Of all the reasons a celebrity might miss a press event, "attacked by chupacabra" is pretty low on the list.
But that's exactly the excuse Johnny Depp cooked up when he missed a news conference in Tokyo, Japan for his new film Mortdecai.
The actor apologized and then joked with journalists about his absence the day before at another press conference, saying that while he was coming off a cold, it wasn't the real reason he missed the event.
"I was attacked yesterday morning by a very rarely seen or experienced animal called 'chupacabra.' I fought with it for hours," he told members of the Japanese press. "They're very persistent, very mean. And I'm pretty sure it came into my suitcase. I threw him off the 23rd floor. So we'll never see him again. Thank you for understanding."
The best part about all of this is that Depp explains it all in a perfectly calm, collected manner as he waits for his translator to relay his tongue-in-cheek story to the crowd. Even Depp can't keep a perfectly straight face, as hints of a smile begin to appear as he tells the tall-tale. It's a little surprising the Japanese know what the chupacabra is to begin with. The mythical creature is said to feed on livestock in the Americas, but that didn't stop the crowd from laughing at Depp's story -- especially the part about him throwing it off a building.
Depp's film Mortdecai, in which Depp plays a shady, mustache twirling art dealer, is based on a book series starring the character from which the film takes its name. It is also a box-office bomb.
The film currently sits at a 12 percent "Rotten" rating on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes and brought in only $4.1 million opening weekend. The film opens in Japan on Feb. 6, but even Depp's chupacabra story likely won't be enough to save it.
