Johnny Depp Creates Debut Self-Portrait in 'Dark' and 'Confusing' time

A self-portrait by actor Johnny Depp is displayed at Castle Fine Art gallery on Thursday, July 20, 2023 in London. (Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP)
A self-portrait by actor Johnny Depp is displayed at Castle Fine Art gallery on Thursday, July 20, 2023 in London. (Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP)
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Johnny Depp Creates Debut Self-Portrait in 'Dark' and 'Confusing' time

A self-portrait by actor Johnny Depp is displayed at Castle Fine Art gallery on Thursday, July 20, 2023 in London. (Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP)
A self-portrait by actor Johnny Depp is displayed at Castle Fine Art gallery on Thursday, July 20, 2023 in London. (Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Johnny Depp has painted the emotions of recent years into a self-portrait and is offering the result for sale as a time-limited edition.
The actor began working on the piece, titled “Five,” around 2021 in the midst of an explosive dispute with his ex-wife, Amber Heard, which played out in courtrooms on both sides of the Atlantic, The Associated Press said.
“I think this is the most personal piece he’s ever done,” said Ian Weatherby-Blythe, managing director of Castle Fine Art, which is handling the sale of “Five.” The gallery also oversaw Depp’s sold-out debut art collection, the series of portraits “Friends & Heroes.”
“He revisited the eyes over and over and over again. And when you look at the piece, you know, it’s a beautiful portrait. But when you look at the eyes there’s something very meaningful behind the eyes, there’s something, you know, quite sad."
“It was created at a time that was, let’s say, a bit dark, a bit confusing,” Depp said in a video released Thursday to promote the sale.
“Essentially, I just wrote ‘Five’ on there because I was just about to enter the fifth year of the madness.”
Priced from £1,950 ($1,950), signed editions of “Five” go on sale at 1600 GMT Thursday for 13 days.
Heard filed for divorce in May 2016, seeking a temporary restraining order against the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star.
In April 2022, Depp began a libel trial he brought against Heard, based on a 2018 Washington Post op-ed piece in which she referred to herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” A Virginia jury eventually ruled that Heard had defamed Depp on three counts and awarded him $15 million in damages. In a countersuit, Depp was found guilty of one charge of libel and Heard was awarded $2 million.
A British court had ruled in 2020 that a tabloid article labeling Depp “a wife beater” was “substantially true.” Soon after the ruling in the UK, Hollywood largely cut ties with Depp, jettisoning him from both the “Fantastic Beasts” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchises.
Fashion house Dior, Depp notes, “as much as it was painful ... stuck to their guns,” and “Five” uses as a starting point the photograph that launched his Dior Sauvage campaign, led by creative director Jean-Baptiste Mondino.
A few months ago, Depp went back to the artwork, and after making adjustments, decided to publicly share what he views as an act of creative healing.
Using archival pigment, in the style of his earlier series of portraits, “Five” marks the first time Depp has sought to capture his own image. A smaller artwork, with a lower price tag, “Five” is described as deliberately intimate and shows the actor in a state of emotional exhaustion.
“It’s not the most comfortable thing doing a self-portrait,” Depp said, noting he would sit with a mirror and sketch himself in different lights, times and angles.
“It should just be some expression, spit it out as it gets spit out.”
He also intends to sign “each and every one,” said Weatherby-Blythe. “He’s made that commitment, he wants to give the opportunity to as many people as possible to buy his art and also he wants to try to raise as much money as he can for Mental Health America,” he added. From the proceeds of each sale, $200 is to be donated to the non-profit.
Depp may have won in court, but public opinion remains divided on the actor who was once one of the most bankable stars in movies.
Weatherby-Blythe believes there will be interest from art collectors as well as the stars’ supporters.
“I think Johnny still has many, many fans out there. But I’m also hoping that art buyers will see it as a one-off work of art,” he said, pointing out that the actor has “painted and drawn his entire life, and I think that art connoisseurs will see that. ... And this piece is a very, very special, very personal piece.”



New Spielberg, Nolan Films Teased at CinemaCon

US actress Scarlett Johansson presents the film 'Jurassic World Rebirth' onstage during CinemaCon. VALERIE MACON / AFP
US actress Scarlett Johansson presents the film 'Jurassic World Rebirth' onstage during CinemaCon. VALERIE MACON / AFP
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New Spielberg, Nolan Films Teased at CinemaCon

US actress Scarlett Johansson presents the film 'Jurassic World Rebirth' onstage during CinemaCon. VALERIE MACON / AFP
US actress Scarlett Johansson presents the film 'Jurassic World Rebirth' onstage during CinemaCon. VALERIE MACON / AFP

Hollywood studio Universal Pictures on Wednesday teased new movies from Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan, while showcasing footage from its upcoming sequels "Jurassic World Rebirth" and "Wicked: For Good" at the CinemaCon event.

Spielberg "is currently shooting a film that promises to be a return to form, in the spirit of his monumental classics," said Universal executive Jim Orr, at the movie theater industry summit in Las Vegas.

The untitled film, out June 2026, is widely rumored to be a blockbuster sci-fi. Orr promised it would contain "a propulsive, modern, out-of-this-world twist," without sharing further details.

Meanwhile, Nolan is in the Mediterranean shooting his star-studded version of "The Odyssey," based on the millennia-old Ancient Greek epic saga written by Homer.

It is due July 2026, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, alongside Tom Holland, Zendaya and Anne Hathaway, AFP said.

In a prediction bold even by the standards of Hollywood marketing, Orr suggested the film "will be a once-in-a-generation cinematic masterpiece that Homer himself would, quite frankly, be very proud of."

The comments came at CinemaCon, an annual week-long summit at which Hollywood studios present their biggest upcoming movies to theater owners and press.

A theme of this year's event has been a drive to get studios to commit to keeping new movies in US theaters for at least 45 days before they appear on streaming.

A source with knowledge of the talks told AFP Wednesday that three of Hollywood's six biggest studios have committed.

Universal, which has in recent years brought many of its films to on-demand streaming very soon after they debut in theaters, has not yet agreed to the new 45-day "window," the source said. The studio did not immediately comment.

But its efforts to court movie theater owners Wednesday included showing extended new footage and A-list stars from the next Jurassic movie -- out this July.

It comes from the writer of the original 1993 "Jurassic Park." The action returns to that film's island setting.

Unlike the "Jurassic World" films where dinosaurs freely roamed the globe, the fearsome reptiles are now once again scarce, surviving in a few remote spots.

Star Scarlett Johansson said the film would "put the scares back into Jurassic" by keeping the dinosaurs hidden and ratcheting up the suspense.

Universal's presentation ended with surprise appearances from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, whose second and final "Wicked" film will hit theaters November.

CinemaCon concludes Thursday with presentations from Paramount and Disney.