I’m sure that Disney was trying to cut ties to be safe.”
Depp revealed that he found out he was being recast a few days after the op-ed was published, thanks to a news piece quoting a Disney executive.
“I didn’t quite understand how after that long relationship, and quite a successful relationship certainly for Disney, that suddenly I was guilty until proven innocent,” he also added.
Depp has recently stated that even if Disney offered him “$300 million and a million alpacas,” he would refuse to do another “Pirates” picture. Depp stressed on clarification that the remark was made after he had been dismissed.
Last week, Depp was also questioned about a text he sent to his assistant in March 2015, while filming the fifth “Pirates” picture, in which he expressed dissatisfaction with his work on the franchise and suggested he no longer wanted to work on it.
“Honestly I will not again be doing anything that involves this discussion of furthering my embarrassment of having whored for all these fucking wasted piece of shit nothing years on characters that I so ignorantly started to think of as my legacy,” he wrote back then. “Every c—ing fight!!! Every fucking time!!! I held my ugliness and rage deeper down and get in check when there was still room in my head to do such a thing!!!!”
Depp testified that he was expressing his rage because the writing was “not up to par” at the time.
“My anger is that the screenplay was very lazily written and I had to rewrite it.”
Depp has testified about how proud he was of the Jack Sparrow character he created, despite the fact that it differed greatly from the original plot.
He testified last week, “I incorporated my notes into the character and brought that character to life, much to the chagrin of Disney initially. I believed in the character wholeheartedly, and initially, the Disney folks were somewhat upset.”
Depp has rejected Heard’s allegations of violence, claiming that she instigated conflicts and that he would usually escape to avoid a physical confrontation.
Depp has rejected Heard’s allegations of violence, claiming that she instigated conflicts and that he would usually escape to avoid a physical confrontation.
The majority of Rottenborn’s cross-examination centered on text messages and video and audio recordings, which contained verbal abuse and references to physical fighting. Heard alleged she dumped Depp “after you beat the shit out of me” in one of the clips shown to jurors on Monday.
Heard instructed him to “put your cigarettes out on someone else” in another audio tape, to which he replied, “Shut up, fat ass.”
Depp’s lawyer asked him to provide context for the violent and unsettling messages shown to the jury last week on redirect. He wrote to actor Paul Bettany in one of them, that he planned to “drown” and “burn” Heard, and that he would “fuck her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead.”
He and Bettany were joking about “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
“The text that is about burning Ms. Heard is directly from ‘Monty Python,’ and the sketch about drowning witches,” he claimed. “It was irreverent and abstract humor.”
Depp’s trial is set to wrap up on Monday afternoon. Heard will testify at a later stage in the trial.
