On the world’s most famous red carpet, outside the Palais des Festivals, it’s hard to believe that Johnny Depp is still a controversial figure. The actor was treated like a movie star when he came back to the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday for the premiere of “Jeanne du Barry.” The director Maïwenn’s period drama is the actor’s first leading role in three years. This is because he has been in court with his ex-wife, Amber Heard, for the past few years.
Fans in France started gathering along the Croisette at 10 a.m. in the hopes of getting an autograph or a selfie with Johnny Depp. He arrived at the theater just after 7 p.m. Fans held up signs that said “Viva Johnny” and “We Love Johnny,” and others chanted “Johnny, Johnny, Johnny” and asked the actor to sign the Dior ads they had with them. Depp, who had a ponytail and wore purple sunglasses, took his time to pose for selfies and talk to his fans. When he got to his seat in the theater, he was met with a standing ovation, which showed how much people loved him.
It was almost impossible to move around the Croisette, where security guards in high-end stores like Louis Vuitton and Dior were visibly annoyed by the growing crowds and kept telling people to stay away from their doors. Four teenage girls from the south of France went to the premiere to see Johnny Depp, whom they have been fans of for a “very, very long time.” Another person in the crowd, who had come from Switzerland, held a sign outside the venue asking for a ticket to “Jeanne du Barry.” She says she’s crazy about Depp as an actor, but
I’m not very interested in personal life stories.
But in recent years, Johnny Depp’s personal life has gotten much more attention than his professional. His Hollywood career stalled after he lost a libel case in the UK in 2020 over a tabloid article that called him a “wife beater” and won another one in the US in 2022. During that time, he was fired from “Fantastic Beasts,” a spinoff of “Harry Potter,” where he played the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald.
But Johnny Depp has stayed very popular in Europe and other parts of the world. He has won awards for career achievement and tributes at a number of international film festivals, and he still has a lucrative deal as a brand ambassador for Dior. While this was going on, the actor’s fans, most of whom were probably from the United States, were active on social media to get “Minamata,” a 2020 movie that not many people have seen. It was nominated for the Oscars’ and considered to be a short-lived fan favorite award.
Even though there are still problems with Depp, the organizers of Cannes have stuck to their decision to show the film. On Monday, Thierry Fremaux, the head of the Cannes Film Festival, said that putting “Jeanne du Barry” in this year’s festival was a matter of free expression.
I don’t know about the image of Johnny Depp in the U.S.,
Fremaux said during a press conference.
To tell you the truth, in my life, I only have one rule: it’s the freedom of thinking, and the freedom of speech and act within a legal framework.
Maiwenn has been in the news because she admitted to spitting in the face of an investigative journalist, Edwy Plenel, before the premiere. His paper ran a story that said several women had said that her ex-husband, director Luc Besson, had r*ped them. She walked with Depp, hand in hand, down the red carpet and into the Palais.
As they walked into the theater holding hands, they channeled their “Jeanne du Barry” characters. The movie is about the rocky relationship between King Louis XV of France (Johnny Depp) and Maiwenn, who played the role of a worker who became his great love. Louis XV, who was known as “the Beloved,” was king for 59 years and died following accusations of being a corrupt ruler.
