The 2022 trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard snowballed into a major celebrity talking point, pitting two much-loved Hollywood stars against each other in the eyes of the public.
The trial came after Depp sued Heard, his ex-wife in 2019. He alleged that she had defamed him in a Washington Post op-ed published in 2018, in which she had said that she was a victim of domestic abuse. Depp was not specifically named in the piece, but he was widely assumed to have been the subject.
The six-week trial played out in 2022 and culminated with a Virginia jury awarding Depp with more than $10 million in damages. However Heard was also awarded $2 million in damages after the court found that Depp’s lawyer had falsely called her claims a hoax.
Last week Depp spoke to The Sunday Times about the ordeal and maintained that he has no regret about his decision to take the case all the way.
“Look, none of this was going [to] be easy, but I didn’t care,” Depp said. “I thought, ‘I’ll fight until the bitter f***ing end.’ And if I end up pumping gas? That’s all right. I’ve done that before.”
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“Look, it had gone far enough,” he continued. “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 placed his experiences in the context of the MeToo movement that helped to uncover instances of sexual assault in Hollywood. The awareness campaign began in October 2017 with American actress Alyssa Milano, who encouraged fellow victims to speak up.
Speaking with The Sunday Times, Depp tried to place Heard’s allegations in that context. He claimed that some of his associates were unwilling to support him against Heard because of a fear that they would be criticized publicly.
“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,” Depp said. “And, look, I understand people who could not stand up 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.”
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