Judi Dench On Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Johnny Depp<\/p>\n
For what it\u2019s worth, Judi has worked closely with all three men over the course of her career, which skyrocketed when Harvey\u2019s production company, Miramax, acquired the 1997 movie Mrs. Brown, which was her first leading film role.<\/p>\n
Then, in 2001, Judi starred alongside Kevin in the 2001 film The Shipping News, and he was a source of comfort for her after her husband, Michael Williams, died that same year.<\/p>\n
As you probably know, Harvey is currently in prison after he was sentenced to 23 years<\/a> for rape and sexual assault in New York in 2020. In a separate case in Los Angeles, Harvey was sentenced to an additional 16 years<\/a> after he was found guilty of rape and sexual assault in December 2022.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Kevin was accused of sexual harassment and assault by multiple<\/a> men<\/a> in 2017, which he vehemently denied. He was found not guilty<\/a> of committing multiple sexual offenses against four men in 2023. However, he is set to face three more claims<\/a> of sexual assault in civil court in London next year.<\/p>\n And in a new interview with the Radio Times<\/a>, 91-year-old Judi triggered scrutiny after she admitted that she and Kevin still text, and said that she imagines Harvey has \u201cdone his time.\u201d<\/p>\n Back in 2019, Judi told the same publication<\/a> that she believes Kevin and Harvey\u2019s work should be separated from their alleged offenses, saying of Kevin at the time: \u201cAre we going to negate 10 years at the Old Vic and everything that he did, how wonderful he\u2019s been in all those films?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre we just not going to see all those films that Harvey produced?\u201d she continued. \u201cYou cannot deny somebody a talent. You might as well never look at a Caravaggio painting. You might as well never have gone to see Noel Coward.\u201d<\/p>\n And in the new interview, it is explained that Judi has been a Quaker ever since she attended a Quaker boarding school as a teenager. A Quaker is a member of a Christian-rooted movement from 17th-century England known as the Religious Society of Friends. The movement focuses on living out values such as peace, integrity, and equality \u2014 with forgiveness being a core value of the Quaker belief system.<\/p>\n When asked if her Quaker beliefs mean that she has been able to find forgiveness for both men, Judi replied: \u201cKevin has been exonerated, and I hear from Kevin, we text. I saw a bit of film of Harvey walking with two sticks, and you think: ‘Well\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI knew Harvey, and I knew him well and worked with him, and I had none of that experience \u2014 very fortunately for me,\u201d she went on. \u201cI imagine he’s done his time\u2026 I don’t know, to me it’s personal \u2014 forgiveness. I just think\u2026\u201d Radio Times writes: \u201cher voice trails away and we leave it at that.\u201d<\/p>\n The reporter then notes: \u201cTo lighten the tone I ask whether she has a celebrity crush,\u201d which leads to Judi expressing her admiration for Johnny Depp, who she worked with on a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, as well as on Chocolat, and Murder on the Orient Express. In Pirates, Johnny\u2019s character bites an earring off Judi\u2019s character\u2019s ear, and she tells the reporter that she has the earring framed in her home.<\/p>\n \u201cI had to sit in a carriage in Greenwich, and they said: \u2018Johnny Depp will jump in through the window, give you a kiss and jump out,\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cHe jumped in, but he didn’t give me a kiss, he went for my ear and took my earring off with his teeth. And I said [disappointed voice]: \u2018Is that it?’ and that is actually kept in.”<\/p>\n \u201cSo, was that a bit of a moment for you?\u201d the interviewer asked, writing Judi\u2019s response as follows: \u201c\u2018Well, of course Johnny Depp, he\u2019s\u2026\u2019 she fans herself.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure you know that Johnny has faced his share of allegations over the years. In 2020, a British court ruled that it was \u201csubstantially true<\/a>\u201d for the tabloid newspaper, the Sun, to refer to Johnny as a \u201cwife beater\u201d after they published a story that referenced his ex-wife Amber Heard\u2019s<\/a> testimony that he had abused her several times between 2013 and 2016.<\/p>\n