Johnny Depp arrives at Cannes press conference 42 minutes late

Controversial actor is at the French film festival to promote the forthcoming biographical drama ‘Jeanne du Barry’

Johnny Depp showed up to a Cannes Film Festival press conference 42 minutes later than scheduled.

The actor, 59, is attending the festival to promote Jeanne du Barry, a biographical drama in which he plays King Louis XV of France.

It marks his first on-screen role since the high-profile court case between him and former wife Amber Heard last year.

Depp sued Heard for defamation after she wrote about her experience with sexual violence in a Washington Post op-ed in 2018. After six weeks in court, a jury ultimately ruled in Depp’s favour.

After the film’s first screening on Tuesday (16 May), Depp was so moved by the audience’s seven-minute-long standing ovation that he is thought to have “teared up” with emotion.

On Wednesday (17 May), the actor delayed the start of a press conference discussing the film by failing to show up at the correct scheduled time of noon.

New York Times journalist Kyle Buchanan tweeted: “The JEANNE DU BARRY press conference is beginning 20 minutes late because Johnny Depp has not shown up for it.”

Later, Buchanan noted that neither Depp nor the film’s director and lead co-star Maïwenn had shown up after 25 minutes of waiting.

After 33 minutes, Buchanan reported that Maïwenn and the remaining cast had shown up, before Depp, 59, finally arrived, 42 minutes late.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star went on to answer questions about whether he felt as if Hollywood had boycotted him in recent years, and whether he or Maïwenn were affected by the media attention brought to the film following his trial.

During another press conference at Cannes on Tuesday, Marvel star Brie Larson was asked to share her thoughts on Depp’s film being the first to open the film festival, despite the controversy.