Johnny Depp, Will Smith Expose Darker Side of Movie Stardom

The most current act in the incredibly public unraveling of Johnny Depp started last 7 days in a courtroom in northern Virginia, pulling back the curtain on the secretive entire world of movie star enablers and hangers-on.

Depp is suing his ex-wife, Amber Read, for $50 million for describing herself as a “public determine symbolizing domestic abuse” in a 2018 Washington Submit opinion piece. That revived allegations she produced when the few divorced in 2016 — about which they had each and every promised to continue being silent — and in Depp’s perspective the community characterization could not go unchallenged.

But following Depp lost a equivalent scenario in London in 2020, his general public reputation — and vocation — are in tatters. He has not appeared in a significant studio movie considering that “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” in 2018, despite the fact that he has starred in lesser indies this kind of as “Minamata.” Relitigating these problems, which entails resurfacing textual content messages in which he identified as Read a “c—” and fantasized about her “rotting corpse,” is not likely to flip items about.

“Maybe a section of him feels like, ‘What do I have to eliminate? I’m going down. I’m bringing her down with me,’” states Hollywood divorce attorney Judy Poller.

Studies of Depp’s erratic conduct on set, extravagant investing and drug abuse have been not in conflict with the rakish persona that assisted him gain $650 million over 3 many years in the film business enterprise with hits like “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Alice in Wonderland.” But Heard’s assault claims — at the time validated by a U.K. choose — designed him nearly unemployable.

And that is why 11 citizens of Fairfax County have been compelled by a jury summons to listen to 6 months of testimony about their partnership — and much more about the troubled non-public existence of a star who very first broke by means of in 1987 with the “21 Soar Street” Television set series and has remained in the public eye for a long time.

The Depp demo also will come as other A-listers have experienced their own brushes with ignominy. From Will Smith’s Oscars slap to the arrest of “The Flash” star Ezra Miller, it is been a tough interval for Hollywood’s main guys and the studios that use them.

“It’s normally hazardous for superstars when there is a crack in the veneer that allows in an unpleasant reality,” says Derek Extended, assistant professor of media and cinema studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “When that crack happens and terrible conduct or human frailty or imperfections arrive to the fore, it explodes the illusion.”

As the demo got underway, Depp’s lawyers established about rebuilding his general public picture. Their 1st witness was his older sister, Christi Dembrowski, who operates his production company, Infinitum Nihil. She is her brother’s most faithful protector.

Recalling their days developing up, she described Depp as a “very regular, delighted little boy.” She also sketched the family members dynamics — an angry mom who would beat her kids with a swap and a timid father who tried using to hold the peace. The goal was to make clear Depp’s instinct to hide from conflict.

But on cross-examination, more-troubling dynamics of the developed-up sibling relationship emerged. In February 2014, Dembrowski texted her brother: “Stop drinking, stop coke, stop capsules.” But she struggled to acknowledge his drug issue on the stand.

“I wrote these text,” she explained in court docket. “But I really don’t know the context of individuals words.”

Dembrowski said that at the time, she considered that Heard was exaggerating about Depp’s drug and alcoholic beverages use, and urged her not to obstacle him so a great deal, expressing that “confrontation however doesn’t assist.”

For her section, Read framed her 2018 op-ed as a lesson in power. She alluded to Depp’s profession as “a large enterprise,” likening it to the Titanic and stating that a good deal of men and women had a vested fascination in patching up the holes.

One more witness for Depp, Isaac Baruch, informed jurors that Depp invited him to stay lease-free of charge in a penthouse in downtown L.A. Depp desired Baruch, a childhood friend, to be no cost to target on his painting, and supplied him with $100,000 around quite a few decades in a “patronage” arrangement.

Depp and Read lived in a close by penthouse, and Baruch explained that he never ever witnessed violence amongst them. Immediately after the break up, Depp marketed the penthouses, forcing Baruch to go to yet another of Depp’s houses. In one information to Baruch, Depp lamented that “that c— ruined these kinds of a f—ing amazing daily life we experienced for a even though.”

On the stand, Baruch stated he thought that Listened to was lying about the abuse but that he was not angry.

“I want this all to stop — her to go mend, him to go recover,” he explained. “So quite a few folks have been influenced by this destructive lie that she started out, and she developed, and it’s gone out the door and close to the planet. I just can’t even paint anymore.”

Monday’s testimony descended into ever a lot more macabre terrain, as a nurse and medical doctor recounted in bloody depth the research for Depp’s lacking fingertip subsequent a 2015 fight with Read. Depp statements Read severed the major of his center finger just after throwing a bottle at him Listened to counters that the actor probably slice his finger smashing a telephone.

In its early times, the trial has felt like sifting by means of the wreckage of a royal courtroom right after its ruler has been deposed. In the age of superheroes, Hollywood has uncovered that it does not need to cater as much to stars like Depp and Smith. Both arrived at their zenith about the transform of the century, but in latest many years their box business powers waned.

“A film’s star was a big section of the way that a motion picture used to be identified,” claims Will Scheibel, affiliate professor of film and screen scientific tests at Syracuse University. “Now it would seem like businesses like Marvel or intellectual residence like ‘Star Wars’ or even directors like Christopher Nolan are how people ascertain what they want to see.”