Johnny Depp Should ‘Pick On Someone His Own Size,’ Says Australian Official

Johnny Depp spoke candidly with Jimmy Kimmel recently about his legal woes with Australian official Barnaby Joyce, saying that if his wife does jail time for bringing their dogs into the country, so will he.

Joyce was outspoken about the possibility that Depp’s wife, Amber Heard, could face jail time after the couple brought their two small dogs into the country while Depp was filming the most recent Pirates Of The Caribbean movie. The problem, Joyce says, is that people bring animals in that spread disease, and that no one is exempt from the country’s laws, no matter how big a celebrity they are.

“In England they got a problem because of people bringing in tea cup-sized dogs and the possibility that that’ll bring rabies into England. 55,000 people died of rabies in the globe last year – we don’t want that in our national parks, we don’t want that in our towns and cities,” Joyce told the Today show.

Following the threat of legal action, Depp told Jimmy Kimmel that if Heard goes to jail, he’ll fly back to Australia and take matters into his own hands.

“I’d just fly to Australia and assault that man. So that I could go to jail,” Depp said, adding that he was under the impression that his pets had the correct paperwork at the time. “We were there with the dogs in front of everybody. There might have been other things smuggled. Well they seemed to miss that bit. Might have been. Could have been.”

Mr. Joyce said in his Today show interview that he thinks he — or the head of his security team — can take Depp if it comes to blows, however, and urged him to pick on someone else.

“I think that Mr Depp should pick on someone his own size, and I’ve got him. I think that Mr Depp’s losing sight of the fact that this is about biosecurity, in our nation we have laws you have to obey… no matter who you are.”

The story made international headlines earlier this year when Joyce announced he had the authority to euthanize Johnny Depp’s dogs if they were not taken back to California immediately, claiming that Depp and Heard had “snuck” the animals into the country. Meanwhile, Depp has not held back his feelings on Joyce, telling Kimmel exactly how he felt.

“You know, maybe, maybe, he’s just doing his job. You know this, sort of, weird, sweaty-pated gut man man who decided that two five-, six-inch Teacup Yorkshire terriers would harm the country in some way. He’s got a point. Especially when you consider that Australia has the most poisonous creatures on earth. Everything will kill you in minutes.”

[Photo courtesy Jimmy Kimmel]