Johnny Depp’s agent has testified that his ex-wife’s 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Submit describing herself as a sufferer of home abuse was “catastrophic” to his profession and coincided with the lack of a US$23 ($32m) million deal for a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel.
Amber Heard’s legal professionals pushed again aggressively towards the agent’s assertion on cross-examination, suggesting that the article was inconsequential amid a stream of dangerous publicity for Depp introduced on by his personal dangerous behaviour.
Depp is suing Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court docket, saying her article defamed him when she described herself as “a public determine representing home abuse.” The article by no means mentions Depp by title, however Depp’s legal professionals say he was defamed however as a result of it is a clear reference to abuse allegations Heard levied in 2016.
In testimony, agent Jack Whigham mentioned Depp was nonetheless capable of work after the preliminary allegations made towards him in 2016. He was paid $8 million for “Metropolis Of Lies,” $10 million for “Homicide on the Orient Specific” and $13.5 million for “Improbable Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” all of which shot in 2017, albeit below contracts reached previous to the allegations made towards him.
However he mentioned The Washington Submit piece was uniquely damaging to Depp’s profession.
“It was a first-person account, extraordinarily impactful,” Whigham mentioned of the op-ed.
After that, he mentioned Depp struggled to get any sort of work. He needed to take a pay lower — all the way down to $3 million — to do the unbiased movie “Minimata,” and a $22.5 million verbal deal he had with Disney for a sixth “Pirates” movie was scuttled, Whigham mentioned.
On cross-examination, although, Heard’s legal professionals requested whether or not the “Pirates” deal had already gone south by the point Heard’s article was printed. Whigham acknowledged he by no means had a written deal for Depp to look in a sixth “Pirates” movie.” And whereas he mentioned “Pirates” producer Jerry Bruckheimer talked favourably all through 2018 about Depp coming again to the franchise, Disney executives had been noncommittal at finest.
By early 2019 — weeks after Heard’s op-ed — Whigham mentioned it was clear that Depp’s position in any “Pirates” movie was scuttled and that producers had been as a substitute seeking to transfer forward with Margot Robbie in a lead position.
Heard’s legal professionals have cited a wide range of elements — together with experiences of heavy drug and alcohol use, a lawsuit by a crew member in July 2018 who says he was punched on set by Depp, and a separate libel lawsuit Depp filed towards a British newspaper in 2018 — as issues that broken Depp’s picture greater than the Submit article.
For Depp’s Virginia lawsuit to achieve success, he not solely wants to indicate that he was falsely accused, however he additionally wants to indicate that the op-ed piece — not Heard’s abuse allegations in 2016 when she filed for divorce and obtained a brief restraining order — is what triggered the injury.
Depp’s legal professionals additionally introduced testimony from an mental property knowledgeable who testified concerning the adverse flip in Depp’s fame. However his personal information, exhibiting pattern traces from Google searches, confirmed adverse spikes occurring after the 2016 abuse allegations, however negligible or non-existent adjustments after the Submit article.
The trial has now entered its fourth week. A lot of the testimony throughout the first three weeks centered on the unstable relationship between Depp and Heard. Depp says he has by no means struck Heard. Her legal professionals mentioned throughout the trial’s opening statements that she was bodily and sexually abused by Depp on a number of events.
Heard is predicted to testify later this week.
