Johnny Depp has no 'ill feelings' after Amber Heard drama: 'Hatred requires caring'

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Johnny Depp isn’t holding a grudge against anyone after his highly publicized split from Amber Heard and her allegations of abuse saw him become a pariah in Hollywood.

“Honestly, I can sit here this very second and think about all the hit pieces, and how everybody was against me, and yeah yeah yeah he is off the map … endless stuff,” Depp, 61, said in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“Some of it was not the most beautiful time, some of it was hilarious. Some of it was mad. The thing is, it simply just was, and it simply just is. So, for me, it happened. I learned, man,” he told the outlet.

“Everything that we experience, whether you’re given a snow cone or walking your dog, you learn something somewhere along the way. So I don’t have any ill feelings toward anyone,” he continued.

“I don’t have this great reserve of hatred, because hatred requires caring. Why carry that baggage?”

After losing a libel case in 2020 against the U.K. Sun (which called him a “wife-beater”), Depp sued Heard, 38, in Virginia for $50 million over a 2018 op-ed in which she claimed to be a survivor of domestic abuse. The Pirates of the Caribbean star claimed the article ruined his career and maintained she was the abuser in their relationship.

During the six-week trial in the spring of 2022, jurors and millions of people watching online got a peek into the couple’s extravagant and sordid relationship.

At one point, Depp alleged that Heard or one of her pals “dropped a grumpy” in their bed after an argument erupted over his tardiness for her 30th birthday party. The actor claims he left their condo in downtown Los Angeles for another home in the Hollywood Hills after she became angry with him.

The next day, Depp was shown a pic sent by his housekeeper. “It was a photograph of our bed,” Depp testified. “And on my side of the bed was human fecal matter.”

Later on, when speaking about the incident, “Amber Turd,” as Depp referred to her, “tried to blame it on the dogs” — Pistol and Boo.

“They’re teacup Yorkies. They weigh about four pounds each. The photograph that I saw — I lived with those dogs for many years. I picked up their funk. It was not the dogs.”

Elsewhere, during her testimony, Heard claimed that Depp attacked her multiple times including on their honeymoon.

Jurors eventually sided with Depp, finding Heard guilty of defamation and awarding the Finding Neverland star $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Heard’s countersuit against Depp was also partially successful, as he was found guilty on one count of defamation through his former lawyer Adam Waldman.

The two eventually settled the dispute, with Heard agreeing to pay Depp $1 million.

Following his vindication, Depp has attempted to rebuild his Hollywood career by taking on smaller films, playing King Louis XV opposite costar and director Maiwenn in Jeanne Du Barry and directing Modi – Three Days on the Wing of Madness, with Riccardo Scamarcio in the lead and Al Pacino co-starring.

Just last year, Depp spoke about how he was blacklisted in Hollywood, dropped from a co-starring role in the popular Fantastic Beasts film franchise after Heard’s abuse claims. But he said he had moved past that.

“Of course, if you’re asked to resign from a film you’re doing because of something that is merely a bunch of vowels and consonants floating in the air, yeah, you feel boycotted,” Depp said at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023.

“Do I feel a boycott now? No, not at all. I don’t feel boycotted by Hollywood because I don’t think about Hollywood. I don’t have much further need for Hollywood myself.”

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Modi, which follows the life of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, had its premiere at the Rome Film Festival over the weekend.

In his interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Depp spoke about how the project led him to change his approach to filmmaking.

“I had a few bouts with Hollywood over their particular easy way and the fluid three-act structure and all the stuff that is predictable. And I am sorry, but I had to get in there and whip it around a little bit…” he said.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Depp said throwing himself back into work was helpful “especially when things are crumbling all around.”

“It’s weird to be able to escape, not into a character, but it is good to be able to inhabit a character, and as everything is in your toolbox — some of that stuff can be used as available stimulus, which is great,” he said. 

Depp went on to add that he’s come to accept that the drama that followed him during the trial will be something that he’ll always be associated with.

“On some level, it is gonna be around, that kind of thing. It’s like O.J. or something. But hey, it just happened. That’s all,” he said. 

mdaniell@postmedia.com