Schitt’s Creek star Emily Hampshire is apologizing after “stupidly” deciding to dress up as Johnny Depp and Amber Heard for Halloween along with a friend.
Hampshire, 42, took to Instagram Wednesday to share that she deeply regrets the costume that caused a major stir on social media.
“I want to address what is one of the most thoughtless, insensitive, and ignorant things I’ve ever done,” the actress wrote.
“For Halloween, I stupidly thought it would be funny to dress as Johnny Depp and Amber Heard,” she shared, referencing photos she posted of herself dressed as the Pirates of the Caribbean star.
In the since-deleted pictures, Hampshire appears with slicked-back hair, fake arm tattoos, a tan-striped suit, face makeup to look like Depp and a bottle of what appears to be alcohol.
The unidentified friend wears a buttoned-up blouse, wide-rim glasses and a perpetual sad face to look like she is crying in what appears to be an attempt to depict Heard from the defamation trial.
“I am deeply sorry and ashamed for putting something that awful out in the universe,” Hampshire wrote. “Domestic abuse is never, ever funny. These are real issues with real people and I REALLY regret my actions.”
The Fitting In actress was immediately called out online for the costume, with some fans insinuating Hampshire was trying to mock Heard.
“So you hate victims of domestic abuse @emilyhampshire huh? Good to know,” one person on X — formerly known as Twitter — wrote.
Hampshire eventually responded to the outrage on Instagram with her written apology.
“In the future I will do better,” she wrote. “I’m so sorry.”
Depp and Heard’s highly publicized defamation trial made headlines from April 2022 to June 2022 after Depp filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard.
In March 2019, The Washington Post published an op-ed Heard wrote about being the victim of domestic violence. Depp’s name was not mentioned in the op-ed, but it came out as their contentious 2016 divorce continued to make headlines.
After weeks of back-and-forth in the courtroom, the jury ultimately sided with Depp in June 2022, and the 60-year-old actor was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The punitive damages, however, were later reduced to $350,000 in accordance with the state’s statutory cap.
The trial recently got the Hollywood treatment with a three-part docuseries on Netflix.
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