Actress Amber Heard inside the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Court 12 April 2022
Ms Heard’s lawyers insist Mr Depp’s career was on the downturn due to his drug use, not her op-ed in The Washington Post.
Amber Heard’s defense attorney claimed Johnny Depp would try to turn the defamation cause against his ex-wife into a “soap opera,” but warned that it was a distraction.
Ben Rottenborn, Ms Heard’s lawyer, said the case was about Ms Heard’s First Amendment rights to discuss her experiences, and argued that context matters and asked the jury to read the entire article by Ms Heard that she wrote for The Washington Post – the article that resulted in the lawsuit – and not just the parts highlighted by Mr Depp.
He then read the article to the jury and asked why Mr Depp did not sue The Washington Post as well as Ms Heard, claiming he wanted to “ruin her life, to destroy her.”
Mr Rottenborn said the argument from Mr Depp that Ms Heard’s accusations hurt his career are illegitimate, claiming Disney had already decided to move on from Pirates of the Caribbean 6 due to his alleged drug use during work on the previous film. He pointed out that Mr Depp had previously stated he would not work on Pirates of the Caribbean 6 for any amount of money.
He claimed that Mr Depp’s career was already on a downward trajectory due to his own drug and alcohol use and that Ms Heard’s article was not nearly as well known as his reputation.
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