With acting roles hard to come by, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are now starring in a legal drama about the collapse of their volatile marriage. The script is ugly, the walk-through parts are unpredictable, and the lighting is garish.
Allegations and counterclaims of domestic violence, tampering, obsession, drug addiction and alcoholism characterize the dueling defamation lawsuits being reviewed in a Fairfax, Virginia courtroom.
Depp and Heard, who were married for just three years, still know how to put on a show even when they’re sitting 15 feet apart, separated by lawyers and a deep anger.
Depp’s $50 million lawsuit against Heard, whom Depp alleges defamed in 2018 by writing an opinion piece in The Washington Post that he believes misrepresented him as a domestic abuser, has signaled that the Actor effectively blacklisted by Hollywood believes he has little left to lose.
Depp, 58, has accused Heard, 35, of making domestic violence allegations against him “in order to shock” and “manipulate” the #MeToo movement. The jury heard she initiated the fighting.
In a $100 million countersuit, Heard’s attorneys claim Depp is an “obsessed ex-husband out for revenge” who punched, kicked and sexually assaulted his wife with a vodka bottle.
The Kentucky-born actor lost a libel case against the Sun newspaper last year when a British high court ruled it was “essentially true” that Depp hit his Texas-born ex-wife.
But the US sequel to the London action has a noticeably different character. Hollywood has come to the Virginia suburbs. Fans, mostly of Depp, are allowed into the courtroom and the trial will be livestreamed by the millions.
Along with the plaintiff and defendant — Depp and Heard — are James Franco, Paul Bettany and Elon Musk on Judge Penney Azcarate’s list of witnesses. You’ll join co-workers, friends, doctors, and psychotherapists who have infused Azcarate’s courtroom with a mock Hollywood quality.
Heard has maintained a cool composure in the face of the daily assaults on her character and motivation.
Depp also presented himself strategically. On the second day of the trial, Kate James, Heard’s assistant from 2012 to 2015, described the actor as “a total Southern gentleman.”
A week into a scheduled seven-week trial, Depp’s presentation of witnesses in support of his defamation lawsuit merely sets the stage for his later testimony.
That depends on the actor being able to plausibly portray his ex-wife as a schemer and not, as she claims, a victim of his abuse.
Heard’s alleged libel, his prosecutors say, “follows a pattern of her elaborate, flawed claims, which have varied and evolved over time to achieve the Hollywood shock value that Amber mastered and used to exploit a serious social movement.” “.
Both parties would have had to agree to waive the right to privacy for relationship counselor Dr. Laurel Anderson could testify that both Heard and Depp had family histories of domestic violence.
Depp was “well controlled” for decades before he met Heard, Anderson said. “It was triggered with Ms. Heard. They engaged in what I saw as mutual abuse.”
On more than one occasion, she said, Heard initiated incidents to keep Depp from leaving, which stemmed from her fear of abandonment.
“It was a point of pride for Heard to initiate a fight when she didn’t feel respected. If he left her to de-escalate a fight, she would hit him to keep him there. She would rather fight to keep him there.”
Depp’s legal strategy, US libel attorneys say, was to show vulnerability. “Obviously these two people brought what sounds like baggage into the marriage. So the strategy isn’t to gain sympathy, but to show the jury what’s more likely — that she or he is the perpetrator,” New York libel attorney Kimberly Lau said.
The finding that Depp was provoked does not in itself provide a defense against abuse. “Depp needs to fight allegations that he is the abuser for the statements to be false,” Lau said. “Establishing a provocation could help undermine the credibility of the other party.”
Sometime before Heard has a chance to present her side of the story to the jury, Depp will make a statement.
“Amber Heard is not the star of this drama, although she would like to be,” said Hollywood advocate and commentator Allison Hope Weiner. “If he goes to the stands, it’s him. It will be a hard deed to follow. He will be very personable.
“These movie stars are professionally charming, and even if you resist liking them, if they want you to like them, you like them.”