Squandered $650M Fortune

Johnny Depp and His Squandered $650M Fortune

'Rolling Stone' dives into Depp's downward spiral after his divorce, lawsuits, excessive spending

By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff

In this May 18, 2017, file photo, Johnny Depp arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" at the Dolby Theatre.   (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

 Johnny Depp hasn't been doing well. That may be an understatement after reading Stephen Rodrick's profile in Rolling Stone, based on a bizarre series of all-night, sometimes offensive interviews in which Depp reveals how he spiraled into extreme depression after his marriage to Amber Heard ended, he sued TMG (the company run by his longtime business manager), and his finances spun out of control.
"It's estimated that Depp has made $650 million on films that netted $3.6 billion. Almost all of it is gone," Rodrick writes, adding Depp's reported overspending exacerbated the issue. Among the money TMG accuses Depp in its countersuit of laying out: $75 million for 14 homes, 45 luxury vehicles, $30,000 a month on wine, and $3 million to shoot the ashes of late pal Hunter S. Thompson out of a cannon (oddly, Depp boasts he spent even more than reported amounts on the last two).

Depp doesn't dive too deeply into his relationship with Heard because of a non-disclosure agreement, but he says he was "as low as I believe I could have gotten" after they split and suggests he felt suicidal: "The next step was, 'You're going to arrive somewhere with your eyes open and you're going to leave there with your eyes closed.'" He tried to ease his pain by writing his memoir, a process that involved "[pouring] myself a vodka in the morning and … writing until the tears filled my eyes and I couldn't see the page anymore." Rodrick also touches on Depp's super-close relationship with his lawyer, Adam Waldman, whom Depp met less than two years ago and who has ties to Russian oligarch and Putin cronie Oleg Deripaska. The interview ends with Depp not able to open his own security gates to let Rodrick out; Rodrick has to clamber over the top. "Thank you for listening," Depp tells him.