Actor Johnny Depp’s dog fight with Australia’s deputy prime minister continued on May 25.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce bragged that he is embedded in Depp’s mind just like serial killer Hannibal Lecter from the movie “Silence of the Lambs.”
Joyce said he has moved on from the dispute with Depp, which ignited after the actor and his wife Amber Heard illegally brought their two dogs to Australia.
“I’m inside his head, I’m pulling little strings and pulling little levers,” Joyce told reporters. “Long after I’ve forgotten about Mr. Depp, he’s remembering me.
“I’m turning into his Hannibal Lecter,” Joyce said, referring to the brilliant but dangerously manipulative character from the Academy Award-winning movie starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins.
Joyce’s remarks come after Depp referred to the deputy minister as Barnaby Jones, the television detective played by Buddy Ebsen, while he was on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“He looks somehow inbred with a tomato,” Depp told Kimmel.
“It’s not a criticism. No, I was a little worried. He might explode.”
But Joyce seemed undeterred by the actor’s comments. Instead, he thanked Depp for the publicity he gave on Australia’s robust biosecurity laws through the actors’ case dubbed as a “war on terrier.”
It all began in April last year when Heard arrived to Australia on a private jet with the two dogs, Pistol and Boo, to meet Depp who was on set for the upcoming “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie.
Joyce threatened to euthanize the animals if they weren’t removed from the country. Joyce said it was time the Yorkshire terriers “buggered off back to the United States.”
The dogs were then flown back to Los Angeles.
Heard pleaded guilty last month to falsifying documents to conceal the pets when she illegally brought them to Australia.
Both Heard and Depp issued a video apology as part of a deal with prosecutors that would save Heard from a conviction.
The video was widely-mocked, and was even parodied by TV host Stephen Colbert, who showed the actors being forced to make the “totally convincing apology” while being held at gunpoint by kangaroos.
Joyce also made fun of the apology saying it looked like Depp was “auditioning for The Godfather.”
“Do it again Johnny, do it with gusto mate, a little gusto,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed tot his report.
