Lily-Rose Depp addresses father Johnny’s controversial return to Cannes

‘The Idol’ star joined her father at the prestigious French film festival to promote their respective projects

Lily-Rose Depp has responded to her father, Hollywood star Johnny Depp, making his controversial comeback to Cannes Film Festival.

Johnny, 59, stars in Jeanne du Barry, director Maiwenn’s French period drama about the favourite consort of King Louis XV.

His presence at Cannes caused a stir this week, with footage showing him appearing to tear up as his film’s premiere received a seven-minute standing ovation.

Meanwhile Lily-Rose has been promoting her much-hyped show The Idol with co-star and series creator Abel Tesfaye, also known as The Weeknd, and director Sam Levinson. It follows a struggling pop star (Lily-Rose) named Jocelyn, who meets Tedros (Tesfaye) while out clubbing, and becomes drawn into his cult-like world.

The Idol recieved a five-minute standing ovation after it premiered at the event this week, but so far critics have been unimpressed by early episodes. Many reviews have compared it to soft pornography, while others have accused showrunners of offering up a troubling or even exploitative depiction of women.

Lily-Rose, the daughter of Johnny and his ex-partner, singer and actor Vanessa Paradis, has now said she couldn’t be happier to be joining her father at the prestigious film festival.

“I’m super happy for him,” she told ET. “I’m super excited and it’s so awesome that we get to do projects that we’re super proud of.”

Commenting on the reaction to the premiere of The Idol, she added: “It was incredible. It felt like such a beautiful celebration and a culmination of everything that we’ve been through together, and just kind of a beautiful process that was in the show, and creating this little family together, and it just felt really, really nice.”

Over the past few days, Johnny has also appeared in interviews himself to discuss Jeanne Du Barry with his co-stars and director. In a press conference, which he was over 40 minutes late for, he addressed his “boycott” from Hollywood amid the fallout from his highly publicised legal battles with ex-wife Amber Heard.

Asked whether he still agreed with previous comments that he had been “boycotted” by Hollywood, he said: “Did I feel boycotted by Hollywood? You’d have to not have a pulse at that point to feel [like], ‘None of this is happening, this is actually just a weird joke – you’ve been asleep for 35 years!’

“Of course, when you’re asked to resign from a film you’re doing because of something that is merely a bunch of vowels and consonants floating in the air, you feel a bit boycotted.”

You can read The Independent’s review of Jeanne du Barry here.