Helena Bonham Carter sounded off on cancel culture and defended pals Johnny Depp and J.K. Rowling. Although she agrees there’s no way back for some #MeToo perpetrators — like Kevin Spacey — the English actress said Depp has been “vindicated” after his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.
“Do you ban a genius for their sexual practices? There would be millions of people who if you looked closely enough at their personal life you would disqualify them. You can’t ban people. I hate cancel culture. It has become quite hysterical and there’s a kind of witch-hunt and a lack of understanding,” Bonham Carter told The Times U.K.
Bonham Carter, who’s worked with “canceled” filmmakers, including Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski and Woody Allen, believes there’s a way back for some people.
“I don’t think there is for someone like Kevin Spacey,” Bonham Carter explained. Spacey has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by more than a dozen men. Although the Oscar-winning actor recently won his $40 million civil lawsuit, he faces criminal sexual assault charges in the U.K.
“And Johnny certainly went through it,” Bonham Carter added of Depp. The pair have collaborated on multiple films together and the actor is godfather to her and Tim Burton’s children. “There’s something quite old-fashioned about Johnny, with these manners.”
Bonham Carter said she believes Depp — who lost a 2020 libel trial in the U.K. involving Heard’s abuse allegations — has been “completely vindicated” by the verdict in the U.S.
“I think he’s fine now. Totally fine,” she shared.
When Carter was asked if the U.S. trial between Heard and Depp was the pendulum of #MeToo swinging back, Carter replied: “My view is that [Amber] got on that pendulum. That’s the problem with these things — that people will jump on the bandwagon because it’s the trend and to be the poster girl for it.”
Carter, who played Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter films, seemed outraged when discussing the treatment of J.K. Rowling.
“It’s horrendous, a load of bollocks. I think she has been hounded,” Bonham Carter declared. The Harry Potter author has stirred controversy in recent years for her comments on the transgender community.
“It’s been taken to the extreme, the judgmentalism of people. She’s allowed her opinion, particularly if she’s suffered abuse. Everybody carries their own history of trauma and forms their opinions from that trauma and you have to respect where people come from and their pain,” Bonham Carter added. “You don’t all have to agree on everything — that would be insane and boring. She’s not meaning it aggressively, she’s just saying something out of her own experience.”
Bonham Carter did not criticize her Harry Potter co-stars — Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — for publicly speaking out against Rowling.
“I won’t say [they are ungrateful]. Personally I feel they should let her have her opinions, but I think they’re very aware of protecting their own fan base and their generation,” she said. “It’s hard. One thing with the fame game is that there’s an etiquette that comes with it; I don’t agree with talking about other famous people.”
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