Actor Johnny Depp, while speaking at a press conference at the San Sebastian Film Festival, called cancel culture a “instant rush to judgement” and warned that no one is safe from it.
Cancel culture, or call-out culture, is a form of expressing criticism and boycotting an individual or a group for their questionable deeds. It largely takes place on social media.
Answering a journalist’s question about the phenomenon, Depp said, “It’s a very complex situation. It can be seen as an event in history that lasted for however long it lasted, this cancel culture, this instant rush to judgement based on what essentially amounts to polluted air.”
“It’s so far out of hand now that I can promise you that no one is safe. Not one of you. It takes one sentence and there’s no more ground, the carpet has been pulled. It’s not just me that this has happened to, it’s happened to a lot of people. This type of thing has happened to women, men. Sadly, at a certain point, they begin to think that it’s normal. Or that it’s them. When it’s not,” Depp further said.
He added, “But I believe that if you are armed with the truth, then that’s all you need. When there’s an injustice, against someone you love or someone you believe in, stand up [for them].”
The actor, who has films like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Finding Neverland to his credit, has been embroiled in a prolonged legal battle with his estranged wife, actor Amber Heard, who has levelled domestic abuse allegations against him.
Heard filed for a divorce in 2016.
In April 2018, The Sun, a UK tabloid, called Depp a “wife-beater” in an article and Depp filed a libel claim against the publication, which was rejected by the British High Court’s Justice Andrew Nicol in 2020. Justice Nicol also found that 12 of the 14 alleged domestic violence incidents did occur. The judge ruled that Depp had assaulted Heard on these occasions and put her in “fear for her life” three times.
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Depp was consequently, ousted from the Fantastic Beasts franchise and also dropped from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise by Disney.
The ongoing San Sebastian festival felicitated Depp with this year’s Donostia Award for lifetime achievement. When this was first announced, the festival was criticised by CIMA, the Association of Women Filmmakers of Audiovisual Media of Spain, for the decision to honour Depp, who is facing such accusations of mistreatment from his ex-wife.