This is interview is in reality several weeks old, but I have some ideas as to why it’s only getting play now. When Johnny Depp was in Serbia (at the unveiling of his strange life-sized statue), Depp sat down for several interviews. It might have even been a press conference for all I know. There’s a one-minute video of Depp answering one particular question (below), and it seems like it might have been a press conference. However, the UK’s Independent is running with the story right now as a one-on-one interview with Depp. Okay, here goes: Johnny Depp defends Roman Polanski. Not just defends him, but spins a conspiracy theory that “Somebody has made a deal with someone. Maybe there was a little money involved” to see that Polanski was arrested in Switzerland. What the hell, Johnny? Here’s the relevant part of the interview (the full piece is here):

In Kustendorf, there is a door painted to give the illusion that it is a jail, with George W. Bush behind bars. Depp sidestepped questions as to whether he was an anti-globalist or an anti-capitalist. He was withering about Bush, enthusiastic about President Barack Obama, but would not be drawn further. However, he wasn’t shy in voicing his dismay about the arrest of film-maker Roman Polanski on a 30-year-old statutory rape charge. In 1999, Polanski directed him in The Ninth Gate.

“Why now?” Depp asked rhetorically. “Obviously, there is something going on somewhere. Somebody has made a deal with someone. Maybe there was a little money involved, but why now?” Polanski, Depp continued, “is not a predator. He’s 75 or 76 years old. He has got two beautiful kids, he has got a wife that he has been with for a long, long time. He is not out on the street.”

[From The Independent]

My theory for why it took two weeks for this to be published in a major publication: because he’s Johnny Depp, and his fan base is enormous, and people love him and no one wants to hear that he’s defending a child rapist. I’m tremendously disappointed, and I’m not even a CB-level Depp fan.

Depp, however, was utterly charming in the rest of the interview. I know the Polanski stuff left a bad taste in your mouth, so try this quote of Depp’s, about his respect for the audience: “The only reason that we’re here is because of the people out there standing in the cold who want to have a piece of paper signed or to go to the cinema.” He also lists some of his favorite writers: Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac. Depp says: “I am such an addict of books. I’ll read two or three at a time. I am like a fiend. I can’t get enough.” Hey, Johnny? If you like to read so much, you should try reading Samantha Geimer’s statement about how she was drugged, raped and sodomized. You know, since you enjoy reading so much.

And in case you thought The Independent was exaggerating, here’s the video of Depp answering the Polanski question:

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmcmhgbn5wts6hpaexj5mysby%2Bq6ammZ6UvbC4wKeqpKGPnsCgus6tlpqXoKeypa3TqKlo