“Schitt’s Creek” star Emily Hampshire issued an apology Wednesday for dressing up as Johnny Depp for Halloween along with a friend who was costumed as his estranged ex-wife, Amber Heard.
Hampshire called the costume decision “one of the most thoughtless, insensitive, and ignorant things” she has ever done.
“For Halloween, I stupidly thought it would be funny to dress as Johnny Depp and Amber Heard,” she wrote on Instagram. “I am deeply sorry and ashamed for putting something that awful out in the universe.”
Read more: Column: For families isolating together, ‘Schitt’s Creek’ is the perfect pandemic sitcom
The “12 Monkeys” actor, 42, who played the sardonic Stevie Budd in the Emmy-winning comedy, faced criticism for the ensemble in the wake of Depp and Heard’s bombshell 2022 defamation trial. She and her friend posed as the estranged couple, accessorizing their costumes with a bottle of wine and a poop prop that referred to some of the actors’ most scathing domestic-abuse allegations in their court testimonies.
Hampshire took down the photos but they were re-published on TMZ.
“Domestic abuse is never, ever funny. These are real issues with real people and I REALLY regret my actions,” Hampshire added. “In the future, I will do better. I’m so sorry.”
Alleging abuse, Heard filed a restraining order against her “The Rum Diary” co-star in May 2016, one week after filing for divorce to end their 15-month marriage. The surprise move catalyzed years of headlines and a series of legal battles. Depp denied the allegations and a judge dismissed the abuse charges when they reached a divorce settlement in January 2017.
Read more: The verdict is in: Here’s how Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s long trial played out
But in 2022, the “Aquaman” star and “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor went head-to-head in a Fairfax, Va., courtroom. Depp had sued Heard for defamation for penning a 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post in which she described herself as a victim of domestic abuse.
After a merciless six-week trial that spring, a jury found that Heard had defamed Depp and awarded the actor $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. (The punitive damages were immediately reduced because of the state’s statutory cap of $350,000.) Heard, who had counter-sued her ex-husband, was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages for one of her allegations.
Heard filed an appeal on the Depp-favoring decision and the former couple pair ultimately settled the case in December 2022. She paid Depp $1 million.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
