Brian Cox admits he "feels sorry" for Amber Heard following her highly publicised defamation trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp.
The Dundee-born actor, who currently plays businessman Logan Roy on Succession, briefly discussed the former couple in a recent interview. The 76-year-old previously said he was somewhat relieved he declined “Pirates” because “it’s very much the ‘Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow’ show, and Depp, personable though I’m sure he is, is so overblown, so overrated.”
However, speaking to The Times, he added “the public love him”. Responding to the interviewer’s suggestion that the jury for the trial also love Depp, Cox replied: “Well, they did.” He continued: “I feel sorry for the woman [Heard]. I think she got the rough end of it.”
Cox was reportedly offered the role of Governor Swann, played by Jonathan Pryce in the films. “It would have been a money-spinner, but of all the parts in that film it was the most thankless, plus I would have ended up doing it for film after film and missed out on all the other nice things I’ve done,” Cox said in his memoir.
He wrote of Depp: “I mean, ‘Edward Scissorhands.’ Let’s face it, if you come on with hands like that and pale, scarred-face make-up, you don’t have to do anything. And he didn’t. And subsequently, he’s done even less. But people love him. Or they did love him. They don’t love him so much these days, of course.”
After slamming the Sweeney Todd actor in his memoir, Putting the Rabbit in the Hat, Cox did admit he regretted his remarks. “I just thought I was being a bit harsh,” Cox told Kimmel about criticising Depp in his memoir.
“You know what it’s like, you go for the easy joke. And I went for the easy joke. That was what happened, and I sort of regretted it. Because I’m not like that normally; I was just being a bit glib, a bit flip.”
Cox's latest remarks about Depp come after he won his high-profile defamation case against ex-wife Heard. Depp sued Heard for $50m (£39.8m) over a Washington Post op-ed titled: “I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”
The article does not mention Depp by name, yet his lawyers said it falsely implies he physically and sexually abused Heard while they were together. Heard countersued for $100m (£80.9m), accusing Depp of orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her and describing his lawsuit as a continuation of “abuse and harassment”.
In June, a jury found that Heard defamed Depp on all three counts and awarded him $10m (£8m) in compensatory damages and $5m (£4m) in punitive damages. Heard was awarded $2m (£1.6m) in compensatory damages, but no punitive damages.
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