Amber Heard testifies against Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp: "I didn't want this to be reality."

Johnny Depp, long one of Hollywood's brightest stars, came forward as an aging actor addicted to alcohol, drugs and self-pity during the libel trial of his ex-wife Amber Heard. Even photos of severed fingertips, accompanied by fantasies of violence via text message, shouldn't necessarily have raised his Q-score, the measure of a celebrity's popularity in the entertainment industry.

After his half-bored, half-confused court appearance in Fairfax, more than 2,500 miles from Hollywood in Virginia, Disney's decision to write the 58-year-old from the scripts of the family blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean seems almost understandable. . Financial adviser Michael Spindler estimated for the jury that the end of the pirate role after Heard's abuse allegations would have cost Depp more than $22 million. Overall, Spindler said he estimates Depp's losses from the allegations at more than $40 million. In his four-day testimony, Depp said he did not physically, psychologically or sexually abuse Heard before their sudden separation from her in May 2016, as the actress suggested in an article for The Washington Post. She did not repeatedly attack Heard, but he, thirty-six years old. “I am a victim of domestic violence,” Depp told the jury.

"I didn't want this to be reality"

Wednesday was Heard's turn. According to psychiatrist Dawn Hughes, who diagnosed the Texan with post-traumatic disorders, she testified on the witness stand with constant seizures. Depp first hit her in 2012, two and a half years before the wedding. Heard was reportedly sitting on the couch with her then-lover, drinking her wine, when he reached out and slapped her face. The actress laughed when, when asked about her tattoos, Depp replied that she had the word "Wino" tattooed on her. She was more than surprised by Depp's slap across her face. “I kept laughing because I didn't know how else to react. I thought this must be a joke," Heard testified through tears. Two more blows followed, the last one so hard she slid off the couch onto the floor. “But I didn't want to leave Johnny. I didn't want that to be reality. But I also knew that you never recover," the actress told the jury. Depp is said to have shown remorse. He fell to his knees next to her and began to cry. The next day she brought Heard several cases of wine and promised to better control "the fucking son of a bitch", the dark side of her, in the future. In the courtroom, Depp kept his eyes downcast behind her tinted glasses.

When questioned by her lawyer Elaine Bredehoft, Heard had previously recalled the beginning of the romance: how she spoke with Depp in 2008 at the first meeting before filming the adaptation of the book "The Rum Diary" about their shared love of blues and poetry. . And how he kissed her on camera on set in Puerto Rico a few months later, with tongue and soul instead of the usual rehearsed movie kiss. During the fall 2011 press tour, things got serious. “We fell madly in love. I felt like he understood me like no one else,” Heard testified. At the same time, the couple lived in a "bubble of secrecy." Depp had allegedly separated from his partner and the mother of her two children, French actress Vanessa Paradis, a year earlier, but she had not yet made the end of the relationship public.

Heard asks for 100 million dollars

The "dream" in which Heard believed herself did not last long. Apparently, the first slaps were followed by new attacks. During a camping trip in Joshua Tree National Park in May 2013, Depp is said to have violently penetrated the actress's vagina with her fingers. As Heard testified, he accused her of hiding cocaine in her vagina after flirting with a camp visitor while she was high. A few months later, a vacation with Depp's children, Lily-Rose and Jack, on the actor's private island in the Bahamas ended abruptly. Depp is said to have become violent at this time because he suspected Heard had told teenagers about his father's drinking. “He pushed my neck against the bedroom wall and held me there. He told me that he could kill me and that he was ashamed,” Heard said on the witness stand Wednesday.