Johnny Depp May Be Broke, Has Lost A Huge Sum Of Money
Johnny Depp's finances have been aired in court. Where did it all go?
This article is more than 2 years old
Johnny Depp reportedly filmed one scene for the third Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie before he was fired and his role recast. Despite that, the actor is taking away $16 million from that project because he had a pay-or-play contract, meaning that whether the film is made, he gets fired, or anything else happens, he gets paid at the end of the day. But for an actor at Depp’s level, $16 million isn’t really that much money. The actor reportedly enjoys spending about $2 million a month. With getting fired from Fantastic Beasts and his future role prospects looking pretty grim, he may need to live on his savings. Except, it turns out he may not have any. Is this because he did things like buy French villages? Or because, as he claims, mismanagement from his former business managers have left him adrift. Whatever the case, he has claimed in court that he unknowingly lost $650 million. Also, he owes $100 million for 17 years of unpaid taxes.
A lot of what we’re learning about Johnny Depp’s finances is coming out because of his court cases. Notably, all the time in court is likely not helping his budget. He lost his libel suit against The Sun. He tried suing Amber Heard for $50 million, and she countered with a $100 million lawsuit. And now, all the embarrassing details of his financial situation are coming to public light.
Is it really possible that someone could have not been aware they made $650 million, or that they lost it? It’s hard for many of us to imagine, but may be (at least partly) true. When it comes to money, there are the type of people who know their current bank balance to the penny, and those who can’t offer even a ballpark figure. You would think that someone with a ballpark in the hundreds of millions might want to take a peek at that money every once in a while, if for no other reason than the satisfaction of seeing all those commas. With hundreds of millions of dollars, wouldn’t taking a peek at your bank statements be a little more thrilling? Satisfying? Something akin to swimming in a vault full of money like Scrooge McDuck?
Perhaps Johnny Depp may have done better to appreciate these simple joys. Ten maybe he would have noticed he was missing $650 million dollars. Or that he hadn’t paid his taxes in 17 years. Owing the government $100 million and claiming oopsie? Some people live differently than others. During Seth Rogen’s first visit on the Armchair Expert podcast, he spoke with Dax Shephard about how common it is in Hollywood for people to hire money management teams and never look at their bank accounts. Apparently, it’s a Hollywood norm. Do you think the government will accept that excuse for all that missing tax money? Probably not.
While Johnny Depp blames his former money managers, they say he just spent a lot of money. That’s somewhat easy to believe. At one point, reports came out that he spent $3 million to shoot Hunter S. Thompson’s ashes into the sky, a claim Depp later wanted corrected: it was $5 million. His $2 million a month budget included expenses like $200,000 on private planes and $30,000 on wine. He owned 14 residences. With regular expenses like that, and $5 million splurge sessions, how much was left for a money management company to steal?
