Johnny Depp Explained Homosexuality to Christina Ricci in 'Simplest Terms'

Christina Ricci on Thursday said she learned the meaning of homosexuality from Johnny Depp, who she said explained it to her "in the simplest terms."

The actress recounted the story during an interview on SiriusXM's Andy Cohen Live show to promote the new season of the Showtime drama Yellowjackets and Wednesday, Netflix's coming spinoff series of The Addams Family. She explained to Cohen the talk with Depp occurred after an incident on the set of the 1990 drama Mermaids when she was only 9 years old.

"There was something going on on-set and someone was not being nice to someone else," Ricci said. "And they were like, 'Oh, well, he might be homophobic.'"

Ricci said she told the film's crew she didn't know what homophobia was, which led to a talk with co-star Winona Ryder. At the time, Ryder was in a relationship with Depp. When the older actress couldn't find the words to explain homosexuality to Ricci, Ryder put Depp on the phone with her.

"And Johnny explained it to me," Ricci said, which Cohen called "incredible."

"Yeah," Ricci said. "And like the simplest terms. He was like, 'It's when a man wants to have sex with a man. And when a woman wants to have sex with a woman,' and I was like, 'Ah, OK.'"

Mermaids was Ricci's film debut and also starred Cher and Bob Hoskins. Later in her life, Ricci would go on to share the screen with Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) and Sleepy Hollow (1999).

Cohen joked that Ricci should have consulted with Cher, who enjoys immense popularity in the LGBTQ+ community, rather than Ryder about homosexuality.

"I love it that Winona Ryder had to put you on the phone with Johnny Depp to get that story that she couldn't spit it out in some way, or, I mean, you've got Cher in the next trailer," Cohen said.

"I know, we should've run right over there," Ricci responded.

Depp is still making headlines in the wake of the trial against his ex-wife, Amber Heard. Depp had sued Heard for $50 million for defamation following an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in 2018 in which she alleged she was a victim of domestic violence. On June 1, a civil jury reached a verdict that awarded Depp a total of $8.35 million after the judge lowered the punitive award and figured in $2 million awarded to Heard for her countersuit for nuisance.

Heard filed a notice of appeal on July 21, and Depp followed with his own appeal one day later.

Newsweek has reached out to Depp for comment.