Johnny Depp lost $40m after the publication of Amber Heard’s op-ed, a forensic accountant testified shortly before Mr Depp’s legal team rested their case.
The defamation trial between Mr Depp and Ms Heard began on Monday 11 April in Fairfax, Virginia following Mr Depp’s lawsuit against his ex-wife in March 2019. Mr Depp is arguing that she defamed him in a December 2018 op-ed published in The Washington Post titled “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change”.
Forensic accountant Michael Spindler told the court on Tuesday that he was tasked for this case with reviewing Mr Depp’s lost earnings. He analysed the time between 18 December 2018, when Ms Heard’s op-ed was published, and 31 October 2020.
“I concluded that Mr Depp suffered lost earnings of approximately $40m,” he said. Mr Spindler said Mr Depp’s removal from the sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film was one of the main reasons for his estimation.
Agent Jack Whigham testified on Monday that a $22.5m deal had been struck for the film.
Mr Spindler said that in 2017, Mr Depp’s bookings amounted to “about $17.5m”. They used that sum as a baseline for a “typical” year for the actor.
The loss of the sixth Pirates film amounted to $20,250,000 in lost earnings, according to Mr Spindler, whose analysis laid out the $22.5m pay minus the pay for the agent.
With the $17.5m baseline Mr Spindler says he estimated that Mr Depp lost $20,068,237 for other projects taking place during the course of a year for a total loss of $40,318,237.
In her 2018 op-ed, Ms Heard wrote that “like many women, I had been harassed and sexually assaulted by the time I was of college age. But I kept quiet — I did not expect filing complaints to bring justice. And I didn’t see myself as a victim”.
“Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out,” she added at the time.
While Mr Depp isn’t named in the piece, his legal team argues that it contains a “clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser”, which they say is “categorically and demonstrably false”. Mr Depp is seeking damages of “not less than $50m”.
Ms Heard has filed a $100m counterclaim against Mr Depp for nuisance and immunity from his allegations.
