Johnny Depp’s alleged violent approach to ‘City of Lies’
There was once a time when film star Johnny Depp regularly made headlines for bagging high-profile movie roles or achieving a never-ending stream of success. However, these days, the Pirates of the Caribbean star appears in the news with the words “violence”, “outburst”, and “lawsuit” stacked against him. Recently, Depp has been in an ongoing and exhausting dispute with his ex-wife Amber Heard, who first accused him of domestic abuse in 2016.
Those accusations resulted in the actor losing parts of his fanbase and witnessed his career take a nose dive, with a consensus held in online discussions that Depp should receive consequences for the alleged actions. However, that all changed in early 2019 when it was suddenly revealed that Depp was the alleged victim of domestic abuse in the relationship. Images of some injuries surfaced, such as one of his fingers being cut off. The accusations against Heard were elevated when the Daily Mail obtained and released an audio of the actor herself confessing to hitting Depp. In the audio, Heard tells Depp: “‘I f**king was hitting you… I don’t know what the motion of my hand was, but you’re fine, I did not hurt you, I did not punch you, I was hitting you”, as well as calling him a “baby” for stating that the incident upset him.
This case eventually led to a defamation trial that the whole world watched this year. New information on the case was revealed alongside re-assessments of what we already knew. Depp eventually won the case on June 1st, 2022 and was awarded $10million in compensatory damages, with Heard being ordered to provide $5million in punitive damages – a situation that resulted in an appeal, which was recently settled out of court. However, the actor’s celebrations for winning the trial were cut short as he walked out of one courtroom into another to settle a second abuse lawsuit, this time made against location manager Gregg Brooks, who worked with Depp on City of Lies in 2017.
City of Lies follows the Los Angeles Police Department’s murder investigations of rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G, with Depp playing retired LAPD detective Russell Poole. The film was shot in early 2017 but was never released due to Brooks’ alleged incident with Depp. The location manager claimed Depp punched him twice after he attempted to shut down filming for the day. Depp, of course, denied the claim and Brooks was fired shortly after refusing to sign a document promising he would not press charges. Since then, Brooks has struggled to find stable work and has noted that the “hierarchy in Hollywood” is acting as the guardian of Depp and his alleged abusive ways.
Pat Harris, Brooks’s lawyer, told Variety: “We obviously recognise that in the hierarchy of Hollywood, Johnny Depp is on top and the location managers are somewhere mid-level or toward the bottom. In any confrontation between the two of them, no matter who started it, no matter who’s responsible, Johnny Depp is going to come out on top, and our guy is going to come out damaged.”
Depp’s attorneys handled the matter under the proposed insisting that the actor has never laid hands on any cast or crew member during filming. His lawyer, Adam Waldman, took The Wrap to assure the press and public during the trial: “We will fight all these shame allegations”.
He added that “over a dozen witnesses present can attest” to Depp’s innocence. These eyewitnesses stated that the indecent was a mere “small moment” where no physical assault occurred and was over fairly quickly. As a further response, Brooks was branded as the guilty party because of an alleged “careless and negligent” personality. Unlike Depp’s case against Heard, it was immediately confirmed that this trial would not be televised and therefore kept shielded from the public and online input.
According to CBS News, the film’s director Brad Furman addressed the allegations with support and credit for the actor. “Johnny Depp is a consummate professional, a great collaborator and a supporter of other artists,” Furman claimed. “He always treats the crew and people around him with the utmost respect. Movies can be stressful, and non-events often become exaggerated. We all love stories — there isn’t one here.”
Some publications claim a potential theory for City of Lies being cancelled is that Depp’s incident was blown out of proportion, as the cancellation was actually due to pressure from the LAPD, who disagreed with how the film portrayed them. However, there is no concrete evidence to substantiate this theory. Instead, Depp settled the lawsuit around July 13th, 2022, and the next time he may be in a courtroom will be Thursday, February 16th, 2023, for the dismissal hearing.
Check out the trailer for the unreleased City of Lies below.
