19 jul 2018 ano - E! NEWS Johnny Depp's Steep Descent From Untouchable Stardom

Descrição:

FROM E! NEWS:

Tracing Johnny Depp's Steep Descent From Untouchable Stardom

In light of his messy divorce and money troubles, the movie star's popularity stock can't help but be in decline after a 30-year reign as a heartthrob favorite

By NATALIE FINN

All of the elements were there. The years spent "poisoning" himself, the bad-boy antics, the numerous flops sprinkled among the popcorn blockbusters, the increasingly aggressive ex-pat accent.

Johnny Depp's inevitable decline in popularity was seemingly written in the stars years ago and yet...

It never actually occurred.

The unmistakable charisma, his contentment with wallowing in weirdness, the sheer Deppth of it all—and maybe even his acting skills, too—kept the two-time "Sexiest Man Alive" afloat when it came to public appreciation, even though his collaborations with Tim Burton and Disney were the only movies big audiences bothered buying tickets for. He had become a bit quirkier as the '00s went by, but still in an appealing way, and he frequently ranked atop the list of people's "favorite." Actor, movie star, heartthrob, oddball—favorite everything.

Then 2016 came along.

The year started off swell, with the oft-cited Harris Poll letting it be known in late January that Depp was America's second-favorite movie star, behind only Tom Hanks. Nothing to argue with there. Depp had taken the title in 2011 and 2012, but was No. 4 in 2015. So his stock was back on the rise. He had gotten strong reviews for playing murderous mobster Whitey Bulger in 2015's Black Mass and 2016 held promises of a windfall with the sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass due in theaters.

At the same time, however, word was getting around that all was far from fine in his marriage to Amber Heard. He had married the actress in February 2015, a strange turn of events for those who wondered why he took that step, considering he had never officially married Vanessa Paradis, the mother of his two children and partner for almost 14 years. (Their split back in 2012 wasn't exactly a high point for Depp popularity, with even fans who spent years wishing they were Paradis not caring for the breakup of a family. And then he rebounds with someone 23 years his junior? Quelle horreur! Très cliché!)

"I try not to react to the horrible misrepresentation of our lives, but it is strange, and hard," Heard said in the December 2015 issue of Marie Claire about the ever-hovering rumors that they were having marital troubles.

And they were hanging in there, with Depp telling E! News about his wife at the November 2015 premiere of The Danish Girl, "She's a voracious reader as I have been, so we connected on that as well and she's kind of brilliant and beautiful. I'm a lucky man."

Yet by the time their first anniversary rolled around in February 2016, a source was telling us, "Because of their strong personalities they do not always see eye to eye. They are both stubborn and overly dramatic, which doesn't help when they disagree." At the same time, the insider added, "They're in a good place right now and are excited for the future."

The couple who in April showed up in an apology video meant to assuage the Australian government as amends for Heard bringing her dogs into the country in 2015 without going through proper protocol, however, looked neither excited for the future nor as if they were in a good place.

Depp made light of the video's inherent ridiculousness while on the promotional circuit for Alice Through the Looking Glass, but behind the scenes he and Heard were imploding—and then on May 23 she filed for divorce. In response, Depp's rep tried to quash any wild speculation, stating that the actor, whose mother had also just died, would "not respond to any of the salacious false stories, gossip, misinformation and lies about his personal life."

But the Johnny Depp-loving world really turned upside down four days later when Heard, with a visible bruise on her cheek, went to court to obtain a temporary domestic violence restraining order against her husband, alleging he had thrown a phone at her face in a rage on May 21 and, according to court documents, continued "screaming at me, pulling my hair, striking me and violently grabbing my face." (Police were called to their home that night but left after determining no crime had occurred.) She alleged in the filing there had also been a "severe incident" in December 2015 during which she feared for her life. She requested $50,000 a month in spousal support. (A judge denied that amount.)

Within hours, the warring factions had formed online.

A combination of existing Depp skeptics and till-then admirers jumped ship immediately, figuring they didn't need to wait to see how it all unfolded to conclude something unsavory had occurred and the actor deserved to be relegated to the toxic-star graveyard. They weren't surprised, they claimed. Saw it coming even, maybe.

