Amber Heard will testify next week as the first witness for her defense in the $50 million defamation lawsuit filed by Johnny Depp. Once Depp’s team finishes their case, the Aquaman actress could begin her trial testimony as early as Monday, Deadline reports. Heard tried several times, but unsuccessfully, to have the lawsuit filed in March 2019 by her ex-husband and Run Diary co-star dismissed or moved to another jurisdiction before the April 11 trial began. She filed a $100 million countersuit against Depp in the summer of 2020.
“There is a chance that Heard’s time on the stand could be changed if a substantial shift occurs in the plaintiff’s closing witnesses,” Deadline reports. But that is seen as unlikely at this late in the game. “It’s hard to see how Amber won’t prove to be a highly effective weapon against Depp in her own advocacy,” an industry insider with connections to both camps told Deadline. “Regardless of how they have tried to characterize her, she has been nothing but well composed and pretty conservative in court without having said a word.”
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The former Pirates of the Caribbean star testified for four days and vigorously denied repeatedly Heard’s accusations of domestic violence. The actor has also said Heard’s allegations during their 2016 divorce and the Washington Post op-ed about domestic abuse that sparked his lawsuit cost him lucrative roles such as in the yet-to-be-made sixth Pirates film. Heard’s lawyers disputed that claim. In his testimony, Depp stated that he would not return to the franchise even if Disney offered him $300 million and more. Last year, the two gave live testimony during Depp’s failed 2020 UK libel suit against Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater.” This time around, Heard is an actual defendant in the Virginia trial.
The witnesses Heard’s team listed last month before the trial started included James Franco and expected Twitter owner Elon Musk. It is unclear whether they will be called to testify. Avengers actor and Depp pal Paul Bettany was on his friend’s witness list but didn’t testify despite the threatening and violent text exchange they had back in 2013 garnering much media attention. The trial runs Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. until around 5 p.m. ET, with no proceedings on Fridays. Judge Penny Azcarate has a prescheduled conference to attend from May 9-12, so the trial will be paused during that week.
