12h 5min, dec 26, 2020 y - EXTRA IRELAND ‘I utterly believe him’ Victoria Mary Clarke defends friend Johnny Depp

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‘I utterly believe him’ — Victoria Mary Clarke defends friend Johnny Depp

By Jenny Friel

[Edited to relevant paragraphs only - full article available via the links below]

The plan for a documentary on Shane, according to Victoria, started with her. ‘It was kind of my idea,’ she laughs. ‘We had that first big concert [to mark his 60th birthday at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin three years ago] which was so good and Shane really loved. I was really surprised at how moved he was by it. I expected him to be a bit nonchalant, but he cried on stage when President Higgins gave him the award.

‘I said to Johnny Depp, “We can’t let it go, why don’t we do something with the footage, let’s make a documentary.” Once we decided that was a good idea, we said it to Shane, and he was like, “Oh alright, whatever.”

Hollywood megastar Depp has been a friend of Shane’s for more than 30 years. He was the main producer of the documentary and features throughout, Shane telling him war stories about his history with drink, an open bottle of booze on the table between them.

At the beginning of last month, Depp lost his High Court libel action against a tabloid newspaper over an article that called him a ‘wife beater’. The case, which included both Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard as witnesses detailing their toxic and violent relationship, attracted global publicity. Given the ruling, was there ever any discussion about taking him out of the film?

‘On no, there would be no question of that,’ says Victoria. ‘I completely and utterly believe him,’ she goes on to explain.

‘He doesn’t have any reason to lie to me or Shane. If he had done anything, all he had to do was say, “I did this and I feel bad about it.” We’re that close.

‘If I did anything I was ashamed of, I would not feel that Johnny was going to judge me, unless I killed his daughter or something. He’s a very accepting kind of guy and a very compassionate guy.

‘I also happen to know his history, I know his mother beat him up a lot, very badly. So I know he is attracted to women who are violent and he can’t help it. He tries to run away from people, rather than engage with them.

‘It was awful to watch [the court case], for him the pain of it was more to do with his children. If it had just been him and he didn’t have children, I think he would have let it go. But the fact the kids were being harassed about it, and young enough to be impressionable, it was really difficult for them.

‘The other thing that I think people forget is that women hit men a lot,’ she adds. ‘They really do, I’ve hit Shane, many times. Not only have I hit him, but I’ve hit him in public and people just laugh. They don’t take it seriously. I think we’ve got a long way to go before men are seen as being capable of being victims of domestic abuse.’

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Victoria, who has branched into art and now designs and sells scarfs that Depp has worn to film premieres, is delighted with the documentary. Shane is not quite as excited.

‘I don’t think he’s ever going to be happy,’ she says. ‘He doesn’t see it the way other people do. He’s watching it and thinking, “Oh my God, I look old, I looked so much better when I was younger. Do I look a bit fat there?”

‘But Johnny loves it too, he’s just so happy to get an opportunity to introduce Shane’s music to an audience who perhaps didn’t know about it.

‘There are a lot of [Depp’s] fans who might have heard of Fairytale of New York, but the rest of the stuff, they wouldn’t know it.’

Given the excellent reviews from the critics and Depp’s involvement, Crock of Gold could very well win Shane a whole new set of fans not that he really cares.

‘He doesn’t pay any attention to attention,’ says Victoria. ‘He’s one of those rare people who isn’t that bothered about what people think about him. That’s totally real and it’s a quality I would love to have myself. It’s one of the best qualities you can have in life to be yourself, without being afraid to be yourself? That’s pretty cool.’

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