Paul Bettany is setting the record straight. The VisionQuest star told The Times that he hadn’t spoken to Johnny Depp in years when their private text messages surfaced during Depp’s 2020 libel case — and that the two haven’t spoken since, according to EntertainmentNow and NME.
The texts, sent in 2013, were read aloud during Depp’s unsuccessful libel lawsuit against The Sun and became one of the most publicized episodes of the case. Bettany had largely declined to discuss them for years.
“Painted as this close friend”
“I hadn’t spoken to Johnny in years when that happened, and I haven’t spoken to him since,” Bettany said. “I was being painted as this close friend of a guy I hadn’t spoken to in years and, honestly, amid all the shit two celebrities threw at each other, that bit was the most odd.”
The 55-year-old, who worked with Depp on The Tourist (2010), Transcendence (2014) and Mortdecai (2015), said he stayed silent deliberately: “So I decided to say nothing because, I think, people know me. I’ve been married 23 years and, for what I do, I live an incredibly quiet life. Everybody kind of thought this is probably a nothing burger — and left it alone.”
Moving forward
Bettany is currently back as White Vision in Disney+’s VisionQuest, the final chapter of the trilogy that began with WandaVision. The actor has focused his recent media engagements on promoting the show, effectively drawing a line under a tumultuous chapter of unintended association with one of Hollywood’s most contentious legal battles.
Closing the chapter
For Bettany, the interview was about reclaiming his own narrative — separating the actor from a controversy he never sought. “Everybody kind of thought this is probably a nothing burger — and left it alone,” he said. And they did.
The Times interview is the most Bettany has ever said about the Depp saga — and likely the last. After years of silence, the actor has said his piece: he wasn’t a close friend, he isn’t one now, and he’s moving on. Now, with VisionQuest bringing his Marvel journey full circle, Bettany is focused on the work.
