Emily Hampshire—who you probably know as Stevie from Schitt's Creek—and a friend dressed up as Johnny Depp and Amber Heard for Halloween. Now, less than 24 hours after posting the pictures, Hampshire has apologized.
Hampshire and her friend's costumes were a reference to the Depp and Heard domestic abuse defamation trial, which, at the time, spiraled into an endless font of memes and jokes at Heard's expense on social media. For Halloween, Hampshire wore a suit resembling one Depp wore at trial and carried a wine bottle and fake plastic feces. Hampshire's friend dressed as Heard, posing for pictures while pretending to cry. Zeitgeist-y Halloween costumes are nothing new, but seeming to make light of domestic abuse was a bridge too far for many social media users.
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“It really is a special kind of depraved to keep the costumes going a full year and a half later,” wrote one X user, along with screenshots of Hampshire's Instagram post. “Domestic abuse is not a joke or a funny costume for you to wear,” another person tweeted.
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In response to the backlash, Hampshire deleted her posts with pictures of the costume, and issued an apology statement. “I want to address what is one of the most thoughtless, insensitive, and ignorant things I've ever done,” the actor wrote in her statement. “For Halloween, I stupidly thought it would be funny to dress as Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.”
Emily Hampshire continued, “I am deeply sorry and ashamed for putting something that awful out in the universe. Domestic abuse is never, ever funny. These are real issues with real people and I REALLY regret my actions. In the future I will do better. I'm so sorry.”
