I’m inside your head, deputy PM tells Depp
Australian deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has hit back at actor Johnny Depp after the star told an American late-night TV show that Joyce resembles an ‘‘inbred tomato’’.
Speaking to the BBC via a spokesman, Joyce said he was ‘‘turning into Johnny Depp’s Hannibal Lecter’’.
‘‘I’m inside his head, I’m pulling little strings, pulling little levers,’’ Joyce said.
‘‘Long after I’d forgotten about Mr Depp, he’s remembering me. The Australian people know we did the right thing.’’
Joyce’s comment follows a drawn-out battle where Depp and his celebrity wife Amber Heard were made to record a video apologising for breaching Australia’s biosecurity laws, after being caught illegally smuggling their dogs, Pistol and Boo, into the country in 2015.
Joyce. who was agriculture minister at the time, threatened to euthanise the dogs if they remained in the country.
‘‘Just because he’s Johnny Depp does not mean he’s exempt from Australian law,’’ Joyce said, adding that there was a risk the dogs could bring rabies or other diseases into the country.
The case gained media attention worldwide, drawing attention to Australia’s strict quarantine laws, aimed at protecting the country from overseas diseases and pests.
Depp appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday, where the robotic apology video was replayed. The actor then took aim at Joyce, who is known for his red complexion, particularly when speaking with passion.
‘‘He looks somehow inbred with a tomato,’’ Depp said of the deputy prime minister, whom he called ‘‘Barnaby Jones’’.
Depp proceeded to mock Australia’s laws and said his pets could hardly pose a threat.
‘‘[The dogs are] miniscule, tiny teacup things, clearly, clearly dangerous in Australia, ’cause there’s so many poisonous creatures in Australia, you can die at any minute, so the dogs are obviously a problem in Australia,’’ he said.
He also questioned whether it was an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars to target him and his wife.
‘‘I think the choice they made to utilise the taxpayer dollars to globally chase down a couple of teacup yorkies and give them 50 hours to live, I realised the badness of my ways,’’ he said.
Revealing that he recorded the video on an iPhone, Depp said he did not watch it because ‘‘I didn’t want to kill myself’’.
Kimmel said it was reassuring to know that the United States, which could be poised to elect Donald Trump as its next president, was not the only stupid country.