I årene efter retssagen mellem Johnny Depp og Amber Heard er det blevet tydeligt, at ingen af parterne slap ud af sagen med æren i behold. Begge skuespillere og tidligere partnere fik deres navne og omdømme slæbt gennem mudderet i forsøget på at forsvare sig mod hinanden, og det har haft store konsekvenser for deres karrierer sidenhen. Depp er dog så småt begyndt at dukke op i større produktioner igen, blandt andet i Lionsgates Day Drinker næste år over for Penelope Cruz og Madelyn Cline. Men Depp har nu også udtalt sig om retssagen og den effekt, den har haft på hans liv, og beskriver sig selv som en "crash test dummy for #MeToo".
I et interview med The Times forklarede Depp: "I'll tell you what hurts. There are people, and I'm thinking of three, who did me dirty. Those people were at my kids' parties. Throwing them in the air. And, look, I understand people who could not stand up [for me] because the most frightening thing to them was making the right choice. I was pre-#MeToo. I was like a crash test dummy for #MeToo. It was before Harvey Weinstein. And I sponged it, took it all in. And so I wanted from the hundreds of people I've met in that industry to see who was playing it safe. Better go woke!"
Depp forklarede også, at han har "no regrets about anything — because, truly, what can we do about last week's dinner? Not a f—ing thing." Han forklarede desuden, at hans tilbagevenden til rampelyset ikke er et comeback, fordi "I didn't go anywhere," og tilføjede "if I had the chance to split I would never come back."