Johnny Depp took the stand on Monday (25 April) in his defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard, giving witness testimony for a fourth day.
Mr Depp sued Ms Heard for alleged defamation over an op-ed she wrote in 2018 for The Washington Post, in which she doesn’t name him but describes herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse”. He has asked for $50m in damages.
Ms Heard, in turn, has filed a $100m counterclaim against Mr Depp, accusing him of allegedly orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her and describing his own lawsuit as a continuation of “abuse and harassment. She has asked for immunity from the actor’s allegations.
Mr Depp first took the stand on Tuesday 19 April, then kept testifying every day up until the end of Thursday 21 April. Proceedings paused on Friday 22 April, then over the weekend, and picked up again on 25 April.
Here is what we have learned during the four days of Mr Depp’s testimony:
Monday 25 April 2022
Johnny Depp says he felt ‘blinding hurt’ when he read Amber Heard op-ed before being dropped from ‘Pirates’
Mr Depp said in court that he felt a “blinding hurt” when he read Ms Heard’s op-ed before being dropped from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
He told the court on Monday that it “was like somebody had hit me in the back of the head with a 2x4” when he read the article.
Johnny Depp calls Amber Heard ‘fat a**’ and ‘c***’ in recordings of shouting matches played in court
Mr Depp could be heard calling Ms Heard a “fat a**” and a “c***” on recordings played in court.
Mr Depp also referred to their arguments having the potential to become a “bloodbath” on the tapes played by Ms Heard’s legal team, as a supposedly tearful Ms Heard could be heard saying “Listen to me cry.”
“Go put your f***ing cigarettes out on someone else, you f***ing have consequences for your actions. That’s it,” Ms Heard says on the first recording that was played in court on Monday morning.
“Shut up, fat a**,” Mr Depp responds.
Mr Depp told Ms Heard’s attorney, Ben Rottenborn, that his ex-wife “greatly exaggerated” and that he hadn’t put out a cigarette on her or thrown a cigarette in her direction.
Johnny Depp asked about text in which he told Amber Heard to take ‘no meetings’ and ‘no movies’
Mr Depp was asked about a text in which he told Amber Heard to take “no meetings” and “no movies”.
Ms Heard’s attorney first read a text from her to Depp, which read: “I’m at a coffee meeting now, will be home soon.”
In a text also read out loud by Ms Heard’s lawyer, Mr Depp replied: “No goddamn meetings. No movies. Why? Why do you deviate from our agreement? What species of meeting? F*** it. Just tell me when you get home.”
Asked: “You didn’t want her to take the meeting that she was taking that day, correct?” Mr Depp replied: “It seems as though we had an agreement to do something together. I’m actually asking what species of meeting.
“So this is not necessarily an angry text, it’s just why do you deviate from our agreement? It’s not about her doing films. How do you think she got Aquaman, sir?”
Johnny Depp says fights with Amber Heard made him ‘vomit’ as he denies putting cigarette out on her
Mr Depp testified in court that he would become “physically ill” and that he would have to go away and “vomit” during fights with Ms Heard.
He also rejected the notion that he had put out cigarettes on Ms Heard, something she suggested in a recording played in court earlier on Monday.
Mr Depp was asked about a recording played earlier in the proceedings in which Ms Heard claimed that he vomited in his sleep often.
“When someone brings up that you vomit in your sleep every night – first, I think you’d be aware of it,” Mr Depp said. “The first thing I would do is seek medical attention.”
“I’ve never vomited in my sleep every night,” Mr Depp said. “There were times when I would get physically ill from the endless shots that you take when you’re unable to take it anymore.”
Thursday 21 April 2022
Johnny Depp was asked about texts saying he wanted ‘burn and drown’ Amber Heard during cross-examination
Mr Depp was asked about texts saying he wanted to “burn” and “drown” Ms Heard. Mr Depp was asked if English actor Paul Bettany was “a good friend you’ve done drugs with” – a question Mr Depp said was strange, but he later confirmed both aspects.
