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In the coming days at Cannes Festival, Jeanne Du Barry, the new film starring Johnny Depp, will have its world premiere, albeit out of competition.
The film is already making headlines in France, as festival juror Brie Larson was recently asked whether or not she plans on screening the film.
Jeanne Du Barry marks Depp’s first role in a feature film following his lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard, which concluded last summer and found Heard guilty of defamation.
In a recent piece published by Indiewire, a Hollywood insider suggested that the industry is ready for a Johnny Depp comeback — similar to that of Robert Downey Jr. and Nicolas Cage — if he “looks healthy, shows up on time, and can remember his lines.”
“People are ready to forgive him,” a talent agent said in an email to Indiewire. “Like Nic Cage and Robert Downey Jr., they have been flawed human beings but are endearing actors. Nic and Downey earned their redemption and it looks like Johnny is in the process of doing that, too.”
That same agent stressed, however, that Depp would need to clean up both his look and his act if he has any hope of pulling off a career revival.
“He also would have a better chance of working in the U.S. if he looked a little better,” wrote the talent agent. “He looks bloated and unhealthy in the few photos I’ve seen of him recently — he doesn’t look like a movie star to me. If he gets in great shape and if he’s professional (on time, knows his lines, etc.) on the films he works on now, I think Hollywood will cast him in leads again.”
In addition to Jeanne Du Barry, Depp also has to direct a film about early 1900s Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani and is set to go on a European tour with his band The Hollywood Vampires this summer. At this time, however, Depp has yet to sign on to a major Hollywood feature film, having last starred in one back in 2018’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.