At British appearance, Johnny Depp jokes about assassinating president

ABC/Randy Holmes

(SOMERSET, ENGLAND) — Johnny Depp was on hand at England’s Glastonbury Festival to introduce a screening of his 2004 film The Libertine, on Thursday, when he decided to talk American politics during an audience question-and-answer session.

“I think he needs help,” the actor said of Donald Trump, reported The Telegraph. “There are a lot of dark places he could go.”

Then Depp himself went to a dark place.  In a video of the event posted to NME’s YouTube channel, Depp can be seen saying,  “This gonna be in the press and it’s gonna be horrible, but I like that you are all a part of it — when was the last time an actor assassinated a president?”

After naming Trump specifically drew boos from the audience, Depp stepped back, a little. “I want to clarify, I’m not an actor,” Depp said. “I lie for a living. However it’s been a while. Maybe it’s about time.”

It seems Depp was referencing actor John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

The actor is just the latest celebrity to level violent rhetoric against the president; it comes just weeks after comedienne Kathy Griffin made headlines for a photo shoot in which she held a bloodied dummy head made to look like President Trump’s, and also comes amidst controversy over the Central Park Summer Stage’s retelling of Julius Caesar that stages, nightly, the title character specifically dressed like the president getting stabbed to death.

In a statement to ABC News, the Secret Service said: “We actively monitor open source reporting, including social media networks, and we evaluate potential threats. For security reasons, we cannot discuss specifically nor in general terms the means and methods of how we perform our protective responsibilities.”

ABC News has asked both Depp’s publicist and the White House for comment.

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