Johnny Depp: No one is safe from cancel culture
San Sebastian, Spain, Sep 22 (EFE).- American actor Johnny Depp said during a press conference here Wednesday at the 69th San Sebastian International Film Festival that no one is safe from cancel culture, making his remarks before receiving that event’s career-achievement award.
“No one is safe, but I believe that if you’re armed with the truth, then that’s all you need,” Depp said when asked about the controversy sparked by the decision to make him the recipient of this year’s Donostia Award.
The actor has filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit in the United States against ex-wife Amber Heard, based on a Washington Post op-ed the actress wrote in 2018 saying (without mentioning Depp by name) that she is a survivor of domestic violence.
Depp last year lost a libel suit he filed against the publishers of British newspaper The Sun, which had referred to him in a story as a “wife beater.” In the wake of that decision, in which the judge said the paper’s description of the actor was “substantially true,” Depp was forced out of his role in Warner Bros.’s Fantastic Beasts movie franchise.
It is “a very complex situation,” the star of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise said, adding that he was subjected to an “instant rush to judgment based on essentially what amounts to polluted air.”
Speaking of so-called cancel culture, he referred to “movements” that emerged to hold abusers accountable for their abusive or insensitive actions or words, saying they had “I’m sure, the best of intentions.”
“It’s so far out of hand now that I can promise you that no one is safe. Not one of you. Not one of you … as long as someone is willing to say one sentence. It takes just one sentence and there’s no more ground. The carpet has been pulled.”
“It’s not just me that this has happened to,” he said. “It’s happened to a lot of people. This type of thing has happened to women, men. Sadly at a certain point they begin to think that it’s normal.”
Depp called on people to hit back against cancel culture and make their voices heard.
“When there is an injustice, whether it’s against you or someone you love or someone you believe in, stand up, don’t sit down. Don’t sit down on them. They need you,” he added. EFE
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