According to court documents, Mr Depp texted Mr Bettany “Let’s burn Amber!!!” on 11 June 2013.
“Having thought it through, I don’t think we should burn Amber – she’s delightful company and easy on the eye, plus I’m not sure she’s a witch,” Mr Bettany responded. “We could of course try the English course of action in these predicaments – we do a drowning test. Thoughts? N.B I have a pool.”
“Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will f*** her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead...” Mr Depp responded.
“My thoughts entirely!” Mr Bettany wrote. “Let’s be CERTAIN before we pronounce her a witch.”
On 30 May 2014, Mr Depp texted Mr Bettany saying, “I’m gonna properly stop the booz thing, darling...Drank all night before I picked Amber up....Ugly, mate...No food for days...”
Heard lawyer Ben Rottenborn also read a text from Mr Depp to Ms Heard’s sister, which read, “I never ever want to lay eyes on that filthy whore Amber”.
Former security guard Jerry Judge texted Mr Depp on 26 April 2015, “Johnny it is lovely to see how you and Amber are so happy...” to which Mr Depp responded “Very, very kind mate!! All I had to do was send the monster away and lock him up!!”
On 28 June 2015, Mr Depp texted his personal doctor David Kipper, “Amber and I have been absolutely perfect for 3 f***** months solid!! I have locked my monster child away in a cage deep within and it has f***** worked!”
Mr Depp has testified that he only used the word “monster” to describe himself to placate Ms Heard.
Depp elicits laughs with happy hour joke as he recalls doing drugs with Marilyn Manson
Mr Depp got a laugh from the courtroom as he said every hour is “happy hour” and recalled doing drugs with Marilyn Manson, giving him a pill to stop him from talking so much.
Mr Rottenborn asked Mr Depp about his drug use, to which Mr Depp said he “found” drugs at an early age. Mr Depp said earlier in the trial that he first took one of his mother’s “nerve pills” at the age of 11.
Mr Depp said he was struggling in the spring of 2013.
“You would sometimes drink whiskey during the morning at that time?” Mr Rottenborn asked.
“I mean, isn’t happy hour any time,” Mr Depp responded.
Depp reacts to audio of himself moaning ‘like a pained animal’ after mixing opioids and alcohol
Audio of Mr Depp moaning in pain after mixing opioids and alcohol was played in court as the actor was cross-examined by lawyers for Ms Heard.
On 24 May 2014, Mr Depp and Ms Heard flew on a private plane from Boston to Los Angeles.
Mr Rottenborn read an email from Mr Depp to Ms Heard sent the following day. “Once again, I find myself in a place of shame and regret,” Mr Rottenborn said, quoting the email.
In court on Thursday, Mr Depp didn’t agree that he was “very drunk” on that flight.
Mr Rottenborn went back to the UK transcript in which Mr Depp was asked if he had been drinking or taken drugs before or during the flight, to which Mr Depp said, “sure, for the purposes of getting through this, let’s say yes – everything you have said – I agree”.
Mr Depp said he was “caving in” to the questioning at the time.
The Heard legal team then played three excerpts from a piece of audio of Mr Depp seemingly moaning in pain.
“It sounds like a pained animal and it’s my voice,” Mr Depp said in response to the audio recording.
In the last excerpt, Mr Depp’s former security guard Jerry Judge can be heard saying, “I’m going to stay with this f***ing idiot in case he gets sick”.
“The recording of the pained noises is not from that flight,” Mr Depp said, without specifying where and when the recording was made.
Depp reacts to photo Heard took of him asleep with spilt ice cream while he was on opioids
The jury was shown a photo of Mr Depp asleep on a couch with ice cream spilt across his lap.
Mr Depp said he had worked a 17-hour day, taken some opioids, and that Ms Heard gave him the ice cream “because she knew what was going to happen”.
