‘I’m not the man I was’: Johnny Depp is back with his biggest role since his highly publicized legal battles

By Zoe Sottile, CNN

(CNN) — The trailer for “Ebenezer,” Paramount Pictures’ newest entry into the “A Christmas Carol” lore, is more like a promo video for star Johnny Depp himself. Playing a man haunted by the ghosts of his past in his first major release since his ex-wife’s allegations of abuse and a slew of legal troubles landed the once bankable star in Hollywood’s figurative hinterland, it has all the subtlety of a bulldozer. At one point, Depp, heavily made up and grey-haired, winks at the camera and says, “It’s good to be back.” In a different cut of the trailer: “I’m not the man I was.”

Depp never really went away — he busied himself with indie and self-produced flicks over the past few years — but the lengthy lawsuits he pursued in what he framed as a bid to clear his name seriously damaged his reputation, costing him his job as the villain in Harry Potter spinoff series “Fantastic Beasts” and leading to a near-decade long absence from Hollywood. His new film seems to place a clear bet on an affirmative answer to the question of whether the film industry – and audiences – are ready to forgive Depp. (“Ebenezer” is distributed by Paramount Pictures. Paramount, CNN and Warner Bros, have the same parent company, Skydance.)

Nellee Holmes, the executive producer of “Jeanne du Barry,” a 2023 French film that cast Depp as Louis XV when he was still struggling to find mainstream Hollywood work and earned a massive standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, expects “Ebenezer” to do well. Throughout his legal battles, Depp has maintained devout friends in the industry, “people who trust in him,” she said, calling him “a good human being.” Particularly in Europe, where “Ebenezer” and his next project were filmed, there’s a contingent that “sees Johnny differently,” she said. “You cannot say anything that makes him bad.” And his artistic output, she said, speaks for itself: “His work is his weapon.”

Mary Anne Franks, a professor at George Washington University Law School who has spent years fighting online abuse and wrote about the Depp v. Heard case in her book, “Fearless Speech,” noted that in a broader political sense, the world is primed for a Depp comeback. Backlash against male celebrities and politicians accused of abuse or violence against women in recent years has, in many cases, been temporary, with some returning to their professions with the same levels of success and fame as they had prior.

Depp, Franks said, may have even benefited from the huge media coverage of the trial and its contribution to his image as countercultural icon.

“Not only has he not suffered meaningful consequences, he’s been lauded, and he became a hero to certain people,” Franks said.

Anatomy of a comeback

Paramount appeared to be testing the waters by dispatching Depp dressed as Ebenezer Scrooge to Comic-Con in San Diego this summer, where he scowled at passersby, camouflaged in full makeup and costume. His appearance seemed to be well received, with a cheering crowd of surprised onlookers and lots of good press. With a November 13 release, the studio seems to be banking on the viability of a family-friendly Christmas flick, replete with popular names (Rupert Grint, Ian McKellan and Daisy Ridley round out the cast) and a fairly successful filmmaker (the horror director Ti West). “Ebenezer” test audiences have rated Depp and the film in general highly, according to Puck.

Depp’s continued star power – and data showing audiences’ continued enthusiasm for him – was an important factor in his casting, a source familiar with the film said. Paramount and Depp’s publicist both declined to comment on the record.

Depp will follow up “Ebenezer” with a starring turn in “Day Drinker,” alongside Penelope Cruz and Madelyn Cline. In the United Kingdom, a gallery is hosting a show of Depp’s artworks, including a gloomy self-portrait and several collages. Long-stalled talks for him to resume his role in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise have restarted.

Leaning into the controversy by casting Depp in a role that self-consciously winks at his own controversies is smart strategy, said Evan Nierman, the CEO and founder of crisis PR firm Red Banyan. When a company deals head-on with an issue perceived as controversial, “you defang it,” he said.

“There’s a critical mass of the population who has no hesitation about recognizing Johnny Depp’s abilities and going to see films that he stars in,” said Nierman, whose firm did not work with Depp or Paramount. “He continues to be the closest thing Hollywood has to a sure thing.”

The path to Depp’s big Hollywood comeback starts with his fall. In 2016, Amber Heard, Depp’s wife of just over a year, filed for divorce and obtained a temporary restraining order, saying he had been “verbally and physically abusive” throughout their marriage. He was, at the time, an A-lister who had parlayed indie darling status into prominent roles in huge franchises, the biggest being a five-film turn as Captain Jack Sparrow in “The Pirates of the Caribbean.” Even as many of his projects leading up to Heard’s allegations were critical and box office disappointments, he maintained extraordinary wealth and star power.

