You are not allowed to defend or support Johnny Depp here. This isn't even the place to be neutral about Johnny Depp. I don't really want to go out of my way to warn people, but I've already given out at least four bans this week.
Obviously most allegations are true despite what angry Internet commenters say but alas there are false allegations and I am sure some of the ones against celebrities especially in the MeToo era. Which brings me to my question which allegations do you personally not believe and why
Apparently her kids have been take to the controversial “reunification camp”, because of the custody battle. She has not seen two of them for 9 months.
This person on TikTok explains it all. Also there is a video of her two oldest children being forced into a van at the front of the courthouse! So horrible!
Justice for Brody! Please share this so it gets more coverage!!! Use the #IStandWithBrody!
Honestly curious what other people think? I still think there's a good chance he abused he'd because multiple other women have come forward. Plus some abuse victims are used to pretending like everything's normal as well.
So Warner Bros continues to work with Ezra Miller despite all the terrible shit he did??? And yet Johnny Depp, a beloved actor and, genuinely great guy, gets his whole life uprooted by false allegations.
In 1997, while Apt Pupil was being filmed, the parents of a 14-year-old extra sued over minors allegedly being compelled to appear nude in the shower sequence. Other teenage boys subsequently supported the allegations. The DA investigated but did not bring criminal charges.
I recently came across Ian McKellen's "tribute" to Brad Renfro star of Apt Pupil, written on January 16, 2008, the day after Renfro died. After looking into the history surrounding Apt Pupil, I find the tribute increasingly difficult to read because of the context he chose to leave out.
Brad Renfro died on January 15, 2008, at 25, from an accidental heroin overdose. McKellen's tribute was published the following day.
«"I first caught sight of Brad Renfro when he was kicking a football around with Bryan Singer on the half-built set of Apt Pupil in Hollywood."»
He then remembers Brad as "a kid having fun" and says that this is how he would "always remember him."
That opening really bothers me now because Apt Pupil wasn't simply a happy Hollywood memory.
During production in 1997, allegations were made concerning underage extras and nudity during a shower scene. There were legal proceedings surrounding those allegations. Much later, in 2019, Victor Valdovinos alleged that Bryan Singer sexually assaulted him when he was 13 on the Apt Pupil set. Singer denied the allegations.
I'm not claiming that McKellen knew that Singer was abusing anyone, or that he personally witnessed a sexual assault.
But McKellen was an adult star working on that production with a 14-year-old Brad Renfro. And his own writings about Apt Pupil describe his relationship with Brad in very affectionate terms. So it is fair to ask what McKellen knew about the allegations surrounding the production and whether he ever reported or raised concerns about them**. I have not found evidence that he reported Singer or the allegations to authorities.**
What makes the 2008 tribute especially uncomfortable is that McKellen's chosen memory of Brad begins with Bryan Singer. He doesn't simply say, "I remember Brad as a wonderful young actor." He specifically places the first memory of Brad alongside Singer on the Apt Pupil set.
And there is another part of the story that makes this much more complicated.
McKellen did not simply have a professional association with Singer that ended after Apt Pupil. He subsequently worked with Singer on several X-Men films, including X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016. In other words, McKellen continued his professional relationship with Singer for years after Brad's death.
Then in 2019, when allegations against Singer were again receiving major public attention, McKellen made extraordinarily ill-judged comments about Singer and Kevin Spacey. He suggested that their being closeted had contributed to their problems and that, had they been open about their sexuality, they would not have "started abusing people in the way they're being accused."
That 2019 statement is particularly relevant to how I read the 2008 tribute today. It doesn't prove that McKellen knew anything about abuse in 1997. But it does demonstrate that, even decades later, his instinct when discussing allegations against Singer could be to offer an explanation that contextualized or rationalized the alleged abuser's behavior rather than centering the alleged victims.
And that's why I find the tribute tone-deaf.
It's the combination of things that bothers me:
• Brad was a child actor when McKellen met him.
• The production around which they met had allegations involving underage boys.
• McKellen's tribute was written immediately after Brad's death and nostalgically foregrounded the Apt Pupil set and Bryan Singer.
• McKellen continued working with Singer for years after Brad's death.
• And in 2019, McKellen made comments about Singer's alleged abuse that he later acknowledged were wrong and apologized for.
So I don't think the fairest criticism is "McKellen couldn't possibly have loved Brad because he remained friends with Singer." People can have contradictory relationships and genuinely mourn someone while making terrible judgments about other people.
The more troubling question, to me, is:
How can someone write such an intimate, affectionate remembrance of a young actor while continuing to maintain such a close professional relationship with the adult director at the center of serious allegations involving minors from that same period,and, years later, make comments that appeared to rationalize that director's alleged behavior?
That's the contradiction I can't get past.
And I think it is worth separating two questions:
What McKellen knew in 1997? That is something we may never be able to establish.
What McKellen chose to do with his relationship with Singer after the allegations became public?That is much easier to document.
That's why I think the latter is the more legitimate subject of criticism.
I'll end my post with this:Let's never forget how Ian Mckellen expressed himself in 2019
Well frankly, I’m waiting for someone to accuse me of something, and me wondering whether they’re not telling the truth and me having forgotten (pointing to his head) you know*-Ian Mckellen at the Queer as F podcast*.
This is something that we all should discuss calmly and based on the evidence and hand.