Johnny Depp has undertaken the role of King Louis XV in French filmmaker Maïwenn’s forthcoming film Jeanne du Barry.
Production of the historical romance drama began in Paris and the Île-de-France region in late July, following the end of Depp’s highly publicised defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard.
According to a press release, the historical romance drama stars Maïwenn in the titular role and follows Jeanne, a young courtesan who captures the interest of King Louis XV. Unaware of her status, he falls deeply in love. However, her arrival at Versailles scandalises the court.
On Wednesday (10th August), Stephen Deuters, CEO of Depp’s UK and European-based film and television company IN2 Film, shared the first exclusive photo of the actor in character as King Louis XV.
The star’s last major acting role was in the 2020 independent drama Minamata, where he portrayed war photographer W Eugene Smith. Later that same year, Warner Bros forced him to resign from the newest Fantastic Beast: The Secrets of Dumbledore after he lost a libel case against The Sun over a 2018 article that called him a “wife beater.” Mads Mikkelsen promptly replaced Depp’s role as evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald.
Heard then filed a countersuit accusing Depp of allegedly orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her and describing his own lawsuit as a continuation of “abuse and harassment.”
Despite Heard’s allegations of abuse throughout the six-week trial, which concluded in July, the jury found that a column she wrote for The Washington Post about domestic violence was defamatory and awarded $10.35m (£8.2m) in damages to Depp, even though the article did not name him.
