Johnny Depp confronted with texts and audio at libel trial

Lawyers for Amber Heard worked Thursday to point out inconsistencies in Johnny Depp’s testimony in the defamation trial between the formerly married actors, presenting text messages sent by Depp and audio recordings of the couple’s arguments.

Heard has asserted in court papers that Depp repeatedly assaulted her throughout their marriage, including during a fight in 2015 in which she said he “reeled back” and head-butted her in the face, “bashing” her nose. Depp has testified that he never struck Heard during their relationship and accused her of being the aggressor.

Depp said on the stand Thursday that he vehemently disagreed that he had head-butted Heard that night, saying that he was only trying to restrain her and that it was “not impossible for them to bump.”

Confronted with a recording of himself saying, “I head-butted you in the forehead,” using an expletive, and “That doesn’t break a nose,” Depp said he had been trying to placate Heard by repeating her version of events.

“There was not an intentional head butt,” the actor said, “and if you want to have a peaceful conversation with Heard, you might have to placate just a little bit.”

The trial in Fairfax County Circuit Court revolves around an op-ed Heard wrote in 2018 for The Washington Post in which she said she was a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”

But the trial testimony has gone well beyond an analysis of what Heard wrote. It includes a lengthy review of physical altercations between the actors, the differing accounts they have given about each and an extensive review of Depp’s use of drugs and alcohol.

On Thursday, a lawyer for Heard, Ben Rottenborn, had Depp recall how he wrote bloody messages on the wall and other objects after part of his finger was severed in 2015.

In his testimony, Depp affirmed that he had written a message on a mirror with his injured finger that referred to Heard — then his wife — as “easy Amber” and another, on a lampshade that said, “Good luck and be careful at top.”

“I thought it was good advice,” Depp replied.

But what the two sides disagree on is how Depp’s finger was severed while the couple were in Australia for the filming of the fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie.

Depp has testified that Heard threw a bottle of vodka, which shattered on his hand and severed his finger. In court papers, Heard has said he severed his own finger when smashing a phone “to smithereens” amid a bout of physical violence against her.

Heard — who is countersuing Depp for defamation after his former lawyer called her accusations a hoax — has written in court papers that Depp’s drug and alcohol use was central to the cycle of abuse, writing, “Johnny would become volatile and violent when under the influence of drugs and alcohol, then contrite and apologetic when he would sober up.”

Depp testified Tuesday that Heard’s depiction of his drug and alcohol use was “grossly embellished” and that he was once addicted to an opioid but had successfully detoxed.

Parts of the cross-examination from Heard’s lawyer sought to show that Depp had misrepresented his drug use.

Rottenborn questioned Depp about a particular incident in 2014 on which the actor’s account diverges from Heard’s. She has written in court papers that Depp had been “drinking heavily” on a private flight and threw objects at her, screamed obscenities and kicked her in the back. He was angry, she said, about a romantic scene she had been filming with actor James Franco. She said he then locked himself in the plane’s bathroom and passed out, according to court papers.

Depp testified Wednesday that he had taken opioids and had perhaps had a glass of Champagne on that flight, adding that he had locked himself in the bathroom because Heard had been “actively searching for a way to instigate a fight with me.” Heard has said in court papers that she has never struck Depp except in self-defence or in defence of her sister.

Rottenborn sought to suggest Depp’s behaviour had been more volatile than he had acknowledged, confronting him with a text message he had sent to a friend, actor Paul Bettany, in reference to the flight. In the text, Depp rattled off an exaggerated list of the drugs and alcohol he had ingested and said they left him “screaming obscenities and insulting” anyone who got near.

Depp suggested in response that there was a certain creativity to the way he speaks in text messages.

“When I write a text, especially if I’m in a particularly impassioned place, it’s a canvas, it’s a painting,” Depp said. “You choose your colours.”

Rottenborn questioned Depp on the drugs he used and with whom, prompting the actor to say — in a comment that drew laughs from the courtroom — “I once gave Marilyn Manson a pill so that he would stop talking so much.”

During cross-examination, Depp was confronted with several text messages to others in which he referred to Heard using insults and obscenities, including calling her a “worthless hooker.”

Taking a pair of tinted glasses on and off to read the evidence, Depp sometimes appeared mildly perturbed as Rottenborn cut off his responses for time — at one point commenting, “Well, I don’t feel like I’m wasting anyone’s time, sir.”

Heard’s lawyers are scheduled to continue cross-examining Depp on Monday.

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