Johnny Depp Allegedly Fired Shotgun Blanks at His Assistant in Wild Prank, Don Johnson Claims

Actor Don Johnson, 74, recently recounted an incident alleging Johnny Depp fired shotgun blanks at his assistant. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on November 7, Johnson explained that the bizarre prank took place in Woody Creek, Colorado, where he had been a neighbor of journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

Johnson disclosed that at the time, Depp in his early 30s, had developed a close friendship with Thompson, who frequently wrote under the pseudonym Raoul Duke. Johnson told the host comedian Jimmy Kimmel, "I called over to Hunter’s to see if he had any weed, and, of course, he had. Like a ton out back."

Given Thompson's affirmative response, Johnson decided to send his assistant to pick up the cannabis. Johnson described, "[He] drives up Hunter’s driveway, and Johnny Depp and Hunter were hiding behind Hunter’s car with shotguns loaded with blanks, and my assistant got out of the car, and they both jumped out and said, 'Die, mother!' before shooting the blanks."

Johnson shared that his assistant was so frightened by the ambush that he 'peed his pants.' Johnson, who met Thompson in the 1980s, recalled the moment he first encountered the eccentric writer. “We first met, believe it or not, during the Andy Warhol era when I was filming my debut movie in New York. He was the crazy m—–f—er that came in with a pocket full of drugs, and our movie was about drugs,” he said.

Over the years, Thompson became more than a friend, often stepping in to help with Johnson’s animals at his Colorado ranch. "For the next 25 years, if I was away and I had a sick animal or something like that, he would come over and sleep in the stall with my animal and nurse them back to health," Johnson praised. Looking back on his three-decade friendship with Thompson, which lasted until the journalist’s suicide in 2005 at age 67, Johnson told People magazine, “I loved him. I learned so much from him."

Depp also had a close connection with Thompson that extended into both their personal and professional lives, according to the Mirror. Depp eventually portrayed Thompson in the 1998 film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, an adaptation of the journalist's novel. After Thompson's death, Depp honored his friend’s unconventional final wish to have his ashes shot out of a cannon. Funding the creation of a cannon designed by Thompson himself, Depp remarked, “We had talked a couple of times about his last wishes to be shot out of a cannon of his own design. All I am doing is trying to make sure his last wish comes true. I just want to send my pal out the way he wants to go out.”