Johnny Depp insisted he no longer needs Hollywood as he promoted his comeback movie Jeanne du Barry at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.
The 59-year-old actor stepped out on the red carpet on Tuesday night for the premiere of the French movie, which opened this year's edition of the festival.
During the press conference for the film on Wednesday morning, Depp was asked whether he still felt "boycotted" by Hollywood over two highly-publicised trials relating to allegations of domestic abuse made by his ex-wife Amber Heard.
"Well, you'd have to not have a pulse to feel at that point like this was all just a weird joke," he replied. "Of course, when you're asked to resign from a film you're doing because of something that's merely a bunch of vowels and consonants floating in the air..."
Depp, who was asked to resign from the Fantastic Beasts franchise after he lost his U.K. trial in 2020, insisted he doesn't care about Hollywood anymore.
"Do I feel boycotted now? No, not at all. But I don't feel boycotted, because I don't think about Hollywood. I don't feel much further need for Hollywood - I don't know about you," he boldly stated with a smile.
Elsewhere in the press conference, the actor acknowledged the controversies and how he had been portrayed in the media.
"The majority of you who have been reading for the last five or six years, with regards to me and my life - the majority of what you've read is fantastically, horrifically written fiction," he claimed.
"The fact is, we're here to talk about the film. But it's like asking the question, 'How are you doing?' But what's underneath in the subtext is, 'God, I hate you.' That's the sort of media thing."
Depp, who reportedly arrived 45 minutes late to the press conference, received a seven-minute standing ovation after Jeanne du Barry's premiere on Tuesday.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star has not appeared in a Hollywood film since he lost a libel lawsuit against The Sun in the U.K. in 2020 after a judge ruled that Heard's allegations of domestic violence were "substantially true".
After a separate trial in the U.S. last year, a jury ruled that Heard had defamed Depp by characterising herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse" in a 2018 op-ed.
