Johnny Depp at Cannes: 'Do I feel boycotted now? Not at all'

CANNES, France — At first you had to wonder if they were running out the clock.

Twenty minutes after the Cannes Film Festival news conference for Jeanne du Barry was supposed to begin Wednesday, neither the film’s actress-director, Maïwenn, nor her lead actor, Johnny Depp, had actually shown up.

Were they hoping to avoid questions? For Maïwenn, who was accused of spitting on a journalist in February, and Depp, who recently won a defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard after she made allegations of physical and sexual abuse, queries about their personal scandals could overwhelm all talk of the movie they were meant to promote. Both had been in attendance the previous night when Jeanne du Barry opened the festival, but Cannes premieres are famously fawning and conclude with a customary standing ovation. Meeting the press would be a whole different matter.

Depp, who has not starred in a major Hollywood film in five years, had already missed the morning photo call for Jeanne du Barry, a French-language drama in which he plays Louis XV opposite Maïwenn’s titular courtesan. It fell to Maïwenn to shoulder that appointment alone, and 25 minutes after the film’s press conference was meant to start, Maïwenn entered the media room with her leading man still nowhere to be found.

At first, she talked around his absence, revealing that she had originally offered Depp’s role to several French actors, who passed. Eventually, she reached out to Depp, reasoning that his nationality was less important than her other concerns: “I wanted to feel strongly about the actor, particularly as I would be hugging and kissing him later on.”

Questions to Maïwenn were mostly kept to a minimum, and none were about her altercation with French journalist Edwy Plenel, who said Maïwenn spat on him in a Paris restaurant — something she more or less confirmed — because he had been investigating multiple claims of sexual abuse against director Luc Besson, who had a son with Maïwenn when she was just 16. Besson denied the accusations, from nine women, and French authorities said that after an inquiry, the director would face no charges. If nothing else, Cannes is a reminder that nearly every major figure in the French film industry has a sizable “controversy” section on Wikipedia.

But it was all just a warmup for Depp, who entered 42 minutes late to extensive muttering from the journalists, then walked over to the dais to kiss Maïwenn on the top of her head.

Depp, who spoke mostly in murmured metaphors, at first discussed the French-language requirements of the role, but he was soon asked whether he felt that Hollywood had boycotted him after he was bounced from the Fantastic Beasts franchise in 2020 as his legal battles with Heard began to heat up.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.