Meet the Sioux Falls Johnny Depp superfan who took in the trial in person

Cindy Lewis knows not everyone will understand her devotion to Johnny Depp.

The kinship the Sioux Falls woman feels for the Florida-raised actor, recently in daily headlines because of a contentious trial that centered on spousal abuse, will leave some people puzzled. Why should she care so much for and about a celebrity whose orbit is far from hers?

But for two weeks during Depp’s recent defamation suit against ex-wife Amber Heard, their orbits may not have synchronized totally but certainly circled in proximity. Lewis saw Depp in person and communicated with him through one of the actor’s attorneys. He felt her warmth and concern, Lewis said.

And she continues to feel a connection on several different levels.

“They say he’s just a celebrity — no, he is a human being as well,” Lewis said. “He has issues that he grew up with, just like any normal person. I was abused when I was a child, and I was abused in my marriage. He was the same. His mom abused him, and he got abused by Amber. He’s a human being, just like the rest of us.”

The Depp-Heard trial took place in Virginia’s Fairfax County Courthouse. A seven-person jury awarded Depp $15 million in damages, finding Heard defamed Depp in a 2018 op-ed about domestic abuse. He was not mentioned by name in the article. The award was reduced to $10.35 million because of a state law.

Heard had filed a defamation countersuit. She was awarded $2 million in damages and reportedly plans to appeal the verdict.

The verdict was handed down June 1. Lewis heard the news while she was driving.

“I was ecstatic,” she said. “I had to stop and pull over because I started crying. But I knew in my heart that he was innocent, and he would win this.”

A little about Lewis: She’s 59, nine months older than Depp. She was born Sept. 19, 1962; his birthday is June 9, 1963 — making him 59 years old Thursday. Widowed since 2014, Lewis has two sons, 39 and 36. Her five grandchildren live in Sioux Falls and Harrisburg and range in age from 1 to 22. Disabled, Lewis also collects Social Security benefits as a widow.

And in 1984, she fell in love with Johnny Depp.

Her route to super-fandom began in 1984 when she saw Depp in the horror flick “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” That was his film debut. Lewis’ favorite Depp films are the Pirates of the Caribbean series –“all of them” – and when he played the romantic lead in 2000’s “Chocolat.”

“I don’t know what it is about that character that hits you in the heart,” Lewis said of Depp’s portrayal of Jack Sparrow, a Pirate Lord of the Seven Seas. His appeal in “Chocolat” is more obvious: “He is so fine in that movie,” Lewis said.

It’s more than just hair and smile, however.

“It’s not what he looks like or what per se who he is, it’s how he portrays himself,” she said. “Not in the movies but how he portrays himself to people in general. It’s the kindness and generosity in his heart that really gets me going.”

Lewis can tell story after story about Depp’s relationship with his fans. He likes to interact with his fans at premieres or other events, she said. He calls fans “relatives.”

Lewis saw how Depp responded to his fans when she drove to Virginia to attend the trial’s first week. It started April 11. She also returned for the final week before the case went to the jury May 27.

Through one of Depp’s lawyers, Camille Vasquez, Lewis was able to forward gift bags to Depp twice. After the lunch break, Vasquez told Lewis that Depp had appreciated her gifts.

“She said he loved everything that was in the bag,” Lewis said. Lewis was sitting in the third row after the break, just behind Depp’s overflow attorneys and photographers.

“When he came back into the courtroom at lunch break, he looked right at me and nodded his head and smiled,” Lewis said. “I told her to tell him it’s the one wearing the bluejean jacket. He looked right at me.”

The gift bag included a scarf. It’s an accessory that Depp is fond of wearing, and this scarf said “No matter how far apart we are” on one end, concluding on the other, “You will always be in my heart.”

Other items included a drinking glass especially made for Depp with his initials on it. Lewis also included jewelry such as bracelets and a ring and some stickers. She saw one of the stickers later on a book Depp was carrying.

Depp is a fan of Elvis Presley. The second gift bag included coffee mugs with the initials EP on them. Lewis added crystals for healing, protection and strength and a turquoise bracelet since Depp likes that stone. She also brought him a bouquet largely composed of cheerful yellow flowers. Those gifts were delivered to Depp’s limo driver since by that point his attorneys were taking a more private exit.

Lewis added poems and stories she has written and a letter from a woman in her mid-30s that she has connected with. The woman was in a coma as a young girl, and she has told Lewis that Depp was visiting the hospital, heard of her plight and stopped by to kiss her on the cheek. She would like to contact Depp.

Lewis is thankful to Depp for bringing his fans together. She made friends during the trial that she intends to keep in touch with. The first week, she ended up sharing her hotel room’s king-sized bed with a woman from Maryland who didn’t have a place to stay. The last week, they were joined by two other women who had come to the trial. Lewis’ original roommate lives in Maryland. A friend from Florida was there the last week with the fourth woman from Portugal.

Interest in the trial had heated up, and it became more difficult to get inside the courtroom. Lewis describes the crowds as similar to size and frenzy as “going to Target on Black Friday.” Those were not true fans, however, she said. They were just there to get a glimpse of the actor in person. True supporters who had been there the whole trial often were unable to get into the courthouse that last week.

One day, caught up in a crowd running across the street to get in line outside the courthouse, Lewis was pushed, and her knees began failing. She caught herself from falling, but her knees hurt badly after that.

The Wednesday and Friday of the last week, Lewis could not enter the courthouse because the lines were too long, so she watched on television. She ended up viewing in person a day when the jury was selected and then seven days of the trial.

Emotions run high among supporters on both sides of the Depp-Heard case, but Lewis, to no one’s surprise, supports Depp fully. She doesn’t believe Heard’s testimony and claims Heard took lines from movies like “Gone Girl” to support an imaginary case.

Home now, Lewis tries to make others, including family members, understand what led her to drive twice to Virginia and back. What led her to share a hotel room with someone she’d just met. What led her to collect items in a gift bag for a celebrity who has millions.

“My kids didn’t really want me to go, and I said, this is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Lewis said. “It was a bad instance for him, but he brought all of these people together. A lot of us have made friends because of it. I trusted every one of those girls (in the hotel room). You just know, and you can just feel it in your heart. They’re here for the same reason you are.”

Meet the Sioux Falls Johnny Depp superfan who took in the trial in person