Johnny Depp believes that he is being boycotted by Hollywood because his latest film Minamata is still struggling to release in the US, reported Variety.
In what is Depp’s first interview since losing a libel case against The Sun, the actor opened up about Minamata that premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February but is yet to open in the US.
Talking to The Sunday Times, Johnny Depp said, “We looked these people in the eyeballs and promised we would not be exploitative. That the film would be respectful. I believe that we’ve kept our end of the bargain, but those who came in later should also maintain theirs.”
Johnny Depp, who plays war photographer W. Eugene Smith who exposed the mercury poisoning of Japanese villagers in the 70s in the film, added that “some films touch people. And this affects those in Minamata and people who experience similar things.”
“And for anything… For Hollywood’s boycott of me? One man, one actor in an unpleasant and messy situation, over the last number of years?” Johnny Depp asked, adding that he’s “moving towards where I need to go to make all that… To bring things to light.”
This isn’t the first time that the film’s team has hinted at a Hollywood boycott of Depp. Earlier in July, the director of Minamata Andrew Levitas, accused MGM of “burying” the film due to legal and “personal issues” with Johnny Depp.
“Imagine the devastation when they learned this past week, that despite an already successful global roll-out, MGM had decided to ‘bury the film’ (acquisitions head Mr Sam Wollman’s words) because MGM was concerned about the possibility that the personal issues of an actor in the film could reflect negatively upon them and that from MGM’s perspective the victims and their families were secondary to this,” Deadline quoted Levitas.
Johnny Depp lost his libel battle with British tabloid The Sun which labelled him a “wife-beater” on Nov. 2, 2020.
Depp, 57, was suing News Group Newspapers, publishers of the Sun, and one of its journalists, Dan Wootton, over a 2018 article which stated he had been violent towards his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, 34.
