Looking back at his relationship with ex-wife Amber Heard and his defamation case against her that followed, Johnny Depp is getting candid about that era of his life.
In a rare interview with The Sunday Times, the Oscar-nominated actor called himself a “crash test dummy” for the #MeToo Movement regarding Heard’s initial allegations against him in 2016 after she filed for divorce, accusing him of domestic violence.
The accusations led to two highly publicized trials. In 2018, Depp filed a libel lawsuit against The Sun after the British tabloid newspaper called him a “wife beater.” The actor lost the case, as the court ruled in the 2020 trial that The Sun‘s characterization was “substantially true.” In 2019, Depp also sued Heard for defamation over an op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post, in which she called herself “a figure representing domestic abuse.” Following the live-televised 2022 trial, a jury ultimately found Heard liable on all three counts of defamation. Heard also won one of the three claims in her countersuit.
As for why Depp decided to bring the cases to court, putting his extremely personal life on public display, he said in his new interview, “Look, it had gone far enough.”
“I knew I’d have to semi-eviscerate myself,” the Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness director explained. “Everyone was saying, ‘It’ll go away!’ But I can’t trust that. What will go away? The fiction pawned around the fucking globe? No it won’t. If I don’t try to represent the truth it will be like I’ve actually committed the acts I am accused of. And my kids will have to live with it. Their kids. Kids that I’ve met in hospitals. So the night before the trial in Virginia I didn’t feel nervous. If you don’t have to memorize lines, if you’re just speaking the truth? Roll the dice.”
Depp added that he knew “none of this was going to be easy,” but “thought, ‘I’ll fight until the bitter fucking end.’ And if I end up pumping gas? That’s all right. I’ve done that before.”
In the wake of the trials, the Pirates of the Caribbean star also faced some career hurdles. He previously said Warner Bros. asked him to exit the Fantastic Beasts franchise after losing the libel case against The Sun. Depp has also said he won’t return to the Pirates franchise, as Disney reportedly parted ways with the actor following the allegations against him.
Depp admitted it “hurt” seeing “these fake motherfuckers who lie to you, celebrate you, say all sorts of horror behind your back, yet keep the money.” He was referencing people he worked with throughout his career who spoke out against him amid the trials.
“There are people, and I’m thinking of three, who did me dirty. Those people were at my kids’ parties. Throwing them in the air. And, look, I understand people who could not stand up [for me], because the most frightening thing to them was making the right choice. I was pre-#MeToo. I was like a crash test dummy for #MeToo. It was before Harvey Weinstein,” he continued. “And I sponged it, took it all in. And so I wanted from the hundreds of people I’ve met in that industry to see who was playing it safe.”
The #MeToo movement gained widespread attention after Weinstein was accused of sexual misconduct in The New York Times‘ 2017 report, a year after Heard’s initial allegations against Depp.
