The actor talked to the audience at a drive-in cinema at the festival.
Johnny Depp and director Julian Temple introduced the film The Libertine at Glastonbury. They were talking to a crowd of about 1,500 people when the theme of politics, in particular US president Donald Trump, was raised.
“When was the last time an actor assassinated a president? I want to clarify, I am not an actor. I lie for a living. However, it has been a while and maybe it is time,”, Depp joked, referring to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by theatre actor John Wilkes Booth in 1865.
The White House released an official statement on this remark. “President Trump has condemned violence in all forms and it’s sad that others like Johnny Depp have not followed his lead. I hope that some of Mr Depp’s colleagues will speak out against this type of rhetoric as strongly as they would if his comments were directed to a Democrat elected official,” the statement reads.
Depp later apologised for his remark in a statement to People. He admitted it was a bad joke. He noted he intended no malice and just tried to amuse the audience.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer touched on the issue during a briefing and mentioned the scandalous production by New York’s Public Theater featuring Trump-like Julius Caesar.
“But it is frankly in my belief a little troubling the lack of outrage that we’ve seen in some of these instances where people have said what they’ve said with respect to the president and the actions that should be taken.The president’s made clear that we should denounce violence in all of its forms and I think if we’re going to hold to that standard we should all agree that that standard should be universally called out,” Spicer said.
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