Johnny Depp was 40 minutes late for his Cannes presser, but don’t call it a comeback

All eyes have been on Johnny Depp at the Cannes Film Festival, where he appeared to premiere his new film Jeanne du Barry. It’s the actor’s first major film role since the controversial trial between himself and ex-wife Amber Heard regarding her accusations of abuse, but Depp doesn’t consider it a comeback. Nor does he consider it an occasion worth showing up on time for, apparently, as he was reportedly 40 minutes late for a press conference scheduled to run for 45 minutes.

Jeanne du Barry’s director and star Maiwenn was also 25 minutes late, according to The New York Times’ Kyle Buchanan. But Maiwenn, though controversial in her own right, may not hold the same fascination that Depp does after the highly publicized accusations of abuse against him. The Pirates Of The Caribbean alum used the opportunity to insist that “In regards to me and my life, the majority of what you’ve read is fantastically horrifically written fiction,” criticizing Hollywood for turning its back on him “because of something that is merely a bunch of kind of vowels and consonants floating in the air” (via Deadline).

“Do I feel a boycott now? No, not at all. I don’t feel boycotted by Hollywood because I don’t think about Hollywood. I don’t have much further need for Hollywood myself,” he said. “I think it’s a very strange, funny time where everybody wants to be themselves, but they can’t, they must fall in line, conform and if you want to lead this life, I’ll be on the other side.”

That’s an interesting critique of the industry for someone who supposedly didn’t do the things he was accused of doing. (What is Depp’s idea of everybody “being themselves”?) Nevertheless, Depp was welcomed to Cannes warmly not only by fans, but by the institution itself. (Variety reported that the ovation for Jeanne du Barry lasted seven minutes, though Buchanan argued that it was more like three, “on the low end of these things.”)

Still, though Depp acknowledged that the role challenged him to make audiences forget his “baggage,” he chafed at the term “comeback,” noting that he’s “had about 17 comebacks by the way, apparently.” He argued that he’s been around the whole time, though the phone may have stopped ringing. “I don’t know what their fear was at the time. I didn’t go nowhere. I’ve been sitting around,” he said, per Deadline. “So ‘comeback’ is almost like I’m going to come out and do a tap dance or something like that.”

As for the controversy surrounding his presence at the festival, Depp offered up a bit of word salad. “What if they said to me, I cannot go to McDonald’s for life because somewhere if you got them all in one room, 39 people saw me watching me eat a Big Mac on a loop. Who are they? Why do they care? Some species or tower of mashed potatoes covered in light from a computer screen? Anonymous.” Powerful stuff!