By Sharanya Gopinathan
So of course by now there’s really no reason to believe that Johnny Depp isn’t a giant sexist ass. When he and Amber Heard divorced, she filed a restraining order against him, turned up in court bearing facial injuries that were the product of his violence, and of course, the papers were full of reports, leaked audio clippings and videos of the repeated violence he subject her to.
We also got to see biased reporting at its finest: you know how men like Johnny Depp are always excused, even lauded, for their gross, violent, illegal and disruptive behaviour because they’re “brooding geniuses” plagued by their demons or something, whereas women like Courtney Love, who live similar lifestyles are branded sloppy, out-of-control drunks? I remember back when the papers were filled with Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s divorce, I was particularly grossed out to read about the leaked texts between Heard and Depp’s assistant: the assistant referred to Depp as a “lost little boy” as Heard detailed the places he’d attacked her. Ugh.
Anyway, after all that I suppose it’s silly to be shocked, but this new report was still so annoying to read. According to a blog post posted by Terry Rossio, a writer on Pirates of the Caribbean, the first version of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales had a female villain, until Depp came along and decided against it. Don’t worry though, he had a reason: he’d already faced a female villain before one other time in Dark Shadows. Yes, that’s all.
It’s as ridiculous as it sounds, of course: he’s faced several male villains before in his career, but apparently just couldn’t bring himself to face a female villain twice. Which also makes it clear what he thinks about women and the roles that should be assigned to them in movies, and shows that Dark Shadows was just a gimmick, a once-in-a-lifetime tick in the box to prove the width of his own range, and nothing more.
It’s also extra depressing because he’s considered one of Hollywood’s foremost actors and is known for his performances that push the envelope. If Hollywood’s most “progressive” actors can’t stop seeing women as mere tools to further their own games and careers, and have no respect for stories and roles that give them space, you feel kind of sick imagining what the rest of Hollywood is like.