Quick Links
On October 31, 1993, River Phoenix died from a drug overdose outside Johnny Depp's nightclub, the Viper Room. Leonardo DiCaprio was also there that night. He saw then-23-year-old Phoenix "disappear in front of my very eyes." For a time, fans blamed Depp for Phoenix's tragic death. However, some also claim that the two were best friends. Here's the truth about their relationship.
Were Johnny Depp And River Phoenix Best Friends?
Depp and Phoenix weren't really best friends. However, they had a lot of mutual friends. The latter actually had a short-lived bromance with Keanu Reeves — who defended Depp from Amber Heard's accusations against him. The John Wick star met Phoenix through his younger brother, Joaquin Phoenix. The two became best friends on the set of the 1990 film, I Love You to Death. Then they were approached to work in another film together. "We were excited," the late actor said of starring in My Own Private Idaho with Reeves. "It could have been like a bad dream—a dream that never follows through because no one commits, but we just forced ourselves into it."
Reeves also looked up to Phoenix at the time. "I think he's the best," he said of his best friend. "He asks questions that I don't normally think about sometimes. He works in a way that, at least for me, showed me how to get it more in my blood and more imaginative." He even raved about their chemistry, on and off-camera. "To get the chance to play with him, to be a partner with him," Reeves said in 2014. "In this world that Gus Van put together- just really a great togetherness, great energy, a great exploration, a great- people saying yes and you know at the core of this- at the center of this was River."
The Matrix star also knew that Phoenix was struggling back then. "Meeting River was a revelation," Reeves told People. "As a person and an artist. His generous heart and shining spirit along with an intelligence, curiosity, wit and humor inspired. He seemed to hold the sadness and what was wrong in a worldly or beyond worldly way and just wanted to make it better, actively make it better. Whether it was in a conversation, a song, the characters he played, the stories he told, his friendship, his family, his activism, his love. He was there. He tried. He was trying. A beautiful exceptional soul. Light."
Johnny Depp Was Blamed For River Phoenix's Death
People were quick to attack Johnny Depp and his club following Phoenix's death. Many even blamed the Pirates of the Caribbean actor for the tragedy. In a 1996 interview with Playboy, Depp addressed the accusations and called out the press for spreading such rumors. "When River passed away, it happened to be at my club. Now that's very tragic, very sad, but they made it a fiasco of lies to sell f---ing magazines," he said. "They said he was doing drugs in my club, that I allow people to do drugs in my club."
"What a ridiculous thought! 'Hey, I'm going to spend a lot of money on this nightclub so everyone can come here and do drugs. I think that's a good idea, don't you? We'll never get found out. It's not like this place is high profile or anything, right?'" he continued, adding that the rumors were hurtful to the actor's family. "That lie was ridiculous and disrespectful to River. But aside from River, and his family trying to deal with their loss, what about people who work in the club? They have moms and dads in, like, Oklahoma, reading about the place where their daughter tends bar and thinking, Jesus, she's out in Hollywood swimming around with these awful creatures!"
Depp also revealed that he closed the club for a few nights to cope with the whole media fiasco. "I closed the club for a few nights," he said. "To get out of the way so River's fans could bring messages, bring flowers. And I got angry. I made a statement to the press: 'F--- you. I will not be disrespectful to River's memory. I will not participate in your circus.'" Still, he admitted that Phoenix's death haunted him for a short time.
"At first it was. I couldn't go to the club without thinking of it," he told the magazine. "Later I came to terms with the fact that it had nothing to do with the club. He was here a very short time. It had nothing to do with anything, really, except that what he ingested was bad, and now there is nothing we can do."