Johnny Depp joked about assassinating Donald Trump during an appearance at Glastonbury.
The actor received a rock star welcome during the event at Cineramageddon – a drive-in cinema on the Somerset site.
He introduced his 2004 film The Libertine along with director Julian Temple but began talking about the US president following questions from the 1,500-strong audience.
“I think he needs help and there are a lot of wonderful dark, dark places he could go,” Depp said, to cheers from the crowd.
“It is just a question – I’m not insinuating anything. By the way, this is going to be in the press. It will be horrible. I like that you are all a part of it.
“When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?” he asked in reference to the death of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth in 1865.
“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,” he added.
Depp, who arrived in a blue vintage Cadillac, was greeted with crowds of screaming fans holding phones.
He smoked a cigarette as he posed for pictures and jumped on the car bonnet without prompting. Wearing a black shirt and distressed jeans, he also sported a black hat with a silver ribbon around it.
Introducing the film, the story of debauched poet the second Earl of Rochester, he said: “Thank you so much for having me here. This is beautiful, chaotic, madness … I made the film because I wanted to try to bring to England a great poet that they missed. They missed him because he was written off as a jokester, a hoaxer. This guy is one of the deepest poets.”
Fans, many sat in vintage cars and trucks, then enjoyed a screening of The Libertine.
The White House subsequently released a statement saying: “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.”
In a statement to People magazine, Depp has since apologised for his remarks. “I apologize for the bad joke I attempted last night in poor taste about president Trump,” he said. “It did not come out as intended, and I intended no malice. I was only trying to amuse, not to harm anyone.”
During Friday’s White House press briefing, Sean Spicer also addressed the comments in reference to a question about the use of a Trump-like lead in a controversial production of Julius Caesar in New York.
“Look, I think it’s troubling whether it’s that [Julius Caesar] or Johnny Depp’s comments,” Spicer told reporters. “We’ve seen this and frankly, as far as I’m concerned, I know the president and the first lady have weighed in on Kathy Griffin’s comments; I don’t know if he’s aware about the play in particular that’s going on there.
“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.”
