If you aren’t watching the defamation trial against Amber Heard, consider yourself lucky. It is a vile spectacle of Hollywood excess, complete with private islands, drug orders, and security guards who are paid 10k a day. Heard’s ex-husband, the A-lister Johnny Depp, is suing her over an op-ed she wrote in 2018 naming herself as a public face of domestic abuse. He has denied that he ever assaulted her.
The trial, which began in April and is set to wrap up on May 27, has revealed a story far darker than simple headlines. She was caught lying in a 2016 divorce deposition when she claimed she had only hit him once in self-defense; he was caught raging in their kitchen while slamming cabinets and breaking glass. They were both heard on audio in an argument that plays like a contemporary Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Depp sent numerous texts using vile misogynistic language, including a threat to fuck her corpse. (He claims it was dark humor.)
As their divorce hit a fever pitch, Johnny sent an email to his agent vowing a scorched earth “global humiliation” for her. So far that seems to be happening. From the vitriol being directed at her, you would think she was a serial killer. In fact, it is still less than clear what happened. Depp lost a U.K. libel trial in 2020 when a judge reviewed the evidence and determined that it was substantially true.
A little background: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard met on the set of a movie in 2009. Both were in relationships with other people so the romance didn’t gel until two years later. Both were from abusive homes: Depp’s mother beat her kids and verbally taunted them; Heard’s father was an alcoholic who hit Amber and her younger sister.
By both accounts, their relationship was initially happy. In 2012, though, Amber began confiding to a therapist that Johnny was abusive. She was concerned about his drug use and began occasionally snapping photos of him passed out from drugs or nodding off from opioids. Some of their fights were witnessed by others, but no one ever saw him assault her first. In an audio recording, he says he is afraid that their next fight will be a crime scene.
Amber has detailed numerous moments of abuse, including being slapped to the floor and hit with a cellphone. In an acknowledged fight in Australia, he wrote in blood and paint on the walls, accusing her of adultery. He has denied that he ever hit her, though, and is claiming that she was the aggressor. There is evidence to support this. In audio clips, she urges him not to walk away from fights. She admits that she hit him once and calls him “a big baby” for not taking it. (In the deposition, she said she only hit him when her sister was present and in danger.) She is overbearing and critical of him while he seems the more reasonable of the two.
He is also alleging that Amber and several friends staged a final fight that led to the first and only 911 call. One of Johnny Depp’s lawyers has made potentially defamatory statements about these events, calling it an “abuse hoax.” If she wins her countersuit, it will be because of this phrase.
A few notable books have come up in the course of the trial. Here are two and what they add to the case.
1.
In a depressing new tactic, Gillian Flynn’s suspense masterpiece is now being used to create doubt about domestic violence claims. Last summer Gabby Petito was accused by Internet warriors of faking her disappearance until she was found strangled by her boyfriend in Wyoming. Now Amber Heard is being accused of setting Depp up with false abuse claims in a bid to secure money in a divorce settlement.
In order for this to be true, Amber would have had to begin lying in 2012 to a therapist whose contemporaneous notes corroborate the claims. (The book was published around that time.) She also sent texts to friends and family making vague references to trouble. There are also texts between Amber and Johnny talking of a “bloodbath” and other fights. Meanwhile Johnny has sent emails at times telling of “shame and regret” and apologizing to her, including one after the final event, the so-called abuse hoax. If he had just witnessed a scam, as he testified, why would he be apologizing to her?
The alleged abuse hoax may be dream-team smoke and mirrors. It is far-fetched and difficult to explain logically. Three of Amber’s friends have testified that they saw Amber with a facial injury after Depp showed up in a rage. There are also texts from him apologizing the next day. There is a chance, I suppose, that Johnny was so horrifically gaslighted that he blamed himself for what Amber did. One problem with his credibility, though, is that he has clearly lied about his drug use. Her narrative – that when he used heavily he became violent – fits.
A single peculiarity remains. In their final taped call, she says she thought in one of their fights he might kill her “on accident.” He doesn’t contradict her or deny it. It’s another acknowledgement from him that they got into knock-down drag out conflicts. And, yet, he has claimed under oath that he never assaulted her.
2.
Depp was close to the late journalist; he allegedly spent millions to shoot Thompson’s ashes from a cannon. In 2009 his production company made a movie version of this fiction work, the story of a journalist working in Puerto Rico in 1960.
Depp cast Amber Heard to play Chenault, the bombshell wife of a colleague. The best scenes showcase the beauty of the island and the era. It is one of those irritating films, though, where the only female character is a docile flower, cutting pineapple and making coffee for her man. She has almost no dialogue. They have a semi-hot love scene while political events unfold.
Here we get a hint of what may have doomed the stars. Amber Heard was a young stunner who could play a ’50s ingenue. Johnny Depp was a middle-aged man who wanted a traditional wife. He fell in love with the fantasy of what he thought she was and was rudely awoken to discover she was something quite different. What happened next will soon be in a jury’s hands to decide.
With a week left of the trial, I don’t know what conclusion I will draw about it, if any. One thought persists, though: in an effective direct examination early on in the proceedings, Johnny talked about his admiration for his father, who stoically endured years of abuse without ever making a counter punch. He would like people to believe that he is the same man his father was. But by engaging in this relentless revenge against Amber, which has gone as low as it can go, he has revealed a petty, vindictive, and possibly sinister quality that does not track with his heroic self-image.
Books Smitten 