Yahoo News Helena Bonham Carter Says Johnny Depp “Completely Vindicated” In Defamation Trial, And J.K. Rowling “Hounded” For Transgender Stance
Helena Bonham Carter defended her Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows co-star Johnny Depp in an interview with London’s Sunday Times Magazine, saying the actor was “completely vindicated” in his defamation trial against his ex Amber Heard last spring.
In the interview, during which Bonham Carter expressed support for Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, said of Depp, “I think he’s fine now.” Regarding Heard, Bonham Carter said, “That’s the problem with these things — that people will jump on the bandwagon because it’s the trend and to be the poster girl for it,” and added that Heard “got on that pendulum.”
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Last June, a jury awarded Depp more than $10 million in compensatory damages in the actor’s defamation suit, stemming from references to sexual violence and domestic abuse Heard made in an opinion column. Heard was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages in a countersuit. Both sides are appealing the decisions.
As for Rowling, Bonham Carter, who portrayed Bellatrix Lestrange in the Potter film franchise, the actress said that the author “has been hounded” over comments that were widely interpreted as transphobic. “It’s horrendous, a load of bollocks,” she said. “I think she has been hounded. It’s been taken to the extreme, the judgmentalism of people. She’s allowed her opinion, particularly if she’s suffered abuse.”
Rowling disclosed in 2020 that she is a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault. “Everybody carries their own history of trauma and forms their opinions from that trauma and you have to respect where people come from and their pain,” Bonham Carter told the magazine. “You don’t all have to agree on everything — that would be insane and boring. She’s not meaning it aggressively, she’s just saying something out of her own experience.”
When asked if Potter actors who have criticized Rowling’s stance (including Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint) were “ungrateful,” Bonham Carter said, “I won’t say that. Personally, I feel they should let her have her opinions, but I think they’re very aware of protecting their own fan base and their generation. It’s hard. One thing with the fame game is that there’s an etiquette that comes with it; I don’t agree with talking about other famous people.”
Bonham Carter spoke to the Sunday Times Magazine after being named the first female president of the London Library.
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