Johnny Depp believes abuse allegations against him were a trial run for the #MeToo movement.
Calling the fallout from his 2016 divorce with Amber Heard a warmup for the cultural reckoning around misogyny and rape culture, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star told the Sunday Times he was “a crash test dummy.”
“I was pre #MeToo,” he said. “I was like a crash test dummy for #MeToo.”
The comparison came as Depp complained about those who did him “dirty” and refused to publicly support him following Heard’s domestic abuse accusations.
The “Aquaman” actor first accused Depp of being “verbally and physically abusive” in a May 2016 restraining order request filed just one week after she initiated divorce proceedings.
The #MeToo movement would take hold over a year later, sparked by revelations about film producer Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual abuse and coercion.
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During the midst of #MeToo, the dispute between Depp and Heard escalated into an intense legal battle over whether she had defamed her ex by describing herself as a domestic abuse survivor in a 2018 op-ed for The Washington Post.
When the case went to trial in 2022, Heard was found liable of three counts of defamation and ordered to pay the “Edward Scissorhands” actor millions in damages.
Though Depp was also found liable for one of the three defamation claims included in Heard’s countersuit, the jury’s decision largely vindicated him in the court of public opinion.
Now over three years out from the trial, the “Cry Baby” star says he has “no regrets” about what happened in the wake of his breakup from Heard.
“I know who I am, what that was and, look, it was a learning experience,” he told the Sunday Times.
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