Tearful Johnny Depp gets standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival screening
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on May 17, 2023
The 2023 Cannes Film Festival opened with the premiere of Johnny Depp‘s first major on-screen role since his controversial defamation trial with ex-wife Amber Heard, and he got a warm reception.
Following the screening of Depp’s French-language film Jeanne Du Barry, he received a seven-minute standing ovation, according to a clip shared on Variety‘s Twitter page, bringing him to tears.
The Cannes bow of the film, which doesn’t have a U.S. premiere date at the moment, came a year after he and he and Heard’s high-profile defamation trial over her 2018 op-ed accusing him of domestic abuse.
Last year, a Virginia jury found that Heard defamed Depp in the piece, awarding him $10 million in compensatory damages, and $5 million in punitive damages. The couple later settled.
Meanwhile, Eve Barlow, a journalist, activist and close friend of Heard’s, launched a new social media campaign with the hashtag #CannesYouNot is calling out the Cannes Film Festival for “celebrating abusers for 76 years.”
“Cannes seem proud of their history supporting rapists and abusers,” Barlow posted on social media with the French expression, “Plus ça change,” which roughly translates to, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Barlow included a series of photos depicting accused men who have been prominent presences at Cannes over the years including Depp, Roman Polanski, Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, Gerard Depardieu and Luc Besson. “If you support Cannes, you support predators,” Barlow’s post says.
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