Actor Johnny Depp scoffed at the notion during court testimony that his frequent feuds with ex-wife Amber Heard would lead him to kill anytime.
Actor Johnny Depp scoffed at the notion during court testimony that his frequent feuds with ex-wife Amber Heard would lead him to kill anytime.
Actor Johnny Depp mocked the notion during court testimony on Wednesday that his frequent feud with ex-wife Amber Heard prompted him to kill anytime, and insisted on cross-examination that his allegations devastated his career .
“Violence is not necessary,” Depp told the stand during his libel trial against Heard on the second day of testimony. “Why would you kill someone for agreeing with you?”
Heard has accused Depp of physically and sexually assaulting her on several occasions before and during their brief marriage. The former “Pirates of the Caribbean” star sued after Heard, who is also an actor, made an indirect reference to those allegations in an op-ed piece he wrote for The Washington Post.
Depp addressed Heard’s allegations in detail on Wednesday. Heard has said that the first time he was assaulted was when Depp slapped her in 2013, when he made fun of one of his tattoos – one that said “Winona Forever” when he was dating actress Winona Ryder. which he turned into “Wino Forever”. “After they broke up.
“It didn’t happen,” he said of the alleged attack. “Why would I take such a huge offense to someone who mocked a tattoo on my body? That allegation never meant anything to me.”
Later, he addressed an alleged attack on a private plane flight from Boston to Los Angeles in 2014. Heard has said that Depp got drunk and assaulted her during the plane ride.
Depp testified that he took two oxycodone pills—an opiate to which he admits he was addicted at the time—and locked himself in the plane’s bathroom and fell asleep to avoid getting worse.
Depp testified that he only drank a glass of champagne while boarding the plane. But according to evidence presented in a similar lawsuit in England, where Depp sued a British tabloid—a lawsuit he lost—Depp texted his friend, actor Paul Bettany, and ended up drinking half a bottle of whiskey. Referred to, “A Thousand Red Bull Vodkas” and two bottles of Champagne before the flight.
Depp also discussed a violent argument in 2015 – shortly after the wedding – in Australia that resulted in the tip of his middle finger being amputated. He said Heard was upset that Depp’s lawyers had asked him to sign a post-marriage agreement.
She said he threw two vodka bottles at her, the other of which exploded where she placed her hand on a basement bar, breaking the finger to the point where the bone was exposed.
“I don’t know what a nervous breakdown feels like, but it’s probably the closest I’ve ever had,” he said.
Depp said he began writing lies with his blood on the walls that he caught Heard.
Depp tells the hospital doctors that he has injured himself, and the occasional text message offered as evidence mentions Depp injuring himself. Depp testified that he lied about the cause of the injury in order to protect her. Hurd’s lawyers have said the laws of physics do not support Depp’s story and they will present evidence to prove it.
Depp also gave a graphic description of the final fight as the couple headed towards divorce, accusing Heard and his friends of pretending that he was assaulting her. Soon after, Heard asked for a restraining order and was photographed with scars on her face.
She testified that Heard was on the phone with a friend shouting, “Stop hitting me Johnny!” Even though he was nowhere near her.
The fight had begun as Depp said he realized it was time for the couple to separate. The argument intensified, he said, as Depp accused him of leaving human feces on the side of the bed in the penthouse they shared. He said that Heard denied this by blaming her little dogs, but she was sure she was lying.
Depp met Heard in the 2011 film “The Rum Diary”. The two married in 2015 and she filed for divorce a year later.
Depp said that things began to change in their marriage when he felt “all of a sudden everything was wrong” in Heard’s eyes.
Depp said the violence was frequent, sometimes involving a slap or push by Heard or his wife with a television remote control or a glass of wine thrown in their face.
“There was a time when I would just go and lock myself in the bathroom or some place she couldn’t go,” Depp said.
Depp said he used drugs and drank alcohol to cope with Heard’s abuse and added that she also used to drink heavily. Depp said that at one point he had stopped drinking in an attempt to save the relationship, but Heard refused to abstain.
Depp sued Heard after writing a 2018 op-ed article in The Washington Post in which he referred to himself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
She never named Depp, but Depp’s lawyers said it was a clear reference to the allegations made by Heard in 2016 when he sought a restraining order against him.
Depp said the allegations and the article contributed to a unfairly ruined reputation that made him a Hollywood pariah and cost him his role in the lucrative “Pirates of the Caribbean” film franchise.
He said he was pulled from the franchise just days after the post piece went on. At cross-examination, Heard’s attorney pointed to evidence that Disney had made the decision months before the article’s publication.
Heard’s lawyers say the article is accurate and does not defame him. He says that Depp’s tarnished reputation is due to his own bad behavior.
Depp was only briefly cross-examined at the end of the day on Wednesday. The arguments will continue on Thursday as well.