EXCLUSIVE: Depp ditches Disney! Johnny is REFUSING to ever return to Pirates of the Caribbean because he’s still furious at studio for dropping him during Amber Heard abuse case – despite rumors he could get $20M to reprise role of Captain Jack Sparrow
- On the eve of his 60th birthday on Friday, Depp’s true feelings about any potential return to Disney have been revealed by his close friends
- Disney severed ties with Depp in 2018 after ex-wife Amber accused him of abuse
- A source told DailyMail.com that the actor is still angry at the studio for ‘blind dropping him even though Amber lied’
Johnny Depp fans who are clamoring for him to once step into Captain Jack Sparrow’s tattered boots and tricorn are set to face bitter disappointment because, DailyMail.com can reveal, the actor has absolutely no plans to ever work with Disney again.
Despite furious speculation about the actor’s potential return to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise – which reports suggested could earn him up to $20 million – Depp is, his pals say, done with Disney once and for all because he is still furious over the way the studio unceremoniously ‘dropped him’ when his ex-wife Amber Heard accused him of abuse.
Last week, Disney studios President Sean Bailey made global headlines when he said that the studio was ‘noncommittal at this point’ about Depp’s return. It was widely taken as a gambit to leave the door open for Depp, following his win in court in Virginia last year over domestic abuse allegations.
But, having spent the past few months weighing what he does and doesn’t want to do and, on the eve of his 60th birthday on Friday, sources close to the star say that appearing in a film for Disney does not interest him.
Johnny Depp has no plans to return to Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise because he is still ‘smarting’ over the way the studio ‘dropped him’ after the Amber Heard abuse scandal
‘[Disney] blind dropped him even though Amber had lied her a** off,’ says a friend of Depp (seen during his 2022 trial against his ex-wife), who will celebrate his 60th birthday tomorrow
Insiders say that Depp is still smarting after the way that they dumped him when the wife-beating accusations first surfaced.
‘They blind dropped him even though Amber had lied her a** off,’ says a friend.
Although he said in Cannes that he doesn’t feel boycotted by Hollywood, Depp, a sensitive man, is angry about the way that the domestic abuse allegations played out and has decided that focusing on a life away from the industry is the best thing for him.
The pal says he has decided that no matter how lucrative the offer, or how cameo the role, he will never agree to go back for this particular studio film – and that it is highly unlikely that he will be tempted to do any studio film again.
Because it was not just Disney that dumped Depp at the first sign of trouble.
For example, Tim Burton – a long time friend of the actor – is making a second Beetlejuice film for Warner Bros, but Depp will not make an appearance, even though he is godfather to Tim’s children.
This, friends revealed, is due – at least in part – to his reluctance to get involved with Warner Bros again after the studio cut him out of the Fantastic Beasts franchise when he lost his libel action in London.
After five years largely consumed with legal battles against former wife Amber Heard, Depp is picking up the threads of his career and is concentrating on music, art, and directing arthouse films.
Amber penned an op-ed about surviving domestic abuse in 2018 – and Depp was dropped by Disney soon after
Sources say that Depp is picking up the threads of his career and is concentrating on music, art, and directing arthouse films
His blockbuster era seems to be a thing of the past.
He was quiet and contemplative in Cannes last month during the festival.
He said: ‘I started to experience these circuses – we can call them carnivals – so long ago. Your life becomes a circus,’ he said. ‘It’s not that you get used to the circus, but you realize there’s nothing you can do but inhale, exhale and accept what happens in the next steps. It’s still weird to me.’
A source close to the actor says: ‘He says he isn’t interested in speaking someone else’s words. He is interested in authentic expression of himself, through art and music at the moment. He’s got no interest in Hollywood at all.’
Might he make another passion project like the 2020 film Minamata, about mercury poisoning in Japan?
‘He might,’ says the source. ‘I would say that its likely he will spend most of his time in France, painting and making music. There could be the odd film.’
This year his focus has been on supporting his close friend Jeff Beck’s widow Sandra, who is 58. He flew to Beck’s bedside and was with Sandra at the funeral. He was also present afterwards when Beck was interred in a green ceremony in the back garden of their house in Sussex.
The actor spent extended periods living with Beck and Sandra, particularly during the pandemic.
Since then he has taken Sandra on holiday to his island in the Bahamas, Little Parrot Cay. Her best friend Wendy, British singer Joss Stone’s mother, came along too.
