Nostalgia so Powerful: A Look at Johnny Depp’s Overly Dedicated Fanbase
Watching the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp trial has been tough. No, not tough-more like depressing.
For those who aren’t aware, Amber Heard was once Depp’s wife. She filed for divorce in 2016. It was through this that it was revealed that Johnny Depp was abusive towards her. Like a lot of people, I was shocked but I believed Amber because I always believe in victims and I’ve learned throughout the years that automatically not believing victims supports rape culture. As a woman, I refuse to uphold rape culture and as a bisexual woman, I also know that bisexual people receive unprecedented levels of abuse. Upon learning about Depp being abusive, I did some digging and found out that Depp’s friendly, quirky persona was a facade.
As it turns out, Depp has always been an awful person but thanks to his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, people just forgot about his past. People conveniently forget that while dating Kate Moss, he trashed their hotel room. People bring up his relationship with Winona Ryder but leave out the fact that she was seventeen when they started to date and he was twenty-six and the relationship even made Winona depressed. Even recently, many fans gloss over the fact that Depp is going back to court for attacking someone on the set of City of Lies. This is only a handful of terrible, awful things he’s done.
And those are the things that don’t relate to Amber Heard.
Depp’s views on Amber are well known. He texted his friend, Paul Bettany of Wandavison fame, saying how he wanted to burn, drown and rape Amber’s corpse. These texts aren’t new but they resurfaced during Depp’s time on the stand. Depp has decided to sue Amber Heard for defamation. He claims that Amber ruined his career and life due to an op-ed she wrote about her abuse. Granted, she didn’t name Depp once in the op-ed but Depp still feels as if she is to blame for his fall from grace.
Now I’m not here to talk about his fall from grace. What I’m here to talk about are his fans.
Celebrity fan culture is a mixed bag but mostly, it’s not good. People dedicated far too much time to praising and worshiping celebrities to the point where it becomes dangerous. Depp fans are no exception to this rule. I’ve been vocal about my support of Amber heard on my personal Twitter. One day, I woke up and found my messages flooded with rude abuse. I’ve been told I would be better off dead, have been insulted for being autistic, and more all because I believe Amber and her proof over Depp.
Of course, people are allowed to be on Depp’s side if they choose but the issue is why they’re on his side and how they’ve been acting during the entire trial. People are ling up outside the courthouse as if it’s a meet and greet at a convention. As of writing this, two of Depp’s diehard fans had to be removed from the courthouse. Brooke Walsh and Isabelle Orsini both made tweets in which they threatened to end Amber’s life. If that wasn’t disturbing enough, Walsh isn’t even from the states. She took time out of her day to buy a plane ticket from London to come over to Virginia to watch the trial.
I’m not the only person who finds that weird and concerning right?
Walsh doesn’t know Depp personally so why is she wasting her time and money flying to the states to participate in this trial? What does she hope to gain? Why can’t she just show support online? She’s not the only person who is treating this trial like it’s entertainment. On Etsy, people are making mugs and stickers that are in support of Depp. Again, why? This trial has aired his dirty laundry as well, showing his true colors so why make stickers to support him?
The worst part has been TikTok’s role in this charade.
I don’t want to blame the app of course. An app can’t do anything on its own. However, TikTok has become overrun with people not just supporting Depp but people making memes about Amber. One TikTkor by the name jessavalortiz, made a TikTok where she is excitedly driving to the courthouse. In it, we see Depp reaching out of a car and waving to his fans who rush to him to give him gifts. It currently has 6 million views.
This would be fine if Depp was at a convention or a fan meet-up.
But he’s not.
This is at a courthouse where a trial is taking place. A trial where Amber Heard had to listen to her sexual assaults be described by a doctor. A trial where she has taken the stand and revealed every awful moment she spent with Johnny. A trial where everything she has and does is greeted with mockery, scorn, and misogyny. Johnny Depp’s abuse, alcoholism, jealousy, and rage have all been documented yet he still has an army of supporters. Why?
Because Depp was Edward Scissorhands. Because Depp was Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow. Because he was in countless Tim Burton films and played a very popular drunken pirate. There are people who haven’t been following the trial but solely want Depp to win because he’s Johnny Depp. Despite all the proof Amber has against Depp, including a UK trial where Amber’s allegations were proven to be true, people still are convinced that he’s innocent.
The way people are treating Depp and this trail aren’t just scary but dangerous. A trail that features any kind of abuse shouldn’t be treated as a trend on TikTok. This case has done more damage to victims of abuse and it’s all thanks to Depp’s overly dedicated, cult-like fans. Other victims of abuse, be it physical, sexual, verbal and all the above, will see this. They’ll see how their friends and family treat Amber as a victim and how they don’t believe her. They’ll see how people mock her, call her names, treat her like garbage and they’ll withdraw. They might choose to stay silent and that thought is devastating.
