“He was mad at me for taking a job with James Franco,” Amber Heard said of her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, on Thursday. “He hated, hated James Franco.”
Such glimpses into Depp’s psyche have already become the norm over the course of Heard’s testimony this week. They are in the Virginia courtroom because Depp is suing Heard for defamation; he told the jury during his testimony earlier in the trial that he’s out to clear his name.
Heard was in the middle of a second day of testimony, telling the courtroom in Fairfax, Virginia, how Depp allegedly abused her for years over the course of their relationship. The details of his alleged methods of control went on and on. Depp filed the suit over a Washington Post op-ed that Heard published in 2018. She never mentioned Depp by name in it, but described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse,” which Depp has claimed is a clear reference to him. (Heard is countersuing Depp for defamation, which the jury is also considering.)
Heard said Depp closely monitored her acting roles and public appearances—what she’d wear, how she’d act—and that he went into paranoid fits. “It got really nasty,” Heard said as she summed up one threatening encounter. Depp allegedly told her that no one liked her and that “everyone warned me about you.”
Heard’s testimony has amounted in part to a chronology of her relationship with Depp, and how it grew progressively violent as time went on. During one outburst, she said, Depp sexually assaulted her with a glass bottle while he threatened that he would “fucking kill me.”
“I’m on the countertop, he had me by the neck,” Heard said. “I just remember being really still, not wanting to move.”
The granular view of Heard and Depp’s marriage has also provided a partial portrait of the protections that Depp allegedly enjoyed as a wealthy and world-famous actor. Once, on a plane, Heard claimed, Depp slapped her and kicked her in the back onto the floor.
“You could hear a pin drop on that plane,” Heard said. “You could feel the tension, but no one did anything. I just remember feeling so embarrassed that he could kick me to the ground in front of people.”
Depp, who has been largely motionless and kept his eyes on the table during Heard’s testimony, grimaced slightly and raised his eyebrows.
If Depp’s earlier testimony during the trial had been damaging to Heard—she reportedly swapped out her public relations team last week after a series of negative headlines, and his fans have created a conspicuous show of support for him online and outside the courthouse—Heard’s account of his actions has been harrowing in its own way. As she wrapped up her testimony for the day, her lawyers displayed several photos of Heard’s bruised face. They would be some of the last images that the seven-person jury would see before the trial adjourns for about a week and a half. After it begins again later this month, Heard is expected to be back on the stand for her cross-examination.