Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are longtime collaborators. In a recent interview with The Independent, the director likened Depp’s public fall from grace to Frankenstein.

What did Tim Burton say about Johnny Depp?

In a profile on the legendary director, Burton was asked about Depp, who faced backlash during his public trial with ex-wife Amber Heard. Burton told a story about how — as a child — he saw society as similar to the angry village in the story of Frankenstein.

“Here’s the thing,” said Burton. “When I was a child, I always had an image of the angry villagers in Frankenstein… I always used to think about society that way, as the angry village. You see it more and more. It’s a very, very strange human dynamic, a human trait that I don’t quite like or understand.”

Burton and Depp have collaborated on eight films in their history in Hollywood together. Most notably, Depp starred in the 1990 fantasy gothic romance film Edward Scissorhands, as well as in the 1994 film Ed Wood and 2005’s Corpse Bride.

Depp’s fall from grace began in 2016, when Heard and Depp went to trial for claims that Heard made, saying that Depp had abused her physically. Later in 2018, following the publication of an article in the British newspaper The Sun that called Depp a “wife beater,” Depp sued News Group Newspapers Ltd for defamation in 2020. However, a High Court judge ruled against Depp, claiming that Heard’s evidence of abuse was “substantially true.”

A 2020 trial in the United States would then take place after, with Depp filing a complaint of defamation against Heard. The suit came after an op-ed by Heard was published in The Washington Post. That lawsuit ended in a verdict, finding that Heard’s references to “sexual violence” and “domestic abuse” were false and led to the aforementioned settlement.

Both actors appealed their respective verdicts but instead settled and dropped their appeals, a decision that Heard called “ very difficult” and “not an act of concession” in a December 2022 statement on Instagram.