I hated Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. In fact, I saw it opening night and when the audience erupted in applause at its finale, I was soon after escorted out of the theater by two employees for attempting to light a man’s Hogwarts scarf on fire. I’m very passionate about film. Also, I was very drunk.
I've revisited the film a few times since and my position remains roughly the same. There are some things to recommend about the film, like Dan Fogler’s and Alison Sudol’s performances, but on balance, the film was a massive disappointment. For the majority of its runtime, I would describe my disposition as “miffed,” but when the climax rolled along and brought with it the reveal that Grindelwald was played by Johnny Depp I sunk into a deep rage.
I never really had a good reason to hate Johnny Depp as an actor, but Depp hatred has sort of floated around for a little while now. I mean he starred in a lot of dog shit movies, but so did Ronald Reagan and everybody loves him. I think it has something to do with how affected his persona his. He sort of operates like what a corny- unimaginative teen thinks an artist is supposed to look and act like.
There’s been some controversy that surrounded the actor regarding his casting in Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them 2. Depp’s ex wife, fellow actress Amber Heard, accused him of domestic violence and some fans felt he should no longer be a part of the franchise. To this J.K Rowling responded on her website back in December:
“The agreements that have been put in place to protect the privacy of two people, both of whom have expressed a desire to get on with their lives, must be respected. Based on our understanding of the circumstances, the filmmakers and I are not only comfortable sticking with our original casting, but genuinely happy to have Johnny playing a major character in the movies.”
Many fans and publications expressed outrage at this response. In addition, Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, recently commented on the decision to keep Depp on board. Via Entertainment Weekly, the actor expressed gratitude toward the filmmakers and Rowling for giving him a chance, but did not shy away from calling out the hypocrisy of not recasting Grindelwald.
“I can see why people are frustrated with the response that they were given from that … I’m not saying anything that anybody hasn’t already said — and this is a weird analogy to draw — [but] in the NFL, there are lots of players arrested for smoking weed and there is other people’s behavior that goes way beyond that and it’s tolerated because they’re very famous players. I suppose the thing I was struck by was, we did have a guy who was reprimanded for weed on the [original Potter] film, essentially, so obviously what Johnny has been accused of is much greater than that.”
The reference in Radcliffe's analogy is actor Jamie Waylett, who was dropped from the series after his arrest over marijuana plants in 2009. Radcliffe makes a fair point. Also Johnny Depp is awful. Give my man Barkhad Abdi a shot. He’s hungry.
