Johnny Depp’s former leading lady, agent and business manager have alleged that the actor was challenging to work with when drugs and alcohol reportedly dictated his behavior.
However, many of Depp’s former co-stars offer a loyal, stark contrast to the recent testimony during the 58-year-old film star’s vicious defamation trial with ex-wife and “Aquaman” actress Amber Heard, 36.
First up: Actress Ellen Barkin, who had a romantic, or “sexual”, relationship with Depp when they both starred in the 1998 cult classic “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” testified that he threw a wine bottle at her during their relationship.
Barkin, 68, said the actor was arguing with friends in a hotel room when he tossed the object. She also reiterated Depp’s ex-wife Amber Heard’s claim that he was a “jealous man.”
“Controlling,” is how Barkin described Depp. “Asking me, ‘Where are you going? Who are you meeting with?”’
Another time, “I had a scratch on my back that once got him very, very angry because he insisted it came from me having sex with a person who wasn’t him,” she said in the deposition, recorded in 2019 and played for jurors in the Virginia trial on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Depp’s former agent, Tracey Jacobs, said his professional reputation took a hit when he started showing up late to projects due to drugs and alcohol, including the production of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.”
“Crews don’t love sitting around for hours and hours for the star to show up,” Jacobs said. “People talked … and it made people reluctant to use him.”
His former business manager, Joel Mandel, echoed Jacobs’ allegations, claiming Depp’s spending habits became “alarming” in 2011, and that he spent thousands on prescription drugs.
The negative claims are among the first the public has heard about Depp in this trial, aside from those made by Heard and her team, of course, but have his former co-stars ever slammed his professionalism?
Depp’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” co-star Eva Green has publicly supported the actor on Instagram throughout his ongoing legal battle.
“I have no doubt Johnny will emerge with his good name and wonderful heart revealed to the world, and life will be better than it ever was for him and his family,” the 41-year-old French actress wrote after Thursday’s bombshell testimony.
Orlando Bloom told the BBC that working with Depp during 2003’s “The Curse of the Black Pearl” was the most fun he’s ever had,
“I got to work with one of my heroes, Johnny Depp, and to see how he goes about business, which was really inspiring for me at this stage in my career,” said Bloom, 45.
He also raved about Depp’s dedication to his craft: “I knew he’d bring something unique to it the way he always does with his roles. I just didn’t know what it would be when I saw it, it was fantastic.”
Depp and Winona Ryder, 50, were co-stars in Tim Burton’s “Edward Scissorhands” in 1990, and got engaged five months after dating during that time.
“I can only speak from my own experience, which was wildly different than what is being said,” Ryder told Time in June 2016 after Heard’s allegations first made headlines. “He was never, never that way toward me. Never abusive at all towards me. I only know him as a really good, loving, caring guy who is very, very protective of the people that he loves.”
The two-time Oscar nominee and “Stranger Things” star also provided a witness statement in the Depp-Heard UK trial in 2020: “I understand that it is very important that I speak from my own experience, as I obviously was not there during his marriage to Amber,” Ryder wrote. “But, from my experience, which was so wildly different, I was absolutely shocked, confused and upset when I heard the accusations against him.”
Depp’s “Pirates” co-star Kevin McNally had nothing bad to say about the actor in a 2021 interview with LADbible.
“I’ve never seen a hint of any dark side to Johnny,” he said. “I see a great humanitarian and a beautiful human being. I don’t see any impediment for him coming back and playing Jack Sparrow.”
That, of course, won’t happen, as the blockbuster franchise’s producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, 78, has announced that Depp won’t be back, at least “not at this point.”
Another “Pirates” alum, Keira Knightley, told IGN in 2003 that the actors can hardly get through scenes without laughing.
“He’s just great. It’s really weird, because he’s a huge star of Hollywood, but he’s such a nice bloke,” she said. “We’d be over at the craft services wagon and he’d make a cup of tea and we’d have a chat and have a giggle, and do a scene then. He’s just really, really, really lovely.”
The two-time Oscar-nominee continued, “He’s one of the only actors around at the moment who will take those huge risks, and it was a risk. He’s got the balls to play a part like that, and I think that’s brilliant.”
Angelina Jolie raved about her time working alongside Depp in 2010’s “The Tourist.”
“He’s just such a nice guy. He’s so funny and so fun to hang out with,” Jolie, 46, said at a press junket for the film at the time.
“He’s not just somebody who’s doing these fun movies; he’s a real experimental, deeply feeling artist, who gives a lot and is very gracious on set to everybody and to his fellow actors. He’s just a pleasure.”
Anne Hathaway and Depp worked together in Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” and the “Les Misérables” Oscar winner has praised Depp’s down-to-earth demeanor.
“He has such a mystique about him that I feel like his fans and the media puts on him,” she said in 2010. “And he is as real a person as you can be. He’s, I think, exactly who he would be if none of this fame had happened to him.
“I admire that so greatly, it’s not only that it’s not gone to his head, but it’s not changed him one iota, and I think that’s remarkable.”
AnnaSophia Robb was just 9 years old when she started filming in 2005 for Tim Burton’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” alongside Depp.
“He’s really, really down to earth and he treats everyone with the same amount of respect,” she said of Depp at the time. “He invited you to his trailer and talks to you and makes jokes. Little simple things that make you feel comfortable and not ‘Oh my gosh it’s Johnny Depp.’ It’s just like, ‘Oh, It’s Johnny.’”
Actress Penélope Cruz couldn’t wait to work with Depp again when she joined the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise.
“I missed working with him through all those years because we had a great experience when we were shooting ‘Blow,’” Cruz told Access Hollywood via Digital Spy about their 2001 collab.
Like Knightley, Cruz said Depp made her giggle.
“Our problem is that we cannot stop laughing,” the Oscar winner continued. “That can really become a problem sometimes with us because some days we could not control ourselves. I always say it’s a good problem to have because, in the end, that will reflect on the chemistry of our characters.”
Brazilian “Pirates of the Caribbean” actress Kaya Scodelario opened up about how Depp helped her to get into her role.
“We were just lying on a piece of green screen and we had to pretend to be falling,” she told the Evening Standard in 2017. “I didn’t know what the f–k I was going to do, and I looked over to him and as soon as they said ‘action’ he was just completely committed, he didn’t care if it made him look silly or weird or strange,” she gushed. “That inspired me to let go and get out of my mind.”
Juliette Lewis and Depp starred together opposite Leonardo DiCapro in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” back in 1993.
“Johnny is self-debasing. Is that the right word? Anyway, sometimes he’s too self-debasing,” Lewis described the actor to the LA Times in 1993. Merriam-Webster defines the phrase as “the act or process of lowering oneself in status, esteem, quality, or character.”
