Helena Bonham Carter maligned "cancel culture" in an interview with The Times.

Movies

Helena Bonham Carter defends Johnny Depp and JK Rowling amid ‘cancellation’

November 27, 2022

Helena Bonham Carter is against “cancellation culture” and the effects it has on her loved ones.

The ‘Ocean’s 8’ actress, 56, defended her former collaborators Johnny Depp and JK Rowling in an interview published Saturday by British newspaper The Times.

“I hate the cancel culture. It’s gotten pretty hysterical and there’s kind of a witch hunt and a lack of understanding,” Carter said.

Earlier this year, Depp faced his ex-wife Amber Heard in court in a highly controversial trial in which he accused Heard of defaming him in a December 2018 op-ed. In June, a jury in Virginie awarded him more than $10 million in damages. Heard also partially won his countersuit, with the jury awarding him $2 million in damages.

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The lawsuit resurfaced allegations of abuse of Heard by Depp during intense testimony, which was broadcast live daily. Depp said he never abused Heard and claimed she abused him.

Carter, who starred opposite Depp in seven movies, told The Times she thinks her former co-star was “completely vindicated” after the trial in Virginia. Depp is also godfather to Carter’s children Billy Ray, 18, and Nell, 14, who are shared with ex Tim Burton.

When asked if the libel case was #MeToo’s “pendulum swinging back,” Carter said she believed “(Heard) took that pendulum. That’s the problem with these things — that the people are going to jump on the bandwagon because it’s the trend and be the poster girl.”

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As for the backlash surrounding Rowling’s transphobic comments, Carter, who played Bellatrix Lestrange in the ‘Harry Potter’ film franchise, said the criticism “wouldn’t be so great” if the author wasn’t “the most phenomenal success”.

“I think there is unfortunately a lot of envy and the need to put people down that are causing a lot of this cancellation,” the actress added. “That’s awful, a load of bullshit. I think she was stalked. It was taken to the extreme, people’s judgment.”

Further defending the ‘Harry Potter’ author, Carter said: “She allowed her opinion, particularly if she was abused. Everyone carries their own story of trauma and forms their opinion from that trauma and you have to respect where people and their pain are coming from. . You don’t have to all agree on everything – that would be insane and boring. She doesn’t mean it aggressively, she just says something from his own experience.

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Rowling continues to be a source of controversy after making headlines in 2020 with several online posts expressing opinions about the transgender community that conflated sex and gender and championed ideas that suggested changing one’s biological sex threatens one’s own identity as a gender. It doubled down even after the posts were widely seen as transphobic, misinforming and hurtful.