†Stupid is what stupid does† You may know that phrase from the movie Forrest Gump† In recent weeks, that was one of the neater reproaches against Amber Heard. Why was this bright and free-spirited star actress so stupid to tie the knot with Johnny Depp? On his curriculum, the list of exes is as puzzling as the list of movies he starred in and the alcohol, drug, and drug cocktails he consumed.
Depp also fell a little ‘stupid is what stupid does‘ to rub. Why did this ever elusive and unhinged actor who even spared Vanessa Paradis, the mother of his children, a connection in real life – ‘would be a shame to have her beautiful last name’ – tied the knot with Amber Heard?
Anyone who had completed the beginner’s course in predicting the future at the LOI knew that this marriage would not be a blessing. Heard filed for divorce after 15 months. An iPhone is hard when you get one against your head, she explained the injury to her eye. She had heard Depp’s phone go through glass before. She called him from a set, Depp thought there was an affair going on between Heard and Billy Bob Thornton. That evening he ran his finger along the broken glass, dipped it in blue paint, and announced a movie about infidelity in purple on the wall: Starring Billy Bop and Easy Amber†
The divorce was pronounced in 2017. Heard was by no means rid of this man after that. When she entered The Washington Post Calling her “a public figure who represents domestic violence,” he sued her for defamation. The ‘John C. Depp II vs. Amber Laura Heard’ case broke all digital viewing figures this spring. #justiceforjohnnydepp videos were clicked 18 billion times on TikTok. And what no famous man in the #MeToo era had managed to do: Depp got digital public opinion behind him.
Wandering film career
There are those who know that Johnny Depp is little more than a twisted figure with acting talent. See his faltering movie career, see the drug smoothies on his breakfast table. From this point of view, Depp has little control over what he is up to, it happens to him, including his success as a ‘stained man who fought back’. There are also people who know that Johnny Depp doesn’t just do things, in which, in addition to a sublime acting talent, a sublime intuition is attributed to him. Without something genius you cannot combine an adventurous and experimental life with great success. You have to have something brilliant to create the perfect pirate as well as the perfect Willy Wonka and the perfect eccentric creature. In this regard, Depp intuitively realized he could rock the #MeToo movement.
In all #MeToo scandals, the main characters display the same typical, one-dimensional behavior. And ‘typical’ is exactly what the main characters in the case ‘Depp versus Heard’ are not. You can think of Depp as a weird wizard or rock ‘n roll junkie, but not as an ordinary #MeToo man. Heard, for her part, does not qualify as an ‘ordinary #MeToo woman’, because she does not throw vodka bottles or treat you to turds.
There is something else relevant to this case: the observation that in Depp’s universe there is no boundary between the film set and the world beyond. If anyone can see ‘the unjustly smeared man’ as the ultimate role to star in, then him. His counterpart is a star actress who in no way aspired to her role as a ‘hypocritical and secretly violent woman’. Not only did the TikTok public see that, the analog jury in the ‘Depp versus Heard’ case also saw that.