Last month he popped up at the Hotel Bristol for a special screening of the film Donny Brasco with his co-star and friend Al Pacino. Then came Cannes.
Was it a triumph? The seven-minute standing ovation, greeted by Depp with raised eyebrows and some smirks, certainly suggests so. However others have denounced the apparent plaudit as ‘phoney.’
Respected website Deadline says that only the section around Depp stood and cheered – the rest of the critics simply went off into the night to write their reviews.
And these were universally tepid. Some felt that this subdued and mostly silent Depp (perhaps uncomfortable in the French language) was an improvement on the wild over-acting of Jack Sparrow but nobody had a good word to say for the film itself.
Depp is keen to move away from the circus of Hollywood, pals say, something that was made clear during his very quiet and somber appearance at Cannes last month
The Hollywood Reporter called it ‘flat and shallow.’
It does, though, offer some insight into his status.
The $22.4 million film was sponsored by Chanel, who provided some costumes. Much of the budget came from Saudi funding but some came from the right on streaming giant Netflix – yes Netflix. Director Maiwenn said that she didn’t have a single conversation with them about casting Depp as Louis XV. ‘They never raised that as an issue,’ she said.
Depp politely attended the official dinner after the premiere and then went home before the party. That kicked off at midnight on the Terasse Albane in Cannes and was a high-octane affair.
A source in his entourage tells me that he wanted to be fresh for the following day’s media exertions. ‘Midnight is kind of late for a party to begin,’ I’m told.
Which makes one suspect that the man whose Byronic lifestyle was a byword for decadence is treading a slightly more wholesome path these days.
In public, Depp has been affecting that trademark stoner nonchalance, tossing out elaborate if hard-to-decipher aphorisms.
In Cannes he called himself a hillbilly from Kentucky and described those who would cancel him a ‘species or tower of mashed potatoes covered in light from a computer screen.’
The word potatoes was pronounced ‘poetayters’ in a sarcastic facsimile of a British accent. The effect was rather unsettling.
Asked about being thrown off the Fantastic Beasts film in the wake of being called a ‘wife beater’ he questioned why he would care about a boycott, adding that the allegations against him (of domestic abuse from former wife Amber) are called ‘just vowels and consonants floating in the air.’
Depp rejects the idea of a comeback – he says he’s never been away.
‘By the way I didn’t come back from anywhere,’ he said at the festival. ‘I live about 45 minutes away. Maybe people stopped calling out of whatever their fear was at that time, but no, I didn’t go anywhere.’
The idea of a comeback traditionally requires an apology, an acknowledgement of wrong-doing. After that hard-won seven week trial in Virginia which found that Amber had defamed him when she alleged abuse, there’s no chance of that.
In any case Depp, ever the iconoclast, says he doesn’t care to lower himself to grubbing for the approval of the masses.
‘It’s almost like I need to comeback and do a tap dance and dance my best for you guys, and hope you approve,’ he said. ‘The notion of that is some kind of bizarre mystery.’
After Cannes came two nights at the Albert Hall, playing guitar surrounded by heroes at a Jeff Beck tribute. Sadly, as he confirmed, in the immediate future he has been forced into a period of retirement with an injury.
He wrote on Instagram: ‘My dear friends, I am sorry to say that I have fractured my ankle, which is a drag!!! It began as a hairline break but somewhere between Cannes and the Royal Albert Hall it got worse rather than better.’
‘Several medical professionals have strongly suggested I avoid any and all activity for the moment and so am sadly unable to travel at this time,’ he wrote.
His dates with the Vampires have been rescheduled for the end of July. After that he will start on filming Modi, about 24 hours in the life of absinthe drinking artist Modigliani. He will direct, others will be in front of the camera.
On social media he calls himself an ‘occasional thespian’ and that’s about right. Music is his key focus and his supergroup comprising of Depp, Alice Cooper and Joe Perry of Aerosmith are now working on a third album.
He has a key group of close friends, some of whom work for him like assistant Stephen Deuters.
Others, like the actor Paul Bettany or director Tim, keep him company wherever in the world he wanders. I’m told he has achieved a ‘bohemian contentment’ with a golden circle of creative souls who he respects – and trusts. Will a woman ever again take a place in that circle? Maybe, but people who know him say that it’s not right for him just yet. Says one: ‘The Amber affair still casts a big shadow.’
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