Johnny Depp has resurfaced in a lengthy new interview with The Sunday Times, and it’s the first major sitdown he’s given, to any publication, in years. Reflecting on the fallout from the Amber Heard saga, Depp now calls himself a “crash test dummy for #MeToo.”

The comment is a direct reference to the accusations first made by Heard in 2016, when she claimed Depp was physically abusive during their short-lived marriage. Those allegations exploded into two major court cases and years of tabloid chaos.

The first legal battle kicked off in 2018, when Depp sued The Sun for libel after the paper branded him a “wife-beater.” That U.K. trial, held in 2020, ended with a judge siding with the tabloid — declaring the label “substantially true.” Soon after, Warner Bros. asked Depp to step down from its ‘Fantastic Beasts’ franchise.

The second trial, far more theatrical, unfolded in Virginia in 2022. Depp, deemed persona non grata in Hollywood, filed a defamation suit against Heard over a Washington Post op-ed where she called herself “a figure representing domestic abuse. In the end, the jury sided with Depp, finding that Heard did defame him. The actor would go on to state that the jury “gave me my life back.”

“Look, it had gone far enough,” Depp tells The Sunday Times of the decision to go public. “I knew I’d have to semi-eviscerate myself. Everyone was saying, ‘It’ll go away!’ But I can’t trust that. What will go away? The fiction pawned around the fucking globe? No it won’t. If I don’t try to represent the truth, it will be like I’ve actually committed the acts I am accused of. And my kids will have to live with it. Their kids. Kids that I’ve met in hospitals. So the night before the trial in Virginia, I didn’t feel nervous. If you don’t have to memorize lines, if you’re just speaking the truth? Roll the dice.”

Depp also said he got through “all the hit pieces, the bullshit” that came with the media storm. “Look, none of this was going be easy, but I didn’t care. I thought, ‘I’ll fight until the bitter fucking end.’ And if I end up pumping gas? That’s all right. I’ve done that before.”

Since 2018, Depp has been relegated to starring in low-budget films such as “The Professor,” “City of Lies,” “Waiting for the Barbarians,” and “Minamata.” Depp’s most recent project, “Modi,” which he directed and world premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival last year, will likely not find U.S. distribution anytime soon.

Now, a few years removed from the courtroom circus, Depp seems to be slowly clawing back into the Hollywood machine. He’s set to reunite with “Blow” co-star Penelope Cruz in Lionsgate’s “Day Drinker,” a dark drama due out in 2026. Tim Burton has vowed to work with him again. He’s also been heavily rumored to return as Jack Sparrow in the next ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’