French director Maïwenn has sought to clarify comments she made about Johnny Depp in a recent interview, saying she feels ‘betrayed’ by how they were interpreted.
The filmmaker, 48, directed Hollywood star Depp, 60, in his comeback film Jeanne du Barry, a French historical drama that premiered at Cannes Film Festival last July.
It marked his first release since two highly publicised court cases, one on each side of the Atlantic, involving his ex-wife Amber Heard and the ugly fallout of their marriage.
While he won his defamation case against Aquaman star Heard in Virginia in 2022, he lost a libel case against The Sun newspaper in 2020, which had branded him a ‘wife-beater’.
The movie finally received its UK premiere on April 15, which Depp attended in person, and for which Maïwenn did further promotion.
However, she has now taken exception at how The Independent chose to run her interview, leading on quotes where she described the crew as being ‘afraid’ of the Pirates of the Caribbean actor and implying he was scary.
‘I have to be honest. It’s difficult to shoot with him… all the crew were scared because he has a different kind of humour and we didn’t know if he was going to be on time, or if he was going to be OK to say his lines,’ she was quoted as saying in the original interview.
‘I mean, even if he was there on set, on time, the crew were afraid of him,’ she added.
In a statement to Variety, the French star – who also played the title role in her film – insisted that when she said ‘scary’, she was talking solely about Depp’s ‘charisma’ and ‘star status’.
She also called him ‘one of the greatest actors’ and compared his ‘genius’ to that of Marlon Brando.
‘When I made a remark about Johnny being “scary,” I was talking about his charisma, his notoriety, his star status, etc. and was shocked when I discovered that the newspaper had headlined that ‘The crew were afraid of [Johnny Depp]’ because written like that, and without its context and subtleties, it absolutely no longer means the same thing,’ Maïwenn wrote in her statement.
‘The journalist did not want to grasp the subtlety of my words.’
She continued: ‘I would like to make things very clear: Johnny is “scary” in the sense that his charisma and his status as “king” is impressive. I should have used the word “impressive” if I had known Charlotte O’Sullivan would use my words in such a malicious way.’
The writer-director also praised Depp as ‘a huge actor’, adding: ‘He reminded me a lot of Brando – his genius and sufferings, his generosity and paradoxes. Even though we argued several times on set, he’s someone I totally respect and admire, and it’s important for me to correct my own narrative because I feel really betrayed by this interview.’
She then later added: ‘Johnny Depp is a celebrity and a genius and yes, that sometimes can scare some people.’
When talking to The Independent, Maïwenn also hinted at a sometimes-fractious working relationship with Depp, revealing he would often arrive on set having rewritten the script.
On one occasion, she shared: ‘Johnny came with a new version of the script and I wasn’t happy with it. It didn’t work… So I shot it without making the changes he wanted… which he took as an insult.’
The Léon actress also claimed she had asked for rehearsal time with Depp ahead of the shoot but ‘for whatever reason, he wasn’t available’, as well as admitting to cutting some of his dialogue when his French accent wasn’t up to scratch.
She also pointed out that that ‘happens’ on films, and she had cut out dialogue from her native French actors too.
In a recent chat with Metro.co.uk, Depp shared that his thought process when asked to play King Louis XV, opposite Maïwenn’s turn as the ruler’s last mistress, Jeanne, went something like this: ‘Haven’t done this before. There’s a possibility of total failure. I could fall flat on my face. I like it! It’s what I should do.’
The star, who also admitted he was ‘not remotely close to normal’, learned French from his relationship with singer-actress Vanessa Paradis – the mother of his children, Lily-Rose and Jack.
‘I was in the trenches with Maïwenn and the rest of the crew,’ is how he described the shoot.
‘I did the best I could. I did what I felt was right for the character, and for the story and for Maïwenn. So if it works, I’m a lucky motherf***er, really lucky.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted The Independent and Charlotte O’Sullivan for comment.
Jeanne du Barry is in UK cinemas now and will be released in the US on May 2.
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