Two years after Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s defamation trial, the actor’s attorneys are reflecting on their strategy.
Two of Depp’s lawyers said on A&E’s “Interrogation Raw: Celebrity Under Oath” Thursday that they had mixed feelings about him taking the stand.
“The one thing that we’re concerned about is whether he might lose his temper,” Benjamin Chew explained. “The other side is gonna do everything possible to get Johnny to show anger.”
Despite his fears of an outburst, Chew wanted the the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star, 61, to be “humanized before the jury so they could understand why hitting the woman he loved was something that he’s just not capable of.”
When Depp delivered his testimony in April 2022, his team felt that the Golden Globe winner’s “use of humor really undermined whatever serious point Amber’s counsel was trying to make.”
Chew noted, “One of the things that lawyers try to do on cross-examination is to maintain control of the witness. That’s something that Johnny simply did not allow [Heard’s attorney Ben Rottenborn] to do.”
During the special, Chew also recalled giving Depp a call after Heard went from appealing the verdict to agreeing to settle their legal battle for $1 million in December 2022.
“He was elated, and he sounded as if the weight of the world was off of his shoulders,” he said, adding that the musician “sounded like a kid” and was “thrilled.”
Six months prior, Heard had been ordered to pay her ex-husband of one year more than $10 million in damages.
She was awarded $2 million in a countersuit.
Depp received Heard’s settlement money in June 2023 and made headlines for donating the $1 million to charity.
The former couple’s legal woes began in 2018 when Heard wrote a Washington Post essay about domestic abuse she experienced — without naming her then-partner.
When she was found guilty of defamation in June 2022, Depp gushed in a statement that the jury had given him his “life back.”
“Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me,” he said, referencing daughter Lily-Rose, 25, and son Jack, 22. “I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that.”
Heard, for her part, claimed that the decision “sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously.”
The actress, 38, felt “heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence and sway of” her ex.
She has since moved to Spain with her daughter, Oonagh, and is expecting baby No. 2.
Heard, whose lawyers did not take part in “Interrogation Raw: Celebrity Under Oath,” claimed that social media’s treatment of her trial was not “fair” in a 2022 NBC News interview.
“Even somebody who is sure I’m deserving of all this hate and vitriol, even if you think that I’m lying, you still couldn’t look me in the eye and tell me that you think on social media there’s been a fair representation,” the “Rum Diary” star said.
Heard echoed this Monday when she reacted to Blake Lively filing a complaint alleging her “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldoni had used a crisis PR manager — the same one as Depp — to “destroy” her reputation.
“Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on,’” Heard told NBC News. “I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”
