“He’s basically given them the rope to hang him(self) with,” disaster PR knowledgeable Evan Nierman says of Depp’s failed lawsuit towards tabloid The Sun
Evan Nierman, founding father of disaster administration agency Red Banyan, agreed: “Rehabilitating his image is going to be much harder than it would’ve been before going into court.”
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp in 2015 (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Experts agree that the PR harm from the ruling is more likely to harm Depp’s repute in Hollywood — not less than within the close to time period — at a time when his field workplace energy has steadily waned.
Depp is at the moment capturing a supporting function within the third installment of J.Okay. Rowling’s “Fantastic Beasts” sequence, and has accomplished work on the MGM drama “Minamata.” He can be a spokesmodel for Dior’s Sauvage perfume. Warner Bros. has plans for added “Fantastic Beasts” installments but it surely’s unknown if Depp’s character, Grindelwald, will proceed past the upcoming movie.
But he has no recognized appearing tasks lined up after that. Reps for the actor, Dior and Warner Bros. didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The actor’s star energy had already been tarnished by his short-lived marriage to Amber Heard, whose accusations of bodily abuse grew to become tabloid fodder after their divorce in 2017. But specialists referred to as his resolution to pursue authorized motion towards each Heard and information shops — together with a still-ongoing $50 million libel lawsuit towards the Washington Post — a tactical and PR mistake.
“From the beginning, Depp, for whatever reason, felt like he needed to take this dramatic step of going to the British high court,” Nierman stated. “He presumed being labeled a ‘wife beater’ was beyond the pale and for whatever reason, he decided to put his foot down. The risk that he was running was making things potentially worse for himself. Now the entire world knows the details about this relationship he had — he put himself squarely in the spotlight and amplified it more than it would’ve been if he just had left it alone … Now that he’s lost, he has cemented in everyone’s mind the very allegations he was hoping to be exonerated of.”
Justice Andrew Nicol affirmed the Sun’s description of the star as a “wife beater” and ordered the actor to pay all courtroom prices within the case: “I have found that the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms. Heard by Mr. Depp have been proved to the civil standard.”
Nicol’s resolution “ratified the reality of the charges leveled against him, but the massive damage to his persona had largely had been done,” Schiffer stated. “This just adds credibility to what people had assumed had happened under the dumpster fire of allegations. Being named a ‘wife-beater’ in entertainment torches the possibility of him working in multimillion-dollar projects.”
In reality, Nierman stated that calling consideration to Heard’s accusations — after which shedding his courtroom case — could have made it even tougher to safe future roles, particularly in family-friendly franchises like “Pirates of the Caribbean” that made him a celebrity.
“There is going to be an outcry,” he stated. “He’s basically given them the rope to hang him with.”
What’s worse, Depp’s days as a significant field workplace draw have lengthy been in decline. Since his debut in “A Nightmare on Elm Street” in 1984, movies starring Depp have grossed over $10 billion on the international field workplace. This consists of three billion-dollar hits: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” in 2006, “Alice in Wonderland” in 2010, and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” in 2011.
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” (Disney)
But because the launch of “On Stranger Tides,” Depp’s field workplace numbers have receded. Only two movies since then have grossed over $400 million worldwide: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” in 2017 and “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of…
