6 key moments from Amber Heard's second day of testimony in the Johnny Depp defamation trial
Amber Heard took the stand for a second day in Johnny Depp's defamation lawsuit against her on Thursday, and continued to paint a portrait of a volatile and often violent relationship. During emotional testimony in Fairfax County, Va., she spoke of Depp's substance use, the 2015 altercation in Australia that left Depp with a severed fingertip, the first time Heard physically attacked Depp, and the rumor that Depp once pushed his ex-girlfriend Kate Moss down a flight of stairs.
Depp is suing Heard for $50 million over her 2018 Washington Post op-ed chronicling her experiences as a domestic violence survivor. ??Though Heard never mentioned Depp by name, his lawyers maintain that references to him are clear, and that the op-ed damaged his career and reputation. Heard has filed a $100 million countersuit, alleging that Depp and his attorneys defamed her by referring to her abuse allegations as a "sexual violence hoax."
Heard and Depp met making the film The Rum Diary and married in 2015. Heard filed for divorce from Depp the following year, obtaining a domestic violence restraining order against the actor and accusing him of physically and verbally abusing her while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Depp has denied such allegations and accused Heard of abusing him.
Here are six key moments from Heard's second day of testimony.
JIM LO SCALZO / POOL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Amber Heard in court
Heard explains why she documented volatile moments and alludes to Depp having enablers
Throughout the trial, photos and audio recordings of Depp allegedly inebriated, captured by Heard, have been presented as evidence. Heard said she recorded such moments because Depp would not remember volatile moments while he was under the influence. "He wouldn't remember, or he would deny it," she said. "There was no one to back me up. So I started to take pictures to say, 'Look, this is happening.'"
Heard suggested that Depp had a team of enablers who wouldn't step in during altercations, including one on a private plane in which Depp allegedly kicked her. "I felt this boot in my back," she recalled. "I fell to the floor. No one said anything. No one did anything. You could have heard a pin drop. I just remember feeling so embarrassed." The argument, Heard said, stemmed from Depp's disapproval of her taking a role in the 2015 film The Adderall Diaries opposite James Franco. "He hated, hated James Franco," Heard testified. "He was accusing me of secretly having a thing with him in the past since we had done Pineapple Express together."
In his own testimony about the incident last week, Depp denied drinking excessively before getting on the plane and said Heard initiated the argument, which led him to hide in the bathroom.
Heard describes Depp hitting 'rock bottom'
Heard testified about Depp's drug and alcohol use, including one particular time when he had fallen "very, very" ill from the excess. "I watched it," she said. "One of the security guards carried Johnny like a baby into the house." She said she had discussions with Depp's inner circle soon after that led to Depp detoxing in the Bahamas in 2014. "I felt encouraged that we were in a new chapter, that Johnny had finally hit rock bottom," Heard testified. "And finally, he felt like changing for good. And I felt really supported by the conversations I was having with these people that he was close to that he trusted."
During Depp's detox, Heard said, he alternated between being "calm and sweet" and exhibiting fits of rage. "He got so angry at me. He slapped me across the face, but he did it while crying," Heard said. "It was the weirdest thing. He was crying [and] saying no woman had ever embarrassed him like that. No woman had ever made him feel like that. I heard that through the rest of the trip, on repeat. I felt bad. I still feel bad."
Heard says Depp tried to prevent her from working
Heard said Depp discouraged her from acting, would get "angry" at her for trying to find work, and suspected her of having affairs with male costars, including Franco and Eddie Redmayne, her costar in The Danish Girl. According to Heard, she bargained with Depp to be able to star in Magic Mike XXL, a movie with a predominantly male cast. Depp "reluctantly agreed" to the role, she said, in part because it did not feature extensive sex or kissing scenes. "I wasn't going to play a sexualized character. I wore minimal makeup."
Sometime after Magic Mike XXL, Depp "found pieces of audition pages" that were sent to Heard for another project and "blew up at me," she testified. "What he said to me was I didn't tell him. I didn't ask him. Because he didn't know about that audition that I hadn't done yet, he was furious at me. I ended up not doing that audition." Heard added, "He said, 'I'm trying to look out for you. You're saying you don't want to be objectified but you're doing it.' It got more narrow and more narrow about what I could do."
