Captain Jack Sparrow may have missed out on a pretty large pile of booty – or that’s what his agent is saying, anyway. The latest update from the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial reveals that the actor was reportedly set to take home $22.5 million for appearing in Disney’s Pirates 6, but ultimately wasn’t recast in his leading role.
According to Jack Whigham, who has represented Depp at both Creative Artists Agency and Range Media Partners, filmmakers opted to go “in a different direction” following Heard’s op-ed recounting her alleged experience with domestic abuse went live in the Washington Post.
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“After the op-ed, it was impossible to get him a studio film,” Whigham shared in his testimony, describing the impact the December 2018 piece had as “catastrophic.”
Variety reports that Depp is suing his ex for $50 million, claiming that his career was destroyed due to her “false allegations of domestic violence.” Currently, the trial is unfolding in Fairfax, Virginia, and entered its fourth week today. So far, we’ve heard only from the father of two’s legal team; Heard’s side is expected to start offering up their evidence later in the trial.
On Monday (May 2nd), Whigham testified that he began working with Depp in 2016, and saw him stay booked and busy throughout 2017. For “City of Lies” he brought in $8 million, “Murder on the Orient Express” earned him $10 million, and finally, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” was a $13.5 million payday.
2018 saw the Kentucky-born entertainer work on an independent film, “Waiting for the Barbarians,” for which he earned $1 million. Depp was due to bring home $3 million for “Minamata,” although financing allegedly became shaky after Heard’s story came out, resulting in him taking a significant cut; he has not appeared on-screen since then.
“It was a first-person account coming from the victim,” Whigham told the court today. “It became a death-knell catastrophic thing for Mr. Depp in the Hollywood community.”
Tap back in with HNHH later for more updates from Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s ongoing legal battle.
[Via]