Johnny Depp Reveals His New Life After Amber Heard Trial And It’s A Surprise To Fans

These days, Johnny Depp prefers to live a quiet life in his English countryside mansion.

By Sckylar Gibby-Brown | Updated

johnny depp sleepy hollow

It’s been almost a year since the viral Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial took over the Fairfield County courthouse in Virginia as well as the entire world wide web. Since then, Heard and Depp have kept a pretty low profile, but now the Pirates of the Caribbean star is speaking out about his life post-Heard with the British print magazine Somerset Life (via Daily Mail) and it’s probably different from what fans were expecting. The once rambunctious actor who was known for his party lifestyle now enjoys a peaceful life as an introvert hidden away in the English countryside. 

While Johnny Depp is known as one of the world’s most famous actors, the Sweeny Todd star started his adult life as a musician, and it was trying to make it big with his band that brought the actor to Los Angeles at the age of 20. After his band broke up, his then-wife Lori Ann Allison introduced Depp to Nicolas Cage, who encouraged the young musician to try acting instead. It was basically by happenstance that Depp ended up being cast in his first film, A Nightmare on Elm Street, in 1984, and then he continued to act in order to pay off bills while still trying to be a musician. 

In what was apparently a stroke of the best luck for any actor who was just surfing Hollywood to pay the bills, Johnny Depp quickly rose to stardom when he led the cast in 21 Jump Street a few years before he met who would become his longtime film collaborator, Tim Burton on Edward Scissorhands. Depp would continue to rise the Hollywood ranks, gaining critical acclamation, winning over the hearts of young moviegoers, and finally rise to superstardom with his portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean, all while continuing to practice music and other art forms at the same time. 

johnny depp

During his rise to fame, tabloids used Johnny Depp’s name to sell papers, creating headlines around his drug and alcohol use, earning Depp a reputation as being one of Hollywood’s biggest hell-raisers. And while the 59-year-old actor has spent more than half of his life having his dirty laundry aired out for him, the Dark Shadows star claims that he’s “not the great extrovert that people think.”

In fact, Johnny Depp reports that he prefers to live a quiet life, which is why, in 2014, he purchased a huge mansion in the middle of the English countryside for £13 million. The mansion is in Somerset and is a Downtown-Abbey-style abode, apparently with the look and feel of a Jane Austin estate. It’s got 12 bedrooms and eight bathrooms and rests on a whopping 850 acres of land. 

Johnny Depp said he bought the palace-sized home because he likes places with “character.” He also likes living in the countryside, where he isn’t constantly bombarded by fans looking to take a selfie (though he doesn’t mind appeasing his fans up to a certain extent). Depp says that in West Country, the people treat him like a neighbor but also let the actor keep to himself. 

Overall, Johnny Depp describes himself as a shy person, and living in Britain allows him to be himself in a way that Los Angeles never did.