Topline
Amber Heard says she’ll stand by her testimony in the Johnny Depp defamation trial until her “dying day,” during a clip from a new interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that will air this week, detailing her distressing experience being in a courtroom full of the actor’s fans.
Actor Amber Heard waits before the verdict was read at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in … [+]
Key Facts
In a clip released Tuesday, Heard told Guthrie she “spoke [truth] to power” and “paid the price” for doing so, reiterating her claims in court that Depp, her ex-husband, physically and psychologically abused her.
Guthrie asked Heard about audio recordings presented to the court that seem to show the actress saying she instigated physical altercations with Depp, but Heard insisted she only became physical with her ex-husband when trying to defend herself from him.
Heard stressed that the twenty second excerpts from the audio recordings are not representative of the full two or three hour tapes.
Guthrie also asked Heard about a moment during the trial when Depp’s lawyers called her testimony “the performance of a lifetime,” accusing her of acting on the stand.
“Says the lawyer for the man who convinced the world he had scissors for fingers?” Heard responded, referring to Depp’s role in the 1990 film Edward Scissorhands, adding that she’d listened to testimony for weeks insinuating that she was a bad actress.
Key Background
Depp sued Heard for defamation after she wrote a 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post describing herself as a “public victim representing domestic abuse,” but didn’t specifically name Deep as an abuser. After a high-profile, highly-publicized six-week trial, a jury in Fairfax, Virginia ruled that Heard had defamed Depp and awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, however the punitive damages were knocked down to $350,000. Heard won part of her countersuit against Depp and was awarded $2 million.
Key Quote
“This was the most humiliating and horrible thing I’ve ever been through,” Heard told Guthrie. “I have never felt more removed from my own humanity. I felt less than human.”
What To Watch For
Heard’s full interview will air Tuesday and Wednesday on TODAY, as well as on Dateline Friday at 8 p.m.
Further Reading
Amber Heard Says She Doesn’t ‘Blame’ Jurors For Siding With Johnny Depp—But Says Trial Wasn’t ‘Fair’ (Forbes)
Jury Rules Amber Heard Defamed Johnny Depp In Domestic Abuse Op-Ed (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/juliecoleman/2022/06/14/amber-heard-says-shell-stand-by-every-word-of-her-testimony-until-her-dying-day/