Hollywood actor Johnny Depp drew outrage for suggesting that he would like to assassinate President Donald Trump.
Depp made his remarks before a crowd at a drive-in theater in Glastonbury, in the U.K., while introducing a screening of his 2004 film The Libertine.
“When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?” Depp said to cheers and laughter from the crowd, likely referencing the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth in 1865.
“I want to qualify, I am not an actor. I lie for a living,” Depp said. “However, it has been a while and maybe it is time.”
Depp’s words, which came days after Republican Congressmen were targeted and shot at in Washington, DC, drew immediate outrage.
“Hi @SecretService, we have video evidence of Johnny Depp threatening to assassinate President Trump. Please do something!” wrote a Tennessee GOP Twitter account.
“While #SteveScalise is in critical condition, you ”joke“ about assassination of the President of the United States?” wrote actor James Woods.
Depp’s remarks are the latest addition to a growing list of highly publicized insinuations that the president of the United States should be assassinated. Previous incidents met with outrage and swift retribution, with the perpetrators losing their jobs and sponsorships.
A production of Julius Ceasar, which features an on-stage assassination of a “President Trump-a-like,” finished a four-week run in New York City on June 18. In response to the political overtones, Delta Airlines and Bank of America withdrew their sponsorships for the New York Public Theater, which produced the play.
In late May, comedian Kathy Griffin posed with a mock bloodied and severed head of President Trump. After a flood of outrage she deleted the photos and apologized publicly, but still lost her only sponsor (Squatty Potty), her New Year’s Eve gig with CNN, and all of the upcoming performances on her tour.
Many fans of Depp expressed shock and outrage on social media, some saying that they will boycott his films going forward.
“He was my favorite actor . I was just going to go see Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Now I will not go see anymore of his movies,” wrote Laura Shelton.
