Featured Image Credit: PictureLux / The Hollywood Archive / Alamy
Topics: Celebrity, Johnny Depp, JK Rowling, Harry Potter, Film and TV, Twitter, Social Media, Viral
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Celebrity, Johnny Depp, JK Rowling, Harry Potter, Film and TV, Twitter, Social Media, Viral
Helena Bonham Carter is facing backlash online for defending JK Rowling and Johnny Depp.
Bonham Carter starred in the Harry Potter film franchise based on novels by JK Rowling as Lord Voldemort trainee, Bellatrix Lestrange.
The 56-year-old has also worked with Depp in multiple films directed by Tim Burton such as Alice in Wonderland (2010), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and 2005's Corpse Bride.
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Both Rowling and Depp have been embroiled in controversy in recent years - Rowling facing accusations of transphobia and Depp allegations of abuse amid a publicly broadcast defamation trial with ex-partner Amber Heard.
Despite the scandal enshrouding Rowling and Depp, Bonham Carter has since spoken out in the pair's defence.
In an interview with The Times, Bonham Carter voiced the opinion that 'Johnny certainly went through it'.
The 56-year-old accused Heard of having gotten on 'that pendulum' of the Me Too movement.
"That’s the problem with these things — that people will jump on the bandwagon because it’s the trend and to be the poster girl for it," Bonham Carter said.
She stated she believes Depp has been 'completely vindicated' and is 'totally fine' now.
On whether or not JK Rowling deserves to be cancelled, Bonham Carter branded the backlash the author has faced as 'horrendous' and 'a load of b***ocks'.
"I think she has been hounded. It’s been taken to the extreme, the judgmentalism of people. She’s allowed her opinion, particularly if she’s suffered abuse," Bonham Carter continued. "Everybody carries their own history of trauma and forms their opinions from that trauma and you have to respect where people come from and their pain."
The actor resolved not everyone has to agree on everything because that would just be 'insane and boring' and that Rowling wasn't 'meaning it aggressively' but just 'saying something out of her own experience'.
Bonham Carter believes the backlash Rowling has faced is simply a result of jealousy.
She said: "If she hadn’t been the most phenomenal success, the reaction wouldn’t be so great. So I think there’s a lot of envy unfortunately and the need to tear people down that motors a lot of this cancelling. And schadenfreude."
Bonham Carter also disagrees with other Harry Potter stars having publicly addressed the controversy surrounding Rowling, resolving she doesn't 'agree with talking about other famous people'.
Bonham Carter has since faced her own backlash online for her defence of Depp and Rowling.
One Twitter user said: "How ignorant must one be to insinuate that survivors speak out against their abusers to be a poster for anything. It's sad and harmful."
"Helena Bonham Carter i am extremely disappointed," another wrote.
A third commented: "Dear helena bonham carter i love you with all my heart but could you just go back to hibernating please."
Bonham Carter resolved her controversial opinion by questioning: "Do you ban a genius for their sexual practices? "There would be millions of people who if you looked closely enough at their personal life you would disqualify them.
"You can’t ban people. I hate cancel culture. It has become quite hysterical and there’s a kind of witch-hunt and a lack of understanding."