Countless others, however, dug in. Depp was the best, Heard was trash, and that was that. (And they have not gone anywhere. They are right now astounded and appalled by the fact that anyone, anywhere, thinks Depp is having any trouble whatsoever.)

Then, of course, there was the majority of people who saw the news, who mainly were just morbidly fascinated both by what was going on and by what others were saying about it—all of which revealed more about the others than shed light on what was really going on between Heard and Depp.

Months of mud-slinging followed, punctuated by leaked photos and videos to TMZ seemingly showing Depp acting a mess, as well as a People cover with a close-up of Heard's bruised face, purported evidence of the actor's alleged abuse.

"Amber has suffered through years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Johnny," Heard's attorneys told E! News. Depp's attorney maintained Heard was fabricating abuse claims to secure herself a big payout. Heard's friends shored up their support for the actress. Paradis and their daughter, Lily Rose Depp, as well as numerous friends of Johnny, came to his defense. No one fired him.

But there weren't enough loyal, ticket-buying Depp film fans to make Alice Through the Looking Glass, which came out the day Heard secured her TRO, a success. Over Memorial Day weekend in 2016, the $170 million film opened to a disappointing $32.6 million in the U.S. and Canada and ultimately only made $77 million overall on these shores, compared to Alice in Wonderland's $334 million (and $1 billion haul worldwide).

Depp and Heard reached a $7 million settlement agreement in mid-August and said in a joint statement that their "relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm." Heard stated her intent to donate the entirety of the settlement to charity and then the exes did the legal equivalent of locking their dirty laundry up in a trunk, throwing the trunk into the sea and swallowing the key.

A squabble over which one of them actually got to make the donations prolonged the divorce proceedings, however, as did the question of whether a domestic violence PSA Heard appeared in in November 2016 and an essay about domestic abuse that she wrote for the December 2016 issue of Porter magazine qualified as a breach of their confidentiality agreement. (She never mentioned Depp and her lawyer insisted she was in compliance.) They also pointed fingers about leaks to the press that painted each other in unflattering lights.

All the while, Depp was on the road playing guitar with his band Hollywood Vampires, plus he lined up the Biggie-Tupac murder investigation drama City of Lies (based on the true-crime book LAbyrinth) and had Kenneth Branagh's remake of Murder on the Orient Express coming up.

After what was inarguably a rough summer in the PR department, however, audiences were polarized by Depp's well-guarded cameo in the hotly anticipated Harry Potter universe installment Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which came out in November 2016. He only popped up at the very end, but with a promise of a main role to come in the sequel which, sure enough, he had quietly signed up for.

Critics of the casting choice couldn't understand what the filmmakers, including master of the Potterverse J.K. Rowling, were thinking, bringing him aboard the beloved burgeoning franchise in light of Heard's allegations against him. (Or keeping him aboard, since he was hired to play Gellert Grindelwald before his divorce.)

Rowling merely said at the film's New York premiere that Depp had done "incredible things" with the character, the BBC reported. "He was beyond excited about working on this material," added director David Yates.

Meanwhile, Depp and Heard finally divorced for good in January 2017, and a few days later Depp attended the People's Choice Awards to accept the honor of Favorite Movie Icon.

"Listen, I was very deeply affected by the kindness of your recognition and by your well wishes to my family and to myself," the fame-averse yet always fan-appreciating actor said, "which is why it's especially meaningful to me to be here in front of you to say thank you, and to tell you that I, to thank you."

But if it's possible, the year that unfolded turned out to be just as bizarre as 2016.

"I was as low as I believe I could have gotten," Depp recently told Rolling Stone for a controversial-upon arrival story (unnecessarily harsh and exploitative vs. accurate reflection of circumstances, went the debate) in its July 2018 issue. "The next step was, 'You're going to arrive somewhere with your eyes open and you're going to leave there with your eyes closed.' I couldn't take the pain every day."

The profile, titled "The Trouble With Johnny," was a marked turn in tone from the still characteristically subversive but more laudatory articles such as the magazine's November 2012 cover story "Johnny Depp: The Last Buccaneer" or 2013's "Johnny Depp: An Outlaw Looks at 50."

But Rolling Stone's Stephen Rodrick was merely chronicling how off course the Depp train, which had been chugging along without real incident for almost 30 years, had gone in the prior 24 months.

[More via the links below]

Adicionado na linha do tempo:

Data:

Imagens: