Actor Johnny Depp will be joining the fight to promote “gender and race equality” by lending his vocal talents to the children’s show “Puffins,” in which he will play the character Johnny Puff.
The project will be made in concert with the Italian company Iervolino Entertainment, which previously produced “Waiting for the Barbarians,” starring Johnny Depp, Mark Rylance, and Robert Pattinson.
‘”Puffins’ will be a mobile-first, short-form toon series consisting of 250 five-minute episodes that follow the adventures of a group of cute birds, who are the servants of the wily walrus Otto,” according to Variety. “It ‘will promote positive messaging,’ by weaving in ‘themes such as gender and race equality and environmental protection, Iervolino Entertainment said in a statement.”
Andrea Iervolino told Variety that “Puffins” will be an avant-garde project that Johnny Depp has enthusiastically backed.
“We’re so happy to reunite with Johnny for a second project,” Iervolino said in a statement. “Experiencing a new and avant-garde project like this short series, alongside Johnny, has given me even more conviction to champion experimental genre and format fusions. I am beyond grateful that Johnny has shown belief in the project … sharing his thoughtful artistic ideas that are providing real added value to the Puffins universe.”
How the series will address the complex issue of race and gender equality remains to be seen.
As the Black Lives Matter protests have gripped the nation following the tragic death of George Floyd while in the custody of a Minneapolis police officer, Johnny Depp has been vocal about his views and race relations and creating equality in Hollywood.
“As the majority of American people, our global community and our extended family of humans helplessly watched a man die on television… I too, was exposed to the atrocity of blatant barbarism, ruthless cruelty and unmitigated lack of humanity,” Depp said in an Instagram post in early June. “A handcuffed man, pleading for his life lay prone with the full weight of a man sworn to defend the peace on his neck. The victim of this heinous act of cowardice, George Floyd, told the officers that he could not breathe. As he called for his dead mother, how could our collective hearts not break as his face was ground and mashed firmly into the pavement by those sworn to protect him, and all of us? Justice, I desperately hope, will address the horror of Officer Chauvin’s nonchalance and indifference to his participation in the agony, suffering and ultimately the murder of our fellow traveler George Floyd in a grotesque illustration of the abuse of power!!!”
“What we can do is make a vow to ourselves that racism and the ignorance inherent in such judgmental ugliness that it gives birth to, is NO LONGER AN OPTION!!! THERE MUST BE A CHANGE!!! DEMAND IT!!!!” he added.
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