Johnny Depp testifies in court in libel suit against his ex-wife

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At the defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard on Tuesday afternoon, Johnny Depp testified and said he was focused on “cleaning up the administration” in connection with the domestic violence allegations.

“The only thing that interests me is the truth.” “Lies get you nowhere, but lies grow on lies and build on lies,” Depp added. “I focus on the truth.”

Depp denied being aggressive towards Heard or any other woman when questioned by his lawyer.

Over the course of their relationship, Heard accused Depp of punching, strangling, and kicking her. She also claimed that Depp sexually assaulted her during a fight in Australia in 2015. Depp and Heard split in 2016.

Heard wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in December 2018, alluding to her past allegations, though she did not name Depp. Depp sued her for $50 million.

Johnny Depp lawsuit reveals a dark culture of celebrity empowerment.

“I thought my job was not only to defend myself in this situation, but also to defend my children,” Depp said on the witness stand. “I hated for my kids to go to school and have to ask their friends or classmates to walk up to them with the cover of Ms. Heard’s popular People magazine with a dark bruise on their face,” says the mother. .

Depp described the allegations as “extremely shocking and disturbing” and said they were “not rooted in fact”.

“It’s crazy to be Cinderella one day and Quasimodo the next,” he explained.

Depp also testified about his mother’s physical abuse as a child in Kentucky, claiming she would throw things at him and hit him with high heels.

He also mentioned how “it was as if she was too nice to be true” when he first met Heard, stating, “it was as if she was too good to be true.”

“She was observant. She was a sweetheart. She was astute. She was a nice person. She was a hoot. He stated, “She was understanding.” He went on to say that they both liked blues music and that Heard would often remove his boots when he got home.

“It was almost as if she had become another person,” he claimed after a year and a half.

Depp also discussed his acting career, including how he created Captain Jack Sparrow for the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” picture. He cited Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote cartoons as sources of inspiration, claiming that cartoon characters might push boundaries while appealing to people of all ages.

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“It’s like preparing soup,” he explained. “It’s just ingredients,” says the narrator. There’s a little Pepe Le Pew in there somewhere. “There’s some Keith Richards in there,” says the narrator.

He said that his celebrity grew as a result of the film’s success. Fans would attempt to enter his home costumed like Captain Jack Sparrow, prompting him to hire additional security to deal with the paparazzi.

Depp also spoke about text messages revealed in the trial in which he used aggressive and filthy language towards Heard, calling her a “c—” and discussing her “rotting body.” Hunter S. Thompson and Monty Python had inspired him, and he was prone to “black humor,” he said.

“I’m embarrassed by some of the references,” he admitted. “I’m embarrassed that what I was experiencing at the time — the heat of the moment, the heat of anguish — went to dark places.”

He was questioned about his drug use, which has come up several times during the trial. He claimed that he did not use drugs to “party,” but to “escape.”

“I’ve used these narcotics on and off to numb myself,” he explained, “to numb myself of the ghosts, the wraiths that were still with me from my boyhood.” “It was essentially self-medication, one of those ‘get me out of here’ moments, where all you want to get away from is your own brain, your own head,” says the author.

However, he sneered at Heard’s portrayal of “my quote unquote substance addiction,” claiming that her story is “grossly inflated” and that most of it is incorrect.

“I’m not a crazy person who has to be high or loaded all the time,” he explained.

Depp did admit that after injuring himself while tossing a chair filming “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” the fourth installment in the franchise, he became addicted to Roxicodone, a prescription painkiller. He described his addiction as a “monkey on your back,” and said he had been taking the drugs for at least four years.

In the years leading up to Thompson’s suicide in 2005, Depp and Thompson had become friends. Depp first met Heard during the casting of “The Rum Diary,” a 2011 film based on Thompson’s novel that Depp produced.

Depp testified, “I thought, sure, that’s the Chenault that Hunter wants,” alluding to his character’s love interest in the film. “That’s the one,” says the narrator. She has the potential to kill me.”

When they first started dating, Depp compared them to Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, another prominent couple with a large age gap. They referred to each other as “Steve” and “Slim,” after the characters played by Bogart and Bacall in the film “To Have and Have Not.”

“I accepted the fact that I was Bogey, the old guy, and she was this lovely creature — this exquisite beauty,” he explained.

He described their relationship as “nice at first,” but that “things started to expose themselves” after a while. He predicted that if he wanted to stay up late watching TV and she wanted to go to bed, Heard would react negatively.

“I didn’t understand why, as a 50-something-year-old man, I wasn’t permitted to go to bed when I wanted to, but she was,” Depp stated.

On Wednesday, Depp’s testimony will continue.

The trial will last through the end of May, and Heard will have the chance to testify in her own defense.

In July 2020, Depp testified at length in his libel trial in the United Kingdom against The Sun tabloid. Depp filed a lawsuit against the journal after it called him a “wife beater.” In that case, the judge ruled against Depp, finding Heard’s allegations to be “basically true.”

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