CULVER CITY, CA - JANUARY 09: Amber Heard and Johnny Depp attend The Art of Elysium 2016 HEAVEN ... [+]
A Johnny Depp and Amber Heard joke in The Fall Guy stirred up controversy over the context of the line, but the film’s writer said he has an explanation for it.
The joke uttered by Hannah Waddingham’s producer character Gail Meyer in The Fall Guy happens when Gail enters the movie set trailer of her director, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), to see that the filmmaker’s tight living quarters is a complete mess.
At that point Gail utters the joke, “It’s like Amber and Johnny were just in here,” which was met with criticism in some social media comments on X because they felt the line was making light of domestic violence issues.
Depp and his ex-wife Heard in recent years were embroiled in civil defamation proceedings over domestic violence allegations she made against the actor. A jury ruled in June 2022 that Heard had defamed Depp.
Hannah Waddingham as Gail Meyer in "The Fall Guy"
Note: Spoilers from the film are discussed in the upcoming paragraphs.
Discussing the controversial joke with The Hollywood Reporter Friday, The Fall Guy screenwriter Drew Pearce said the line was meant to show how awful of a person Gail was in the film.
“No decent human being would ever make a joke about that subject, and Gail’s character is clearly not a decent human being,” Pearce told THR. “She’s our villain, and she says horrible things, and this is just one of them. But just like what I hope continues to happen in our industry and others, Gail is ultimately held accountable for her worldview and her behavior.”
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 22: Drew Pearce attends a special screening of "The Fall Guy" at BFI IMAX ... [+]
Pearce Wanted To Present Gail ‘Warts And All’
Now in theaters, The Fall Guy stars Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers, a veteran stuntman for action superstar Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).
When Colt breaks his back as a stunt goes horribly awry on the set, he walks away without warning not only from the movie business but his relationship with his girlfriend Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt)—who was working as a camera operator on the production.
However, Colt is coaxed to return to work 18 months after the mishap when producer Gail Meyer tells him that Jody is directing a big-budget sci-fi movie called Metalstorm and she wants him to be a part of it. Seeing it as an opportunity to make amends with Jody, Colt returns to be the stunt double for Tom but learns from Gail that the star has fallen in with a bad crowd and has gone missing.
After Gail asks Colt to find Tom, the stuntman finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy, leading to unusual incidents like one where he’s mistaken for an intruder in Jody’s trailer. A destructive scene in Jody’s trailer follows, which ultimately becomes the set-up for Gail’s joke about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
Further explaining the motivation behind Gail’s controversial line in The Fall Guy to THR, screenwriter Drew Pearce said the dialogue did not reflect either the opinion of the filmmakers or the film as a whole. Rather, Pearce explained to THR, it was simply a reflection of who Gail the character was.
“As with all of our characters, Gail included, we wanted them to feel authentic, warts and all,” Pearce told THR. “Sometimes sh—-y people say sh—-y things, but a character’s opinion in a movie is not the same as the perspective of either the film or the people making it. All of that being said, when a filmmaker puts a line in a movie, they have to anticipate how it will make the audience feel, so everybody is entitled to their reaction too.”
The Fall Guy opened weaker than expected at the domestic and international box office in its opening weekend, grossing only $64.4 million at the worldwide box office in its first three days of release.