Mr Depp said the photo had been taken in Boston and that “Ms Heard asked me to hold the ice cream as she noticed that I was on the nod – that means falling asleep – from the 17-hour day that I had worked and also the opiates that I had ingested”.
“And if you’ll notice, my right hand is in my pocket, so I wasn’t participating in the festival of ice cream,” Mr Depp added. “I was holding her ice cream because she knew what was going to happen – that I would fall asleep and it would drop and that was a wonderful picture to take for her.”
Mr Rottenborn asked Mr Depp if it was her fault that the photo had been taken.
“She snapped it,” Mr Depp said.
Depp trial shown messages he scrawled in blood and paint after severing finger in ‘vodka bottle fight’
The court in the trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard was shown messages and “reminders” Mr Depp scrawled in blood and paint after severing his finger in a fight during which he claims Ms Heard threw two vodka bottles at him.
Among the pillars of Mr Depp’s case is his claim that he was a victim of abuse by Ms Heard.
Of the March 2015 incident in Australia which left him with a grisly finger injury, he told the court: “It was all getting too crazy.”
Being in the middle of something like a nervous breakdown, Mr Depp said he started “to write in my own blood on the walls”.
“Little reminders from our past that essentially represented lies that she had told me and lies that I had caught her in,” he said, adding that he hid in a bathroom and texted his doctor to come over.
On Thursday, as Mr Depp was questioned by Mr Rottenborn, he said there was “quite a bit of damage to the house during the entire incident” in Australia.
He added that there was “a coffee cup stuck into the screen” of the TV.
Mr Rottenborn said a window was broken and that Mr Depp drew “a penis” on a painting, and that there were messages written in blood and paint all over the walls and furniture.
Mr Depp suggested that Ms Heard could have drawn the penis, saying that doing so was not “on top” of his mind.
Mr Rottenborn quoted Mr Depp from his UK trial against The Sun, during which he said that “I recall painting on a lampshade, on a wall, on a mirror. I remember dunking my finger into paint thinner and using paint when I had run out of blood to paint with, and I could have defaced the painting I suppose, but I do not remember a painting specifically”.
Ms Heard came to Australia after filming London Fields with Billy Bob Thornton. Mr Rottenborn said Mr Depp wrote, “starring Billy Bob” and “Easy Amber” in one of the messages.
Wednesday 20 April 2022
Depp likens relationship with Heard to his relationship with his mother
On Wednesday, Mr Depp likened his marriage to Ms Heard to his fraught relationship with his mother, calling it an “endless parade of insults”.
He recalled how “demeaning name calling”, being “berated” and “made a fool of” by Ms Heard would frequently escalate into full scale arguments.
“If there’s a dialogue between two people, both people need to speak. But there was no way to fit a word in. It was a sort of rapid-fire, endless parade of insults,” he said, adding that he “was not allowed to be right and not allowed to have a voice”.
“You start to slowly realise that you are in a relationship with your mother, in a sense. And I know that sounds perverse and obtuse, but the fact is, some people search for weaknesses in people,” he said.
Actor’s tatoos are discussed
Mr Depp was asked about Ms Heard’s claims that the first time he struck her was in response to a comment about a tattoo.
The actor said that incident did not happen and reiterated that he never hit Ms Heard or any other woman.
He added that this specific allegation never made sense to him because he would have no reason to strike a woman for making fun of his ink.
Probed further on whether Ms Heard objected to any of his tattoos, he replied that he had “Winona forever” – a reference to his previous relationship with actor Winona Ryder – changed to “Wino forever”. It wasn’t clear which iteration Ms Heard objected to or if she influenced the change.
Heard admits to hitting Depp in audio
Ms Heard could be heard admitting to hitting Mr Depp on a recording played in court.
Ms Heard and Mr Depp argued about the physical altercation on the recording, during which she said she hit Mr Depp but she didn’t “deck” him. She also told Mr Depp to “grow up”, calling him a “baby”.
“You told me to do it. You told me ‘go do that’,” Ms Heard said on the recording.
