Director of Folly Wildlife Rescue near Tunbridge Wells tells all about Johnny Depp's visit
13:25, 03 June 2022
updated: 13:40, 03 June 2022
The director of a wildlife rescue centre told KentOnline that everyone was "shell shocked" to meet Johnny Depp.
Dave Risley, who works at Folly Wildlife Rescue, near Tunbridge Wells explained how the Hollywood megastar came to visit.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star is currently joining guitarist Jeff Beck – a patron of Folly Wildlife Rescue – on his UK tour.
He said: "Jeff has been a patron for the centre for many years, and is good friends with Johnny.
"The two are touring at the moment, and Jeff's wife, Sandra, thought it would be nice to pop down and see us.
"We were only given about 15 to 20 minutes warning that they would be coming.
"I thought to myself, until they show up I won't believe it."
The sanctuary cares for hundreds of injured, orphaned and distressed wild animals throughout west Kent and East Sussex.
Dave added that Mr Depp was eager to be shown around the site.
He said: "Johnny was here for over an hour, and we gave him a tour of the whole place.
"He was very complementary and really seemed to enjoy it.
"Overall he was charming and polite – what you would call a southern gentleman.
"I walked into one of the rooms where a few volunteers were working and said 'who likes Johnny Depp?'
"A few of them nodded and I replied, 'well he's next door if you want to meet him'.
"They just couldn't believe it. He even did a few Jack Sparrow lines with the accent."
A photo of Mr Depp was shared on Facebook by Folly Wildlife Rescue yesterday afternoon.
"We have 12 badger cubs at the moment, that's when we snapped the picture," Dave explained.
"It has taken us years to get followers on social media, I think we were around 24,000.
"After us posting the photo on Facebook, we gained 4,000 followers overnight.
"The post of Johnny now has 6,000 shares and over 10,000 likes.
"Also, we found out that he is now following us on Instagram – a rare privilage – as he only follows around 100 people."
"He was charming and polite – what you would call a southern gentleman..."
Dave added: "We asked Johnny if he could donate some memorabilia for us to sell at our weekly auction.
"I believe him and Jeff have signed a T-shirt, which people can bid for and hopefully raise a lot of money for us."
"Johnny made sure to say goodbye to everyone, shook-hands and hugged the members of staff – we were all just shell shocked."
Depp, 58, on Wednesday won his multimillion-dollar US defamation lawsuit against former wife Amber Heard, 36.
He had previously surprised audiences and fans when he joined Beck on stage in Sheffield and at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
He was also pictured at a pub in Newcastle Wednesday night.
Find out more about the Folly Wildlife Rescue here.
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