CANNES, France — At first, you had to wonder if they were running out the clock.
Twenty minutes after the Cannes Film Festival news conference for “Jeanne du Barry” was supposed to begin on Wednesday, neither the film’s actress-director, Maïwenn, nor her lead actor, Johnny Depp, had actually shown up.
Were they hoping to avoid questions? For Maïwenn, who was accused of spitting on a journalist in February, and Depp, who recently won a defamation suit against his ex-wife Amber Heard after she made allegations of physical and sexual abuse, queries about their personal scandals could overwhelm all talk of the movie they were meant to promote. Both had been in attendance the previous night when “Jeanne du Barry” opened the festival, but Cannes premieres are famously fawning and conclude with a customary standing ovation. Meeting the press would be a whole different matter.
Depp, who has not starred in a major Hollywood film in five years, had already missed the morning photo…
This article was written by Kyle Buchanan and originally published on www.nytimes.com