So I Guess We’re Supposed to Feel Bad Now for Johnny Depp or Something
Somewhere out there on a desert island, Captain Jack Sparrow is drowning his sorrows with a bottle of rum. Johnny Depp, in contrast, is airing his out for all the world to see in Rolling Stone.
Amid the disgraced actor's fall from public grace, the notoriously private and eccentric Depp sat down for a surprisingly candid interview with the publication, where he opened up about his financial woes, tumultuous divorce and many, many lawsuits.
"I was as low as I believe I could have gotten," the actor shared of the aftermath of his very public divorce from Amber Heard, who he allegedly emotionally and physically abused prior to their 2016 split and, in one audio recording obtained by TMZ, could be heard berating while seemingly intoxicated.
But his troubles were far from over following the divorce: In January 2017, news broke that the actor was suing his former business managers, Joel and Robert Mandel of The Management Group (TMG), for "mishandling his money."
The Mandels counter-sued, however, claiming Depp has a "$2-million-a-month compulsory-spending disorder" and spent $30,000 a month on wine alone—something Depp told the publication was wholly untrue: "It’s insulting to say I spent $30,000 on wine, because it was far more," he gloated.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Depp also acknowledged the rumors — or rather, didn't deny — that he kept a sound engineer on payroll to would feed him his lines while filming, something Depp said was necessary to create "truth" in his performance, as the engineer would also play audio cues to help him emote while in character.
"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," the actor insisted.
Other expenses that led to his financial struggles seem to include launching a failed record label that hemorrhaged millions, collecting numerous houses and properties like they were Pokemon cards, and spending $5 million to launch the ashes of his deceased friend Hunter S. Thompson from a cannon in Aspen back in 2005.
To flee from all the self-inflicted pain, Depp told Rolling Stone that he poured his anguish into his memoirs, which he rather pretentiously typed up on an old typewriter.
"I poured myself a vodka in the morning and started writing until the tears filled my eyes and I couldn’t see the pages anymore," he bemoaned. "I kept trying to figure out what I’d done to deserve this. I tried being kind to everyone, helping everyone, being truthful to everyone… The truth is most important to me. And all this still happened."