The Most Shocking Revelations From Johnny Depp’s Rolling Stone Interview
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “So are you here to hear the truth? It’s full of betrayal,” Johnny Depp tells journalist Stephen Rodrick at the onset of his Rolling Stone interview.
During the candid and harrowing conversation, which took almost 200 email exchanges to organize, 55-year-old Depp spills it all. The article, pitched by Depp’s closest confidante and lawyer of two years, Adam Waldman, was designed to discuss the “injustice being done to Depp’s reputation and bottom line” in light of legal battles with his former business managers. Here are some of the most shocking revelations relayed over a 72-hour period by the actor who tried “to pull his own tooth at a London restaurant while having dinner” with Penelope Cruz and Stella McCartney.
1. Depp is very open about his drinking and smoking proclivities
Upon entering Depp’s rented mansion in London’s Highgate neighborhood, Rodrick describes encountering “the stogie-size joint left by the sink in the guest bathroom” and “the never-ending reservoir of wine that is poured into goblets.” Before eating a three-course meal of pad thai, duck, and gingerbread with berries, Depp motioned toward “two rolling papers and two equal piles of tobacco and hash.” Depp also insisted that The Management Group’s claims against him were wrong about spending $30,000 a month on wine. “It’s insulting to say that I spent $30,000 on wine,” he said. “Because it was far more.”
2. His loved ones had reservations about his marriage to Amber Heard
According to the article, Depp’s loved ones begged him not to wed Heard or to at least obtain a prenup, but he apparently ignored their advice. Members of Depp’s inner circle also described how Depp and his sister Christi’s relationship became badly damaged when he married the actress without a prenup. “He cut himself off from the only people looking out for him,” a longtime associate said.
3. Depp and Tom Petty had been longtime friends so the musician’s death impacted him greatly
“We’d call each other and ask, ‘Hey, you still smoking?’” Depp said. “Tom would go, ‘Yeah, I’m still smoking,’ and I’d feel better: ‘Well, if Tom is still smoking, I’m OK.’” As he wiped his eyes, the member of “sometime band” Hollywood Vampires recalled: “I loved him.” He and Petty arrived to Los Angeles from Florida trying to make it as rockers before Nicolas Cage told Depp there was more money to be made in acting.
4. Depp supported a pregnant Cruz in “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”
Cruz told Depp that she was pregnant right before shooting began on the “Pirates” film and wondered if she should drop out of the movie. Depp told her that was ridiculous. “He protected me every day, and by the end, I was six months pregnant,” Cruz said. “I’ll never forget that.”
5. Depp said he would have used drugs to speed up Osama Bin Laden’s capture
Described as “evangelical” in his use of drugs, Depp went on to say: “You get a bunch of f—ing planes, big f—ing planes that spray s—, and you drop LSD 25. You saturate the f—ing place. Every single thing will walk out of their cave smiling, happy.”
6. Depp became acutely depressed when his personal and financial lives came crashing down simultaneously
After his divorce from Heard and in the midst of encountering legal troubles, Depp recalled, “I was as low as I believe I could have gotten. The next step was, ‘You’re going to arrive somewhere with your eyes open and you’re going to leave there with your eyes closed.’ I couldn’t take the pain every day.” Depp then went on tour with the Hollywood Vampires and decided to write a memoir on an old manual typewriter. “I poured myself a vodka in the morning and started writing until the tears filled my eyes and I couldn’t see the page anymore,” he said. “I kept trying to figure out what I’d done to deserve this. I’d tried being kind to everyone, helping everyone, being truthful to everyone. The truth is most important to me. And all this still happened.”
7. Depp admits to getting his lines fed through an earpiece
The actor kept a sound engineer on the payroll in order to feed him lines while filming, as “the sounds fed to him made him act with just his eyes.” He explained: “I’ve got bagpipes, a baby crying, and bombs going off. It creates a truth. Some of my biggest heroes were in silent film. It had to be behind the eyes. And my feeling is, that if there’s no truth behind the eyes, doesn’t matter what the f—ing words are.”
8. Depp reflects on “goliath Shrek thing” Harvey Weinstein
During the 72-hour interview, Depp flipped through the news and came across a report on the fallen producer. Shaking his head and calling him an “a–hole,” Depp described how Weinstein buried his film “Dead Man” because director Jim Jarmusch refused to give up his contractually mandated final cut. “He was a bully,” Depp said. “Have you seen his wife? It’s not a wide range. It’s not like he went, ‘I must go to the Poconos to find some hairy-backed bitch.’” The actor also mentioned how he once tagged along as Weinstein was picking up his kid from school and he could tell that Weinstein really loved her. “The image that took my breath away was Harvey Weinstein, a goliath Shrek thing, bending down to put on his daughter’s raincoat.”
9. Depp discusses being blamed for River Phoenix’s death
Depp bought the Viper Room in the early 1990s and turned it into a small rock club that featured acts like Guns N’ Roses and Johnny Cash. He discussed how he suffered through the death of his friend Phoenix at the club along with claims in “supermarket rags that he’d delivered the fatal dose to Phoenix himself.” “Imagine living with that,” Depp said.
10. Depp fought to cut sub-plots in “Pirates”
In his Oscar-nominated performance as the swashbuckling persona affectionately borrowed from Depp’s idol Keith Richards, the actor noted how he battled with Disney screenwriters constantly. “Why must you have these f—ing heinous subplots?” Depp remembered asking. “It’s convoluted. There is not a f—ing soul that wants to see Captain Jack Sparrow sad.”
11. Depp reflects on his complicated relationship with his mother
While Depp offered that his first big purchase when he started making money in Hollywood was a house for his mother, Betty Sue. “My mom was born in a f—ing holler in eastern Kentucky. Her poor f—ing ass was on phenobarbital at 12,” he said. As the youngest of four, Depp described “irrational beatings” he received from his mother, and that she was “still his mom” even though she hurled things. “Maybe it’s an ashtray coming your way. Maybe you’re gonna get clunked with the phone,” Depp said. “It was a ghost house — no one talked. I don’t think there ever was a way I thought about people, especially women, other than ‘I can fix them.’” Depp also said he worshiped Betty Sue, but “she could be a real bitch on wheels.” At her 2016 funeral, he said: “My mom was maybe the meanest human being I have ever met in my life.”
