In the second week of the defamation trial between Hollywood stars and former married couple Johnny Depp and Amber Heard attorneys for Heard produced old text messages from Depp about her that used violent language.
Attorney Ben Rottenborn called the attention of the seven-person jury in Fairfax County, Virginia, to messages Depp sent to friend and WandaVision star Paul Bettany in which Depp wrote about drowning and burning Heard and having sex with her corpse.
The texts, sent in 2013 and 2014, were first made public during Depp’s unsuccessful UK libel trial against The Sun in 2020 after the newspaper called him a “wife beater”. They were introduced to the Virginia courtroom in support of Heard’s allegations that Depp assaulted her and sexually assaulted her while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Depp and Heard were married in 2015 and filed for divorce the following year, when Heard obtained a temporary restraining order and accused him of hitting her in their Los Angeles home. Depp denied the incident and has denied ever striking Heard or any woman.
He is suing Heard for $50m, arguing she has made false accusations in a 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post that have damaged his career, leading to the loss of roles in the Pirates of The Caribbean and Fantastic Beasts franchises. Heard’s attorneys argued on Wednesday that Depp was at risk of losing his role in Pirates prior to the publication of the Post article.
Earlier in the Virginia trial he accused his ex-wife of demeaning behaviour towards him that would often escalate into physical violence. He also cited a confrontation in 2015 at a rented house in Australia while Depp filmed the fifth Pirates Of The Caribbean film in which she threw a vodka bottle at him, severing his middle finger. Heard has claimed Depp injured himself on that occasion.
She has countered with a $100m defamation case after Depp’s former attorney called her abuse allegations false. Heard, whose Hollywood roles include the Aquaman franchise and Drive Angry, maintains her comments about domestic abuse in the op-ed, which did not mention Depp by name, are accurate and are protected by the First Amendment as they are in the public interest.
Heard’s attorney Rottenborn also produced a video recording, filmed on Heard’s cell phone while she was with Depp at home, in which Depp can be seen banging a kitchen countertop and pouring himself a large glass of wine.
Asked if he was drunk at the time Depp said, “There’s a possibility of that, yes sir… I poured myself a large glass of wine. I thought it necessary.” Depp said the footage was recorded “illegally” and conceded ”I did assault a couple of cabinets but I did not touch Ms. Heard as you can see.”
Throughout his testimony the Hollywood star has portrayed himself as someone who drank and took drugs as a way of dealing with the trauma of an abusive childhood at the hands of his mother. On Tuesday he testified about his upbringing and how his mother would beat him with a high-heeled shoe.
The trial will resume on Monday.
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