Laughter erupted in courtroom after Johnny Depp said he doesn’t watch his own movies and couldn’t recall the question he was asked.
“I don’t watch them. I feel better not watching them. What was the question again?” Mr Depp said to laughter from the room.
“Order in the court, or I will have you removed,” Judge Azcarate said. “Understood? Thank you.”
The defamation trial between Mr Depp and Amber Heard began on Monday 11 April in Fairfax, Virginia following Mr Depp’s lawsuit against his ex-wife in March 2019. Mr Depp is arguing that she defamed him in a December 2018 op-ed published in The Washington Post titled “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change”.
As he was reviewing a contract for the fourth and fifth Pirates movies, Mr Depp was asked by a member of his own legal team how many other franchise films he had been a part of at that time.
Mr Depp mentioned Alice in Wonderland but then struggled to remember any further films.
“I’m so pathetic when it comes to remembering what movies I’ve done,” he said. “I’m sorry, I don’t watch them. I feel better not watching them.”
“What was the question again?” he asked with a chuckle after a pause.
Mr Depp then went on to mention the Fantastic Beasts franchise, in which he was recently replaced with Mads Mikkelsen.
In her 2018 op-ed, Ms Heard 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”. Mr Depp is seeking damages of “not less than $50m”.
Ms Heard has filed a $100m counterclaim against Mr Depp for nuisance and immunity from his allegations.