She went on to say, "It was hard for me to work, justify working. Every audition, every meeting, every script I got was a negotiation or a fight. I had to justify it as if I was to say, 'Hey, let's have an open relationship.' I've always been really independent, and I never imagined not working. I've worked from the earliest time I can imagine. I come from parents who worked until they literally couldn't anymore. I never imagined myself having to explain my job or justify my job, but I did."
JIM LO SCALZO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Johnny Depp in court in his defamation trial against Amber Heard
Heard recalls 'pushing back' against Depp's alleged abuse
Heard recounted several instances of alleged physical, verbal, and sexual abuse, accusing Depp of punching her, slamming her against the wall, pulling out chunks of her hair, and threatening to "carve" her face. About two years into their relationship, which began in or around 2012, Heard said she was "pushing back" against Depp. "I would yell at him, scream at him, call him ugly names," she recalled. "It was awful. We both got into that pattern. I was so angry this was happening to me. It felt so unfair. It felt like nothing I could do could change the sobriety patterns and nothing I did made him stop hitting me. I tried, [for] over a year, maybe two, not responding. I would threaten to call police. I threatened to leave him. I tried to leave him. By this point we were both saying awful things to each other."
Heard described a violent incident in a hotel room in 2015, ahead of the red carpet premiere of Depp's film Mortdecai, during which he allegedly slammed her against the wall and pulled at her hair. After the premiere, Heard said, she searched excessively for event photos of herself online because she wore a backless dress, "checking for bruises." That same year, at the Met Gala, Depp accused Heard of flirting with a woman, she testified. "We get back to the hotel room, he shoves me, and grabs my collarbone," Heard said. "I remember he threw a bottle at me, missed me, [and] hit the chandelier. At some point he just whacked me in the face. I was unsure what that feeling was, but I suspected I had a broken nose. I remember my nose being swollen and discolored."
Several photos of Heard's bruised face and patches of hair, allegedly pulled from her scalp by Depp, were presented as evidence.
Heard alleges that Depp penetrated her with a liquor bottle
In emotional testimony, Heard revisited her and Depp's infamous altercation in Australia in 2015 and alleging that Depp penetrated her with a liquor bottle. She said Depp threw her around, shoved her against the refrigerator, and bashed her against a wall while inebriated. "It [was] so easy for him to throw me around," Heard said. Depp, Heard said through tears, shoved the bottle "inside of me over and over again" and "said he would kill me." She said of the aftermath, "I remember being in the bathroom. I remember retching. I remember I couldn't control my bladder. I remember there was some blood on the floor."
Heard also addressed the messages written with Depp's bloodied and paint-dipped fingertip on the walls and furniture of their home, including a bathroom mirror and a lampshade. "Things to the effect of 'go-getter,' 'whore.' Calling me easy, calling me a slut," she said of the messages. Depp "wrote on the back of a pillow in blood, wrote on the walls going downstairs," Heard said as photos of blood-stained furniture and a home in disarray were presented. Heard also denied writing any of her own messages, namely on the mirror, contradicting Depp's earlier testimony.
Heard claims Depp pushed Kate Moss down the stairs
While testifying about the first time she herself hit Depp, Heard insinuated that Depp once pushed Kate Moss, his former girlfriend, down a flight of stairs. Heard previously recalled the incident that led to her hitting Depp in his 2020 libel suit against The Sun: During an altercation at their home in 2015, Heard's younger sister, Whitney, had gotten between the two in an attempt to defuse the situation. When Depp allegedly swung at Whitney, who had her back against the stairs, "I don't hesitate," Heard testified. "I just instantly think of Kate Moss and the stairs, and I swung at him. In all my relationships to date, I hadn't [delivered] a blow. For the first time, I hit him square in the face." In the U.K. libel suit, Heard testified that she heard a rumor that Depp shoved Moss, whom he dated between 1994 and 1998, down the stairs. "It was fresh in my mind," she said at the time.
A representative for Moss didn't immediately respond to EW's request for comment Thursday.
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