Yesterday, J.K. Rowling finally responded to the anger a lot of fans feel regarding Johnny Depp’s casting in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Many of us were hoping his role of Grindelwald would be recast for the second movie, since his presence only taints this otherwise beloved family-and youth-oriented series. For those who are unable or uninterested in separating an artist from their art, Depp’s history of alleged domestic abuse makes it impossible to enjoy watching his face onscreen.
But Rowling’s statement defended Depp’s casting. She used the divorce settlement and statement from Depp and Amber Heard as a defense, writing, “the agreements that have been put in place to protect the privacy of two people, both of whom have expressed a desire to get on with their lives, must be respected. Based on our understanding of the circumstances, the filmmakers and I are not only comfortable sticking with our original casting, but genuinely happy to have Johnny playing a major character in the movies.”
As Princess wrote yesterday, we can’t know what “circumstances” Rowling and David Yates–who has also defended Depp’s casting, trotting out the old “well, he never assaulted anyone in front of me” line–have knowledge of, but they apparently don’t involve the public documentation of Amber Heard’s bruises or her testimony.
Today, Heard posted an image of her and Depp’s full statement to Twitter. She doesn’t mention Rowling, but it seems safe to infer that’s who she’s responding to.
https://twitter.com/realamberheard/status/938975040711794689
It seems the line being quoted out of context here is the bit about wishing Johnny the best in the future, as if that’s the same as hoping to see him paid millions of dollars and solidifying his place in an iconic and much-beloved franchise.
So long as we’re choosing individual sentences to focus on, though, this is the one I would go with:
Neither party has made false accusations for financial gains.
Through this entire process, Depp’s diehard stans–both fans and certain media outlets–have maintained that Heard was lying about being abused, that she was after money or fame or that joy they’re convinced women get from taking down a powerful man. She pledged to donate her entire settlement to charity and they still found ways to paint her as an attention-seeking villain.
You might have thought that by including this line in their joint statement, that would finally put those theories to rest. Johnny Depp signed a statement saying no one, including Amber Heard, made false accusations.
How is that the sentence that gets ignored? If J.K. Rowling is specifically going to reference their joint statement, it’s ludicrous to focus on “wishes [him] the best” and ignore the admission that she wasn’t lying about the assault.
(via Uproxx, image: Shutterstock)
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