Emily Hampshire’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Costume

What a strange Halloween it is in 2023. We knew that the SAG-AFTRA strike restrictions on Halloween costumes for celebrities would breed interesting swerves, if not outright defiance. If nothing else, it illuminates the limits of some celebrities’ creativity if they cannot conceive of a character or thing to dress as outside of struck films or TV shows. Some people chose to dress as famous figures, and that brings us to Emily Hampshire.

There is not a shortage of famous people to dress as, and it’s a perfectly fine avenue to take if you want to remain strike-supportive in your costume. Why, on this cursed earth and in this cursed time, did Hampshire decide that dressing up as Johnny Depp in a couple’s costume with a friend as Amber Heard was the way to go?

I am not here to relitigate the trial in which Depp successfully sued his ex-wife for referring to herself as a survivor of abuse. It was a dark time in which Depp was rewarded for his atrocious behavior, but also in which people consumed a trial about domestic abuse as if it were a fun drama. The openly misogynistic glee people found in this moment was pretty gross. Boy band relic Lance Bass even twerked to Heard’s testimony, presumably because he loves to dance to accounts of domestic abuse. And he was one of many! It was the time in which people not only disbelieved a woman detailing her abuse, they delighted in her pain. Cruelty continues to be an ugly color on us as a people.

Dressing up as Depp and Heard is gross on a base level, but adding in a wine bottle as a prop is what really drives it home. Domestic violence, alleged or otherwise, is not a costume. Speaking as someone who has followed Hampshire’s work since loving Stevie on Schitt’s Creek, it’s a bummer to see that Hampshire views a toxic and abusive relationship as fodder for a fun costume. As I’m fond of pointing out, we cannot and do not know what’s in Hampshire’s heart or mind. What we can say for sure is that she made a choice to dress as Johnny Depp and explicitly reference his alleged abuses. Hampshire deleted the photos from social media, which would appear to indicate she at least recognizes the unpopularity of her decision. There is no official response, apology, or explanation from Hampshire as of yet, but people are beginning to notice including a fan account.

It should go without saying, but don’t dress up as an alleged abuser on Halloween as a fun joke. I know we’re all true-crime-pilled by osmosis these days, and that leads us to view horrible events as fun stories, but feasting upon a story that dark like a ghoul is simply not the way.