Johnny Depp has reflected on the brutal abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of his “cruel and violent” mother.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star, 62, did a recent interview with The Telegraph, where he spoke about his mother, Betty Sue, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 81.
Depp described his late parent as volatile and unpredictable, recalling how she would beat him with anything she could find.
“She beat me with a f****** stick, a f***** shoe, an ashtray, a phone, it didn't matter, man. But I thank her for that,” he revealed.
The Hollywood star, who shares daughter Lily-Rose, 26, and son Jack, 23, with ex Vanessa Paradis, said the abuse he experienced as a child taught him exactly what not to do as a parent.
“She taught me how not to raise kids. Just do the exact opposite of what she did,” he added.
This isn't the first time that Depp has detailed the trauma he experienced in his childhood, as during his 2022 defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard, he told lawyers: “In our house we were never exposed to any type of safety or security, the only thing to do was stay out of the line of fire," per Daily Mail.
"My mother was quite unpredictable. She had the ability to be as cruel as anyone can be with all of us," he said, recalling a moment when he had to shield himself when she walked past.
“She could become quite violent, and she was quite violent, and she was quite cruel,” he said, laughing at the memory of the beatings. “There was physical abuse, certainly, which could be in the form of an ashtray being flung at you, or you'd get beat with a high-heeled shoe, or a telephone, or whatever's handy.”
The Edward Scissorhands star explained that the physical pain was easier to handle than the psychological torment.
“The verbal abuse, the psychological abuse, was almost worse than the beatings. The beatings were just physical pain,” he said. “The physical pain, you learn to deal with. You learn to accept it. You learn to deal with it.”
The actor was recast in the Fantastic Beasts franchise by Mads Mikkelsen after he lost his libel case against News Group Newspapers.
In the interview with The Telegraph, he spoke about the moment he was dropped from the Harry Potter spin-off series after filming had already begun.
“It literally stopped in a millisecond,” he said. “Like while I was doing the movie. They said we’d like you to resign. But what was really in my head was they wanted me to retire.”
His response was defiant: “F*** you. There’s far too many of me to kill. If you think you can hurt me more than I’ve already been hurt you’re gravely mistaken.”
Depp also opened up about the betrayal he felt from people in his inner circle during the difficult period.
“I'll tell you what hurts. There are people, and I'm thinking of three, who did me dirty. Those people were at my kids' parties, throwing them in the air,” he told the Sunday Times. “And, look, I understand people who could not stand up [for me], because the most frightening thing to them was making the right choice.”
He noted that even his agent of 30 years, Tracey Jacobs, who was sacked in 2016, testified against him in court, claiming studios were “reluctant” to hire him due to his reputation for being late to work.
“My loyalty is the last thing anybody could question. I was with one agent for 30 years, but she spoke in court about how difficult I was,” Depp said.
Depp and Heard got married in 2015 before filing for divorce a year later.
The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory actor's legal battles with the Aquaman actress began after he filed a libel lawsuit against The Sun and its executive editor in 2018 over being labeled a “wife beater”.
Although he lost that case, he later sued his ex-wife for defamation over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed, with Heard countersuing him in 2020. The highly publicized trial concluded in June 2022 with the jury ruling in Depp’s favor.
After the verdict, Depp expressed gratitude, saying, “The jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled,” adding that “speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that".
Heard has since moved to Spain, where she now raises her daughter and twins she welcomed earlier this year.