After mistaking a body double participating in a sex scene for Amber Heard in the movie London Fields, Johnny Depp slapped the actress across the face and punched her jaw in a blind rage, she testified on Monday.
“I did not actually film the scene. He demanded that we watch it,” Heard said on the stand, adding, “So I have an incredibly jealous man who is already upset with me for breaking the ‘rule’ about participating in a sex scene. He was irate. He called me a liar and a whore.”
Heard said that the incident at a remote French chateau the two were staying in alone quickly turned more violent, claiming that at one point Depp “slapped me in the face in the bedroom.”
ADVERTISEMENT
“At another moment, he punched me across the jaw. At one point he either pushed or threw… I went flying into this old church furniture,” Heard added. “I later thought I had a concussion.”
The violent outburst was just another example of abuse Heard said she sustained during her explosive short-lived union with the actor. Notably more stoic on the stand in Fairfax County, Virginia, court after a week-long hiatus in her civil defamation trial against Depp, Heard added that after the fight, she found a folder on the ex-husband’s computer titled “No Fun for JD.”
Inside the folder, she said, were photos of her “on various red carpets.”
The actress said that the abuse lasted for years, but eventually began to end in 2016 after her 30th birthday party. Shortly after, she said, she got stood up by Depp while attending the Met Gala. At the New York City event, Heard added, she befriended Elon Musk.
“I was standing in line right in front of a gentleman. It was Elon. I didn’t recognize him until we started talking and he reminded me that we met once before. He was with his mother,” Heard said. “We spoke on the red carpet. He seemed like a real gentleman; he was really nice. He sat at a nearby table, and we got to speaking that night and eventually, we became friends.”
Heard is seeking to resolve a $50 million defamation lawsuit Depp filed against her, claiming she “devastated” his career after publishing a 2018 Washington Post op-ed. In the piece, which did not mention Depp’s name but came years after Heard sought a restraining order against him, the actress identifies herself as a domestic violence survivor. The actress said Monday that the op-ed was not about her ex-husband—and that the “only one who thought it was about Johnny, was Johnny.”
Sobbing on the stand as she recalled the aftermath of her divorce, Heard described being subjected to a “smear campaign” orchestrated by Depp’s legal team and exacerbated by the actor’s online fans.
Heard has countersued Depp for $100 million, claiming defamation after at least one of his ex-attorneys suggested her abuse account was a “hoax.” She added on Monday that her career has also taken a nose-dive since Depp’s lawsuit—stating that only recently has she done “one small independent film.”
“It’s torture. I am in so much pain emotionally,” Heard said Monday about the allegations her claims are false.
Depp and his legal team have portrayed Heard as a physically and verbally abusive liar essentially preying on the MeToo movement throughout the trial. During cross-examination on Monday afternoon, attorney Camille Vazquez wasted no time grilling Heard—and stressing to the actress that Depp had intentionally not looked at her throughout the trial.
“You’re here in this courtroom because Mr. Depp finally told the world he’s a victim of domestic violence,” Vasquez said to Heard. In response, Heard said she found that characterization hard to grapple with because he was an “abuser” who “beat me up for five years.”
Heard’s team began to tell her story two weeks ago, painting a picture of serial, drug-fueled domestic violence by Depp. The actor has repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing, saying on the stand that he has never hit a woman in his life, and called himself a survivor of domestic violence.
A source close to Heard told The Daily Beast last week that after the actress finished her own testimony and pivots to cross-examination this week, her legal team is set to call Depp and actress Ellen Barkin—who has accused the actor of throwing a wine bottle at her in the 1990s—to the stand. Heard’s sister, Whitney Henriquez, was also poised to testify sometime after the Aquaman actress finishes her own testimony.
“There’s an old saying by trial lawyers: when the facts are on your side, argue the facts. When the facts are not on your side, pound away on the podium,” a spokesperson for Heard told The Daily Beast on Monday. “Today, we expect Depp's attorneys will instead pound away on the victim. We fear it will be equal parts shameful and desperate. And, the overwhelming evidence–the truth—is not on Depp’s side.”
“The one thing we suspect Depp’s attorneys will avoid is the central issue of this trial: does Amber or any woman have the First Amendment Right of Freedom of Speech?” the spokesperson added.
Two weeks ago, an often-emotional Heard recounted to jurors how her relationship with Depp turned violent in 2012 after the pair got into a fight over the actor’s tattoo that read “Wino forever,” in a former tribute to Winona Ryder. Depp and Heard met on the set of the 2011 film The Rum Diary and were married in 2015.
“It changes your life forever. You never forget that,” Heard said Monday about the first time she alleges Depp slapped her.
Heard also recounted several instances of abuse, noting on Monday that fights between the couple were so normalized, that they even created the safe word “couch” that could be invoked during one of their fights to signify a detente. “[Couch was] a word like ‘truce,’ where you put down the proverbial guns and say, ‘We’re not fighting anymore,” Heard said. “Unfortunately, the violence became almost normal, especially towards the end.”
On Monday, Vasquez questioned Heard about why she never went to a doctor or contacted authorities after she claimed she was sexually assaulted by Depp in 2015. “I have never wanted to be seen as a victim nor have I ever been,” Heard later added.
In an audio recording played in court on Monday, Heard calls Depp “a baby” for claiming he was punched—an instance the actress said on the stand showed the “disparity in our fights.” Heard admitted that she did hit Depp during that altercation inside their Los Angeles penthouse, but only after he hit her first.
“No matter what I did, he still hit me,” Heard said, adding that she tried to take as much responsibility as she could to deescalate the situation.
