Celebrity
Helena Bonham Carter Slams Cancel Culture And Defends Johnny Depp And JK Rowling
“It has become quite hysterical and there’s a lack of understanding.”
The 56-Year-Old spoke out on her hatred of cancel culture, claiming there would be millions of people who could be canceled if we looked closely enough at their personal life. Helena Bonham declared there’s no way back for some high-profile celebrities, as she name-checked Kevin Spacey, who continues to face legal issues involving s*xual misconduct.
The actress also touched on her Sweeney Todd co-star Johnny Depp, stating he has been vindicated after being accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife Amber Heard.
Currently, Spacey is facing four counts of s*xual assault against three complainants in the United Kingdom, with a trial date set for June 2023. “Do you ban a genius for their s*xual practices. There would be millions of people who if you looked closely enough at their personal life you would disqualify them,” Helena expressed.
She told The Sunday Times: “You can’t ban people. I hate cancel culture. It has become quite hysterical and there’s a kind of witch hunt and lack of understanding.”
Speaking of Depp, Helena who had worked alongside several stars at the center of the #MeToo Movement said the actor, 59, went certainly went through it, referencing the highly publicized libel trial with Heard as he accused her of defaming him by branding him a domestic abuser in a 2018 op-ed. “There’s something quite old-fashioned about Johnny, with these manners,” she said, insisting the allegations didn’t quite ring true.
The Harry Potter star also discussed the hounding of JK Rowling, which ranges from being trolled online to burning her books.
She branded the treatment as “Horrendous and a load of b****cks.” Helena continued: “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.”
Depp is the godfather to her children Billy Ray, 18, and Nell 14, who she shares with her ex-Tim Burton.
She further said of JK: “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 experience.” Helena didn’t criticize her co-stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson for speaking against JK but said she didn’t think the stars were ungrateful after JK’s writing shot them into stardom.
When asked if Depp’s case was the ‘MeToo Pendulum,’ she stated: “My view is that she [Heard] 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.”
The Bellatrix Lestrange actress’ interview, however, comes after actress Emma Thompson admitted she was utterly blind to her ex-husband Kenneth Branagh’s affair with Helena. It’s believed she had an affair with Kenneth in 1994 while she played his love interest in his version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The pair then reportedly went on to have a five-year relationship.
Emma told the New Yorker she was humiliated by the affair and felt she was unlovable after being left devastated by Kenneth’s [pictured] unfaithfulness.
The actress has long forgiven Helena and channeled her feelings of betrayal into playing a wronged wife in the movie Love Actually. “What I learned was how easy it is to be blinded by your desire to deceive yourself. I was half alive. Any sense of being a lovable or worthy person had gone completely.” Speaking of how she recovered from the devastation, Emma credited her now-husband Greg Wise.
The 63-Year-Old alleged that Greg, whom she has been married to for 27 years picked up the pieces and put them back together.
