Johnny Depp spoke about the toll Amber Heard’s abuse allegations have taken on him as he took the witness stand in his defamation trial against her.
Mr Depp opened his testimony on Tuesday afternoon in Fairfax County, Virginia, by calling his ex-wife’s claims “heinous,” “disturbing” and “not based in any species of truth”.
The Hollywood veteran invoked Disney characters in explaining how the allegations have affected his career, saying: “[It’s] very strange when one day you’re Cinderella so to speak and then in 0.6 seconds you’re Quasimodo.”
He said he wanted to clear his name not only for himself and his children but also for everyone he’s known across more than three decades in the film industry.
Mr Depp has accused Ms Heard of defaming him in a December 2018 Washington Post op-ed entitled: “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.” His suit seeks $50m in damages, both to his mental health and his career.
Testifying on Tuesday, Mr Depp called Ms Heard’s allegations three years after their marriage ended “a complete shock”.
“It just didn’t need to go in that direction. Nothing of the kind had ever happened,” he said. “Though the relationship… there were arguments and things of that nature, but never did I myself reach the point of striking Ms Heard in any way, nor have I ever struck any woman in my life.
“News of her accusations had sort of permeated the industry and then made its way through media and social media and became quite a global... let’s say, quote-unquote, fact.”
“My goal is the truth. My goal is the truth,” he continued.
“Because it killed me that people I had spoken with [in the film industry], that I had met with over the years that maybe were not in such a great position and they needed advice and I gave them the best advice I could - all I could think of was all those people would think that I was a fraud and that I had lied to them.
He said it’s taken “six years of trying times” to get to this point where he can try to clear the record in his own words, adding: “I didn’t deserve that, nor did my children nor did the people who have believed in me all these years.”
Describing the effects on his family, Mr Depp noted that his children, from his previous marriage to Vanessa Paradis, were only 14 and 16 years old when Ms Heard first made her claims.
“I thought it was diabolical that my children would have to go to school and have their friends approach them with the infamous People magazine cover with Ms Heard with a dark bruise on her face. And then it just kept multiplying. It kept getting bigger and bigger,” he said.
“It was my responsibility, I felt, to try to clear my name for the sake of... for many reasons... but I wanted to clear my children of this horrid thing that they were having to hear about their father which was untrue.”
Mr Depp said he felt exposed testifying as he has been a private person, wanting to shield his children from “hordes of paparazzi” and that he didn’t want his kids to see their parents as “novelties”.
“I can’t say that I’m embarrassed because I know that I’m doing the right thing,” he added.
In her 2018 op-ed, Ms Heard partly wrote that “like many women, I had been harassed and sexually assaulted by the time I was of college age. But I kept quiet — I did not expect filing complaints to bring justice. And I didn’t see myself as a victim”.
“Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out,” she added at the time.
While Mr Depp isn’t named in the piece, his legal team argues that it contains a “clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser”, which they say is “categorically and demonstrably false”.
