Johnny Depp is seemingly determined to continue his war of words with the Australian deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce over the ‘dog smuggling’ incident that landed him and his wife Amber Heard in court, mocking the apology video they recorded and saying that Joyce looks like he’s “inbred with a tomato”.

Dropping by ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ on Tuesday night (May 24th), he made the comments when asked by the host about the episode last year in which Joyce threatened to have the couple’s two Yorkshire terriers Pistol and Boo put down unless they left the country within 50 hours, after it was believed that they were smuggled illegally.

Johnny DeppJohnny Depp continued his war of words with the Australian deputy PM

“He [Joyce] looks somehow inbred with a tomato. It’s not a criticism, I’m just saying, I was a little worried … he might explode,” he told Kimmel.

Promoting his new movie Alice: Through the Looking Glass, out on May 27th in the US, he also suggested that the video – which led to the charges against himself and Heard being dropped last month – wasn’t sincere, after Kimmel said it was the greatest apology he’s ever seen.

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“There are things you have to prepare a long time for to be able to tap into the emotion,” he said. “I played that anti-government Australia, when someone threatens to euthanize your dogs… tiny teacup things, [that are] clearly dangerous in Australia because of so many poisonous creatures in Australia you could die at any minute, so the dogs were obviously a problem.”

He also claimed that an “absolute genius” had written the apology for them, and that it was filmed on an iPhone. It also took several takes to get down properly, as “sometimes you have to giggle a little.”

Asked if he watched the video back before publishing it, Depp replied: “No, because I didn’t want to kill myself… I think the choice they made to utilise the taxpayers’ dollars to globally chase down teacup yorkies and give them 50 hours to live, I realised the badness of my ways, I was kind of repenting.”

On Wednesday morning, deputy PM and agriculture minister Joyce responded to the A-lister’s comments, saying “I think I’m turning into Johnny Depp’s Hannibal Lecter, aren’t I? I’m inside his head, I’m pulling little strings and pulling little levers. Long after I’ve forgotten about Mr Depp, he’s remembering me.”

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