Heard also mentioned the aftermath of a harrowing 2015 incident in Australia where Depp allegedly penetrated her vagina repeatedly with a liquor bottle, an incident that ultimately left her vomiting. After the attack, which she said left her with scars on her arms, Depp was “committed to getting clean” and the pair even discussed having kids and buying a farm in Australia.
“I thought he was punching me, I felt this pressure on my pubic bone… I remember looking around the room,” Heard said on the stand two weeks ago about the incident. “I remember looking at all the broken bottles, broken glass, and I remember just not wanting to move because I didn’t know if it was broken or if the bottle he had inside of me was broken. I couldn’t feel it, I didn’t feel pain, I didn’t feel anything… I just remember thinking, ‘Please God, please I hope it’s not broken.’”
Weeks later, while the pair were on their honeymoon in South Asia, Heard said that Depp slapped her and held her by her neck while they were on a train. The actress added that she felt scared that Depp would accidentally kill her during that 2015 incident.
“It was a small, narrow sleeper car, and there were two beds, one on each side,” Heard said. “He had me up against the wall while he’s standing on the floor in between the beds, and I was on the bed kind of half kneeling, half standing, trying to get his arms off my neck. And he was squeezing my neck against the railway car for what felt like a very long time.”
Depp’s abuse was not limited to Heard, the actress claimed on Monday. She said she witnessed Depp harm himself on at least one occasion, and nearly called 911 about it in 2014 after she saw him put cigarettes out on himself.
Believing that his mental health had begun to deteriorate, Heard said her ex-husband “hallucinated right in front of me,” would often speak to people who were not in the room, or would make up conversations that did not occur between the pair. “I observed behavior from him that was erratic, irrational, and did not seem connected to the reality that we were in,” Heard said.
By April 2016, Heard said, Depp’s outbursts had become common, but a fight on her birthday still rattled her. The fight, which came after she celebrated her 30th birthday inside Depp’s penthouse apartment in Los Angeles, included the actor allegedly throwing a bottle of champagne at her, and chucking her phone out of the window.
“I remember being exhausted and crying and throwing in the towel if you will,” Heard testified. “I remember saying, ‘Can we not fight like this? Can we just not do this? Please? Just don’t leave. It’s my birthday. Let’s just call couch, let’s call a truce.’”
Heard said that Depp left shortly after, yelling “Happy fucking birthday!” on his way out. The next morning, she said, she “put on a brave face” and went to Coachella, a plan she had long had with her friends. She said that she gathered her two dogs, including Depp’s teacup Yorkie, Boo, who had “bathroom issues” after she had previously eaten the actor’s weed.
“Boo, we would leave her in bed with us because of her potty issues. So, she would often go potty on the floor once you put her down. Sometimes, Boo was going potty in the bed,” she added.
Depp has previously claimed that his longtime maid found poop in their bed shortly after Heard went to Coachella. On the stand, he said his initial response to the fecal matter on their shared bed made him laugh because “it was so bizarre and so grotesque that I could only laugh.”
He added that when he confronted Heard about the poop, she “tried to blame it on the dogs,” but he felt there was no way they could’ve done it, as they were teacup Yorkies that “weigh about four pounds each.” Heard emphatically denied having anything to do with the fecal matter on Monday, stating that she didn’t think the incident was “funny.”
“I had just been attacked on my 30th birthday by my violent husband who I loved. I knew I needed to leave,” she added.
In another fight that Heard recorded and was played for jurors on Monday, Depp can be seen smashing cabinets and throwing glass as he raged at his ex-wife. “Oh, you’ve got this thing going,” Depp says at one point in the video that Heard said was taken sometime around her 30th birthday. He is then seen taking her phone to end the recording.
The celebrity couple’s relationship quickly disintegrated after the birthday incidents, Heard said. Both Depp and Heard have identified a subsequent, May 2016 fight at their L.A. penthouse as the last altercation before they headed for divorce.
Getting emotional on the stand, Heard recounted the argument to jurors—which she said began after Depp again accused her and her friends of attempting to “prank” him with the feces on their bed.
“He was obsessed with dog poop,” Heard later added.
Eventually, she said, Depp was taunting her, hitting her on the top of her head, and eventually began yanking her hair before one of her friends came in to stop the actor. The police were then called by one of her friends. In a state of panic and to “protect Johnny” as police were on their way, Heard said, she called her entertainment lawyer—who she said advised her not to cooperate with the cops.
Depp, who mostly looked down at his table instead of his ex-wife on Monday, turned to his attorney and laughed as Heard discussed her wish to protect the actor.
Amber Heard after alleged May 2016 fight in Los Angeles
Fairfax County CourtThree LAPD officers previously testified that while the evidence suggested a “verbal argument” occurred that night, there was no evidence of domestic violence. Photos that were shown in court on Monday, however, appeared to show bruising on Heard’s face after she said “Johnny threw a phone at it.”
Days later, Heard sought a temporary domestic-violence restraining order against Depp.
Depp has long insisted he engaged in no wrongdoing during that incident, and that he tossed Heard’s phone onto the couch before walking out of the apartment and away from his ex-wife.
“I felt like it was incredibly cruel... I felt it was treachery,” Depp previously said about the temporary order. “I don’t know if she just wanted me to be erased or drop dead or just let me stick around and allow her to ruin my life for a while.”
As Heard finished up her direct examination on Monday, the actress said that her only hope after this “torture” is that they both can just move on.
“I want to move on with my life,” she added. “I want him to leave me alone.”
