There’s been a lot of problematic bros-before-hos-ism going around Hollywood with the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard situation. It reminds me a bit about the Bill Cosby stuff, where there are some people who just cannot wrap their heads around the idea that a once-beloved, popular and powerful man is actually an abuser/rapist/terrible person. Even as dozens of women were coming out to tell their stories about Bill Cosby, there were still Cosby defenders saying “meh, it’s no big deal.” So it is with Johnny Depp. I would have hoped that all of the publicists in Hollywood would have just told their clients “JUST SAY NO COMMENT, for the love of God.” But Johnny’s best bros can’t help themselves. Tim Burton is letting his presence beside Depp do the talking. Depp’s friend Terry Gilliam has defended him too. And now Benicio del Toro, Depp’s friend since they costarred in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, is defending him too.

Johnny Depp’s pal Benicio Del Toro is skeptical of Amber Heard’s bombshell domestic abuse allegations.

“What I know, there’s a lot of trouble from the girl that sounds a little manipulative,” the Oscar winner told the Daily News’ Confidenti@l Tuesday at an event sponsored by Heineken. “It sounds a little bit like there’s something really twisted about that girl … but I don’t know the specifics.”

Heard filed for divorce May 23, three days after Depp’s mother died. She won a temporary restraining order against him later that week, alleging he had “verbally and physically abused” her throughout their four years as a couple. But Del Toro called his “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” co-star “a nice guy, very caring, very smart” — and seemed wary of the circumstances around Heard’s abuse claims.

“It seems the fact that his mom passed away and she filed for divorce two days later and then she wants money and she’s saying she got hit, it’s almost like, wait, I saw them not too long ago. Maybe it was January, a dinner for the Oscars or something like that,” Del Toro told Confidenti@l. “He was there with her and they were fine.”

[From The NYDN]

I bet the Heineken people were really glad that Benicio used their event to speak about this. “Heineken does not endorse the misogyny of their spokesperson,” is probably what some beer publicist is writing now. As for Benicio tagging Amber with the labels of “manipulative” and “twisted,” this is what I’m talking about with the bro-ism, and this is the often-seen bro-gaslighting. Use sexist, coded language to describe the woman. She’s manipulative, dude. She’s so twisted, bro. Some dudes (and they’re usually dudes) just can’t wrap their heads around the simplest explanation, that their friend and dude-bro is an abuser. And after all we’ve heard about Johnny Depp in the past two weeks, how is it that AMBER is the manipulative and twisted one?

Also: “I saw them in January and they were fine” is not a good defense. It’s like the Stanford Rapist’s father saying that his son was a good kid except for those “20 minutes of action.” I’ve seen thousands of photos of Depp and Heard where they look fine. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t kicking, strangling and head-butting her every few months.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Getty.