Seriously, why'd it have to be Depp??
I will be the first to admit that I love the Harry Potter franchise. I’ve reread the books more times than I care to count, and I recently marathoned the films at the Prince Charles Cinema near Leicester Square in London (and I only slept through a couple of the 21 hours!).
And I did enjoy the first Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them film - seeing the magical creatures I had only read short descriptions of in the books come to life truly was amazing to watch, and almost distracted from the strange lack of Black background people in 1920’s Harlem. The critically acclaimed, award winning film is in fact the first of a trilogy, with the sequel due in November this year, but there is some controversy over the casting of ‘dark wizard’ Gellert Grindelwald, who is played by famed actor Johnny Depp. Is it right for him to continue his career unhindered by the domestic abuse allegations against him? For some context, Depp began dating actress and model Amber Heard in 2011, and they married in 2015. In 2016 however, Heard filed for divorce and got a temporary restraining order against Depp, claiming “during the entirety of our relationship, Johnny has been verbally and physically abusive” to her. Eventually, the divorce was finalised and they published a joint statement which said their “relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm.” This seems like a bit of a contradiction, but despite their seemingly ‘friendly’ settlement it’s arguably still ‘unsettling’ that someone alleged to harm others is still able to be cast in high-profile roles.
Heard received numerous speculations that her claims were false in order to speed up the divorce process and get more money, however she donated the $7m to charity (the American Civil Liberties Union and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles got half each) in order to show “money played no role for [her] personally and never has, except to the extent that [she] could donate it to charity and, in doing so, hopefully help those less able to defend themselves,” as she said in a personal statement.
Obviously the allegations against Depp have nothing to do with his professional life, and while I will in all likelihood still see Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, if for no other reason than to see how it adds to the lore of the Harry Potter universe, I know that I will feel at least slightly uncomfortable seeing Depp on-screen. Is it just me? Should the careers of actors (or any other celebrity) suffer due to allegations of domestic violence? Even Chris Brown, who faced community labor, probation, counselling, and a restraining order for assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009, had a “fairly substantial backlash” as his songs were pulled from radio station, although this really had “little bearing on the progress of his music and acting careers” in the long run according to Andy Kellman of Allmusic.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic, so leave your comments below. If you or anyone you know is suffering from domestic violence, you can call the UK National Domestic Violence hotline for free at 0808 2000 247.
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