FAIRFAX, Va. — Actor Johnny Depp returned to the stand Wednesday for testimony in his libel lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard, who he says berated and attacked him constantly during their short-lived marriage.
Heard had a “need for conflict, a need for violence” that “erupts out of nowhere,” Depp told the jurors in Fairfax County Circuit Court during his second day of testimony. “And the only thing I learned to do with it is exactly what I did as a child: Retreat.”
Heard claims that Depp assaulted her physically and sexually on numerous occasions. Depp is yet to address those allegations in depth, other than dismissing them Tuesday as false or heinous.
Most of his Depp’s Day 1 testimony focused on his descriptions of a difficult childhood, his rise to fame as an actor after an aborted music career and his early relationship with Heard after meeting her on the 2011 film “The Rum Diary.” The two married in 2015 and she filed for divorce a year later.
Taking the stand for a second day, Depp said things began to change in his marriage when he felt that he “was suddenly just wrong about everything” in Heard’s eyes.
Depp claimed that Heard didn’t make much of him in order to disparage him. The insults escalated into full-fledged circular arguments from which there was “no way in or out,” Depp said.
“It was sort of a rapid fire, sort of endless parade of insults,” Depp said.
He added: “Ms. Heard could not be mistaken. It just didn’t happen. She couldn’t be wrong.”
He stated that he received constant criticisms about his beliefs about different aspects of his life including his 30-year-long acting career.
“I was sort of not allowed to be right,” he said. “Not allowed to have a voice.”
Depp stated that violence would sometimes ensue. Sometimes it was with Heard’s slap, shove, or throwing a remote control on the television or wine into his face.
“There were times when I would just go and lock myself in the bathroom or a place where she couldn’t get to,” Depp said.
“Why did I stay? I stayed I suppose because my father stayed (with my mother) … I didn’t want to fail,” Depp said. “I wanted to try to make it work. Maybe I could help her. I thought maybe I could bring her around.”
Depp sued Heard after she wrote a 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post in which she referred to herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
Although she never named Depp, Depp’s lawyers and Depp said that it was clear that the reference was to Heard’s 2016 accusations. She sought a restraining or against Heard.
Depp said the accusations and the article contributed to an unfairly ruined reputation that made him a Hollywood pariah and cost him his role in the lucrative “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie franchise.
Heard’s lawyers say the article is accurate and does not defame him. They say Depp’s ruined reputation is the result of his own bad behavior, including drug and alcohol abuse.
On the stand Tuesday, Depp called the accusations of drug addiction “grossly embellished,” though he acknowledged trying every drug known to man and that he started abusing medication at age 11 when he snuck his mother’s “nerve pills.”
His testimony Tuesday featured long, stream-of-consciousness responses to his lawyer’s questions, often wandering well beyond what he was asked.
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