Then he took things to court. The UK trial against the publisher of the British tabloid that described him as a “wife-beater” in an article questioning his casting in the second installment of “Fantastic Beasts” included days of tense testimony from Depp, Heard and several of their acquaintances. Heard told the court that Depp threatened to kill her “many times” and was physically abusive toward her, including instances in which she said he punched and strangled her and slammed her head against a kitchen counter. A judge found the wife-beater description was substantially true, and substantiated the vast majority of the instances of alleged abuse. Depp, whose lawyers at the time called the ruling “flawed” and who has continually denied abusing his ex-wife, was asked to resign from his “Fantastic Beasts” role in 2020.

By that year’s end, Depp was considered “radioactive” and un-hirable, one studio executive said, cited by The Hollywood Reporter in an extensive story detailing the collapse of his career. He was a “spent cliche,” the Guardian said in their own Depp autopsy.

Depp then pursued his ex-wife in US court to, in his words, “clear” his name. He sued her for defamation over a Washington Post op-ed she’d written in 2018 describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” She didn’t name Depp in the op-ed, but it didn’t matter. The implication was enough for the case to go to court. The case was televised to the world and dissected by a million rapacious social media commentators, many of whom excoriated Heard, characterizing her as a manipulative liar. When a Virginia jury returned with a mixed verdict, finding both Heard and Depp liable for defamation in their lawsuits against each other and awarding significantly more damages to Depp, it was hailed as the death of MeToo by conservative pundits Ann Coulter and Meghan McCain. Both parties appealed and reached a settlement in 2022. Heard said at the time the settlement was “not a concession” and that she’d lost faith in the US legal system. Depp’s lawyers said, “We are pleased to formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr. Depp, who made clear throughout the process that his priority was about bringing the truth to light.”

Though major studios continued to keep clear of Depp until it was announced he was cast in “Ebenezer” last October, he never really stopped working. In 2023, the year after he and Heard settled in the defamation suit, he starred in French period piece “Jeanne du Barry” as King Louis XV.

The next year, he directed a biopic on the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, produced by his production company, and, somewhat incongruously, voiced a courageous puffer bird in the children’s animated film “Johnny Puff: Secret Mission.” He also remained, throughout quasi-cancellation and return, a face of Dior’s Sauvage cologne.

For Depp’s critics, the message sent by his highly publicized return is dark. Haley Metzger, a content creator who makes videos about politics and feminism, including about Depp and Heard, under the moniker @MayorHaley, can’t move past the allegations of abuse and the outcome of Depp’s unsuccessful 2020 UK libel suit.

“The UK courts could have ruled you a wife beater, and you can still be in a beloved Christmas classic,” Metzger said.

Silenced

At the same time as “Ebenezer” gets the major picture treatment, Heard’s first on-screen credit since 2023’s “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” will be in “Silenced,” a documentary from Selina Miles and Blayke Hoffman about the use of defamation law against women alleging abuse. (Defamation suits are the third most common form of retaliation against survivors who asked National Women’s Law Center’s TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund for help, according to statistics shared by Jennifer Mondino, senior director of the fund.)

“I have lost my ability to speak,” says Heard in a clip shared from the documentary, which has not yet received US theatrical distribution but screened at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

The film, which was reviewed by CNN, places Depp’s lawsuit against Heard in what human rights attorney Jennifer Robinson calls a “global avalanche of defamation suits” after MeToo. “What has happened to me is just – it’s just an amplified version of what a lot of women live through,” Heard said in the film.

Heard, since the end of the trial, has built a quieter life in Madrid, where she rarely speaks to media and is occasionally photographed by tabloids. (Multiple requests to Heard’s representative seeking comment for this story went unanswered.) Staying off the big screen, she turned instead to theater, starring in “Spirit of the People” from playwright Jeremy O. Harris in western Massachusetts last year.

Metzger, the content creator, called Depp’s celebrated return a “slap in the face” to survivors of domestic violence and abuse.

But she noted that despite Depp’s return to the big screen, the narrative online, at least, has shifted. There’s still a large pro-Depp online contingency, but there’s more support for Heard “than there used to be,” Metzger said.

She attributes that in part to better reporting about the bot campaign that she believes helped fuel anti-Heard sentiment online. A BBC investigative podcast, “Who Trolled Amber?” found evidence suggesting a targeted harassment campaign that commandeered bots and paid trolls to destroy Heard’s online image in the run-up to the trial (Depp’s legal team has denied any wrongdoing and any involvement in targeted harassment of Heard).

Once a rising star with a lead role in the “Aquaman” series, Heard’s career and life are now utterly transformed from before the lawsuits Depp initiated about her claims of abuse took over her public image. Franks, the professor, said MeToo and the broader quest to hold powerful men accountable for harm is “still being presented as this incredibly powerful force,” sometimes likened to a witch hunt. In reality, “you saw a little bit of accountability, but mostly you saw the women who were making allegations getting destroyed,” Franks said.

“Heard will simply never be able to speak as freely as Depp is, and the fact that the trial happened at all made clear that this was always true,” she said.

The-CNN-Wire
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