LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Nearly a year after winning the defamation case against his ex-wife, Amber Heard, Johnny Depp is set to appear in Maiwenn’s historical drama ‘Jeanne Du Barry,’ which premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and received a seven-minute standing ovation. The movie would mark the acclaimed actor’s comeback to the silver screen after a lengthy legal battle with Heard. Back in December 2022, Depp and Heard both reached a settlement, and as a result the latter was asked to pay $1M to ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’ star.
After the settlement, Depp’s lawyers issued a statement confirming that the actor was “pledging” and would be donating the $1M settlement fee to charities. Years before his decision, Depp showed his generous side by donating his entire fee from ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’ to late co-star Heath Ledger’s daughter. In 2005, Depp also spent $3M to fund the funeral of Hunter S Thompson, his friend and character study for ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.’ Following Thompson’s death by suicide, Depp made sure his ashes were fired from a giant cannon.
A look into Johnny Depp’s act of kindness
Ledger was 28 when he died from an apparent accidental drug overdose in January 2008. At the time of his death, Ledger was working on Terry Gilliam’s ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,’ which went on to be his final film. Prior to the film, the actor reached the peak of success with his iconic role as The Joker in ‘The Dark Knight'.
While the role won Ledger immense critical acclaim and a posthumous Academy Award, it left a deep impact on his mental health. Ledger’s death also left the ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’ in a critical state and filmmaker Gilliam worried about the progress of the project without its lead star. However, actors like Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law stepped in to revive the project on behalf of their co-star and completed the fantasy film by playing different versions of Ledger’s character, Tony, who went through different transformations while traveling through a dream world.
Not only did Depp, Farrell and Law continue the project out of respect for Ledger, the trio decided to donate their entire earnings from the film to Ledger’s daughter Matilda, who was just four at the time. Several reports suggested that the actors were concerned about Matilda as Ledger did not update his will to include his young daughter at the time of his death and thought donating their fees would help the child avoid financial troubles.
“The fact that Ledger’s daughter will reap the benefit of the salaries of stars of Depp, Law and Farrell, stars known to command a pretty penny, can only enhance the magical effort that was put together to finish this film amid shocking tragedy,” She Knows reported at the time.
‘The only player out there’
After stepping in to replace Ledger in ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,’ Depp said Ledger was “the only player out there breathing heavy down the back of every established actor’s neck with a thundering and ungovernable talent that came up on you quick, hissing rather mischievously with that cheeky grin, 'Hey ... get on out of my way boys, I'm coming through....' and does he ever!” Wired reported.
Depp also praised his other costars in the film in a statement that read, “Christopher Plummer [goes] beyond anything he's ever done, Waits as the Devil is a God, Lily Cole and Andrew Garfield, the very foundation, are spectacular. Verne Troyer simply kicks a** and, as for my other cohorts, Colin Farrell and Jude Law, they most certainly did Master Ledger very proud. I salute them.”