“You punched me in the f***ing thing,” Mr Depp said.
“You figured it all out,” Ms Heard responded. “I didn’t punch you by the way.”
“I’m sorry that I didn’t hit you across the face in a proper slap,” she added. “I was hitting you, I was not punching you. You’re not punched.”
Depp describes finger injury
Mr Depp described in graphic detail a fight with Ms Heard during which he claims she threw a vodka bottle at him, severing his finger.
“She then grabbed that bottle and threw that at me,” Mr Depp said, demonstrating to the jury how he was sitting at the time. He said his fingers were resting on the edge of the bar and that the large vodka bottle “made contact and shattered everywhere”.
“I felt no pain at first all,” he said. “I felt heat and as if something was dripping down my hand.”
“I was looking directly at my bones sticking out,” he added. “Blood was just pouring out.”
Depp explains why daughter Lily-Rose Depp didn’t attend wedding
Mr Depp was asked about his wedding to Ms Heard on day two of his testimony.
During his testimony, Mr Depp said his daughter, Lily-Rose Depp, the eldest of his two children with Vanessa Paradis, did not attend his wedding to Ms Heard in 2015.
“Lily-Rose did not come to the wedding,” he said. “She and Ms Heard were not on particularly great terms for several reasons.”
Depp cringes as he describes seeing photo of faeces on his bed
Mr Depp described seeing a photo of faeces on his bed days after a fight with Ms Heard.
Mr Depp said on that he didn’t see Ms Heard between 22 April and 21 May 2016 as he had “received some news that was as absurd and grotesque and cruel, and then I was shown a picture of what the problem was”.
He said he was shown a photo of “our bed and on my side of the bed was human faecal matter, so I understood why it wasn’t a good time to go down there”.
Mr Depp said his “initial response” was to “laugh”.
“It was so outside, it was so bizarre and so grotesque that I could only laugh,” he added.
Depp tells how his mother’s death made him realise he wanted a divorce from Heard
Mr Depp said his mother’s death in 2016 caused him to realise his marriage to Ms Heard had to end.
“When those you love leave, we’re the ones stuck with the pain, with the grieving. But I was glad that my kids got to see her and give her her send-off, I suppose. But it opened my eyes quite a lot to a number of things,” he said.
Mr Depp added: “It opened my eyes to the fact that – yes, try, in relationships, whether friendships, whether courtships, whether marriage. Try your best. If it’s not going to work, it’s not going to work.”
Mr Depp said he had then decided that he would call Ms Heard and inform her of Palmer’s death, as well as his intention to file for divorce.
Ms Heard filed for divorce from Mr Depp on 23 May 2016 after 15 months of marriage.
Tuesday 19 April 2022
Depp is ‘not embarrassed’ to be facing his ex-wife in a highly public court case
“I can’t say that I’m embarrassed because I know that I’m doing the right thing,” Mr Depp said after taking the witness stand.
The actor told the court that he did feel exposed by the litigation, insisting that despite his successful career, he had always been a private person who had tried to shield his two children from “hordes of paparazzi’ and that he did not want them to see their parents as “novelties”.
Actor compared himself to both Cinderella and Quasimodo
During his testimony, Mr Depp told the court that since Heard’s abuse allegations were first made against him six years ago he had been through “trying times”.
“It’s strange when you’re Cinderella, so to speak, and in 0.6 seconds you’re Quasimodo,” he said.
Depp quipped that Heard ‘Could definitely kill me’ when they met for the first time in audition
The actor had agreed to meet with the actress who was under consideration for the role of Chenault in The Rum Diary, based on a novel by the late author Hunter S Thompson.
“I took one look at her and thought ‘Yep that’s the Chenault that Hunter wants, that’s the one. I just thought ‘Yep she could definitely kill me, that’s who Hunter wants.’”
And he went on to explain the things that he first liked about her.
“She was sweet as pie, pleasant, intelligent, literate, very good taste,” he said but added that he felt he could teach her to use “stillness” in her acting.
