Depp spoke about the changing nature of his relationship with Heard in his early statement Wednesday. He accused Heard of sometimes calling names and making demeaning comments about him in their relationship that would escalate into arguments.
“I wasn’t allowed to be right, I wasn’t allowed to have a voice,” Depp said.
In his roughly three-hour testimony on Tuesday, the Oscar-nominated star opened up about Heard’s allegations of domestic abuse, his history of substance abuse and his experiences with an abusive mother.
“You start to realize that in some way you’re in a relationship with your mother,” Depp testified Wednesday of his dynamic with Heard, comparing the abuse he allegedly experienced from his mother to Heard’s alleged abuse.
Depp’s attorney asked him why he stayed with Heard as their relationship deteriorated.
“I wanted to try to make it work,” he said.
“Ms. Heard has spoken of suicide a couple of times, so that’s going to be a factor too, that lives in the back of your mind,” Depp said.
The actor, best known for his work in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, is suing Heard for $50 million over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she wrote about her experiences with domestic violence. She didn’t name Depp in the play, but he claims it cost him lucrative film work.
Depp has maintained his innocence, testifying Tuesday that while he and Heard had arguments during their relationship, he had never “hit a woman.”
Depp and Amber met on the set of The Rum Diary in 2009, married in 2015 and went on to a contentious split, with both sides facing misconduct charges.
The couple resolved their divorce in August 2016, releasing a joint statement that read, in part, “Our relationship has been intensely passionate and volatile at times, but always bound by love.”
Heard had been unsuccessful in her attempts to dismiss the lawsuit. She filed a $100 million defamation counterclaim against Depp in 2020, which is still pending.
Depp discussed his tattoos in court on Wednesday, telling the court Heard made fun of some of them, which he equated to keeping a journal of his life.
He was referring to a “Winona forever” tattoo that Depp got for his former girlfriend, actress Winona Ryder, but changed it to “Wino forever” after their breakup. He said Heard didn’t like it.
“I removed the last two letters and it said ‘Wino forever,'” Depp said, adding, “I thought humor came through pain. Humor has to come into the pain, and that’s how you play it out in your head…so I changed it to ‘Wino forever’.”
He said that Heard wanted him to tattoo her own name, which he eventually did.
“And ironically, it wasn’t long after that everything went sideways,” Depp said.
“I did everything I could to put a smile on her face as opposed to a frown and then the onslaught of her problems,” he said. “I would try to wake her up laughing, singing silly songs in her ear. I was generally just trying to lighten her mood. Sometimes it worked, often not. But I tried.”
Depp also gave further testimonies about his use of oxycodone during the time he was with Heard and about withdrawal symptoms he would experience if he went through a detox.
Chloe Melas, Lisa France and Sandra Gonzalez contributed to this story.