During the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial earlier this year, it seemed like it was impossible for anyone to talk about anything else. Heard testified that she received “hundreds of death threats” every day because of the case; Billie Eilish ranted in an interview, “Who f*cking gives a f*ck? Women are losing rights for their bodies, so why are we talking about celebrities’ divorce trials?”
This topic came up in a new Teen Vogue profile of Phoebe Bridgers, and people are praising the singer-songwriter for her insight.
“I think that there’s been this falsehood — and I think queer people are included in this — of having to be the perfect victim, or the perfect survivor, or the perfect representation for your marginalized community,” Bridgers said. “If Amber Heard exhibited any neurotic behavior, it was held against her. Then Johnny Depp, out of his mouth, admitted some of the most violent, crazy sh*t in court, and it’s somehow like, people aren’t surprised?” She continued, “That whole situation was so upsetting to me, that it was treated like a fandom war. Laughing at someone crying in court? It was disgusting.”
About cancel culture, she added, “I mean, is [cancel culture] real? Who’s lost their job politically? One huge offender is in jail for actual sex crimes, and then anything short of that is, maybe, they lose a couple friends or lose a couple jobs,” she says. “Then five years later, they’re like, ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry.’ And they come back, but they never apologize — they never go away.”