Depp claims that Heard’s characterisation of his substance abuse was ‘grossly embellished’
The star said from the witness stand that his drug and alcohol use had been “an easy target” for the actress to hit after their marriage ultimately broke down. But Mr Depp said he didn’t use for the sake of partying, but rather to dull the pain of past trauma.
“It has never been for the party effect, it has been trying to numb the things inside that have, that can plague someone who has experienced trauma,” he told the court in Virginia.
“The characterisation of my substance, of my quote-unquote substance abuse that has been delivered by Ms Heard is grossly embellished, and I am sorry to say, but a lot of it is just plainly false.
“I think that it was easy, it was an easy target for her to hit. Because once you have trusted somebody for a certain amount of years and you have told them all the secrets of your life, that information can then, of course, be used against you.”
Depp describes his first kiss with Heard on set of The Rum Diary
The actor said that he and Ms Heard had locked lips in a scene in which she walked in on him in the shower.
And he described how the pair continued the passion back in his trailer later in the day.
“I think there was something in the kiss in the shower that was real,” he added.
“So that day after work, Ms Heard had come to my trailer and I was sitting there listening to old blues stuff and we had a glass of wine and we kissed.
“At that point my trailer was the only trailer in the parking lot, she had the mind to stay in the trailer for a while with me but I did not think that was a good idea on any level as there were nine Teamsters outside waiting to move the trailer.”
Depp said mother’s abuse ‘tore up’ his family
Mr Depp also spoke at length about his difficult childhood, saying that his mother, Betty Sue Palmer, “had the ability to be as cruel as anyone can be”.
Describing his mother’s violence, Mr Depp said “an ashtray” could be “flung at you”. He added that she would hit her children in the head and that she could use a “high heeled shoe or a telephone or whatever was handy”.
He added that he started being able to see when his mother was about to “head into a situation where she was going to be riled up and somebody was going to get it. Generally, it was me”.
Mr Depp said the family learned to deal with the physical abuse but that the verbal and psychological abuse “tore us up”.
He described his father as “kind”, “quiet”, and “shy” who would “amazingly remain very stoic” when Mr Depp’s mother “delivered the pain”.
“He swallowed it, he took it,” Mr Depp said, adding that he once saw his father punch a concrete wall, shattering his hand. “He remained a gentleman.”
“He was able to maintain his calm and his compusure,” as well as his “relationship to his children,” Mr Depp said. “He’s a good man.”
Mr Depp said his father leaving led his mother into a “deep, dark depression” and he mimicked her stumbling around the home after taking a multitude “of pills to try to take herself out”. She survived after having her stomach pumped at hospital.
He said his mother seemed to “calm down” after taking some “nerve pills” and that he, at the age of 11, would take one as well because he wanted “to calm down” but he “didn’t know how to” and that he wanted to “escape feeling so much”.
“That was the beginning – when I realized that nerve pills calm the nerves,” he said, adding that he had taken all the drugs “he was aware of” by the age of 15.
Actor reveals that he never saw Pirates of the Caribbean
The actor also said he had never seen one of his most successful films – Pirates of the Caribbean.
Mr Depp first appeared as Captain Jack Sparrow in 2003 in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
The actor went on to also appear in several sequels, including Dead Man’s Chest, At World’s End, On Stranger Tides, and Dead Men Tell No Tales.
“I thought that it had all the hallmarks of a Disney film – that is to say, a kind of a predictable three-act structure,” he said about his first thought about the first script. “The character of Captain Jack was more like a swashbuckler type that would swing in shirtless and be the hero.”
He then revealed that he never saw the film.
“I didn’t see it. But I believe that the film did pretty well, apparently, and they wanted to keep going, making more and I was fine to do that,” he said. “It’s not like you become that person, but if you know that character to the degree that I did – because he was not what the writers wrote, so they really weren’t able to write for him… Once you know the character better than the writers, that’s when you have to be true to the character and add your words.”
