Schitt's Creek actress Emily Hampshire has apologized for dressing up as Johnny Depp and Amber Heard on Halloween following backlash on social media.
On Tuesday (October 31), the 42-year-old Canadian actress - best known for her role as Stevie Budd on the US sitcom - came under fire after sharing pictures of her and her friend's costumes for the spooky season.
While Hampshire deleted the snaps from her feed, TMZ published the images, which show the pair dressed in the former couple’s outfits from their highly-publicized 2022 defamation trial.
Check out the now-deleted pictures below:The actress is seen donning a beige suit with slicked-back hair and makeup to imitate Depp's facial hair and tattoos, while her unidentified companion sported a ruffled button down, black skirt, and wide-rim glasses. She also had a perpetually sad face to look like she was crying in an attempt to depict Heard from the trial.
In addition to the costumes, the friends posed with objects that reference viral moments from the trial including, a bottle of wine and a prop of fake excrement.
The Fitting In actress was immediately called out online for the costume, with some fans claiming that she was trying to mock the 37-year-old Aquaman actress.
"So you hate victims of domestic abuse @emilyhampshire huh? Good to know," one person on X (formerly known as Twitter) questioned. Another person said: "I don’t care whose side you’re on, this is absolutely depraved."
"Do people not see how vile it is to dress up as real people who’ve experienced domestic abuse and sexual assault and treat their situation as mindless entertainment? The lack of humanity is jarring," they added.
A third user chimed in: "Omg. I really need to stop putting celebrities on pedestals because they’re pretty much all trash," while a fourth shared: "Beyond disgusting @emilyhampshire you should be ashamed of yourself."
The Rig actress eventually responded to the outrage on Instagram with her written apology, stating: "I want to address what is one of the most thoughtless, insensitive, and ignorant things I’ve ever done.
"For Halloween, I stupidly thought it would be funny to dress as Johnny Depp and Amber Heard," she continued. "I am deeply sorry and ashamed for putting something that awful out in the universe."
Hampshire declared that "domestic abuse is never, ever funny," and noted: "These are real issues with real people and I REALLY regret my actions," before concluding: "In the future, I will do better. I'm so sorry."
The comment section was inundated with messages of praise and criticism.
One person thanked Hampshire for the apology as the costumes were a "bad idea," while a second user expressed: "I agree the costume was in incredibly poor taste and I am very shocked. I appreciate the apology. I genuinely have no idea what you were thinking. It was pretty disgusting."
Someone else remarked: "Yikes. 1) Your circle should have checked you on this. 2) That shit isn’t funny in the slightest. 3) Everyone messes up. Glad you apologized."
From April to June 2022, the former celebrity couple went back and forth in the courtroom in a highly publicized defamation trial.
This came after the 60-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean actor filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife after she wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in which she called herself a domestic abuse survivor.
Though she never mentioned the actor’s name specifically, the story was published amid headlines of their tumultuous divorce in 2016.
A Virginia jury ended up finding in Depp's favor, awarding him $15 million, comprised of $10 million in compensatory damages, and $5 million in punitive damages, but the latter was reduced to Virginia’s statutory cap of $350,000.
