Johnny Depp explains why he took Amber Heard to trial in rare interview

In a rare, lengthy interview, Johnny Depp, 62, has explained why he took Amber Heard, 39, to trial.

The actors married in February 2015, but Heard had filed for divorce and a restraining order by spring of 2016. And in April 2022, the world watched as they faced each other in a US court.

But that came after Depp lost his libel case in a UK court as a judge found the ‘majority of alleged assaults’ of his ex-wife to have ‘been proved.’

Regardless of him losing that, it was far more heightened when the pair faced off one another in the states, as the trial was live streamed and sparked wider public debate.

When the pair divorced, Heard claimed Depp had been ‘verbally and physically abusive’ and she wrote a column in The Washington Post with the headline: “I spoke up against sexual violence - and faced our culture’s wrath.”

Depp won his case in the US but did lose here in the UK. (STEVE HELBER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The Pirates of the Caribbean actor sued her for libel over that and during the 2022 trial, he attempted to prove it was her who had violently abused him.

You’ll probably remember just how much their case was all over social media, with Heard arguably the greater victim of trolling and public opinion.

And in the end, the jury found Depp to be a victim of defamation as he was awarded roughly $15 million (£12 million) in damages.

So much of their lives were put out to the world in the trial and Depp says he knew he’d ‘have to semi-eviscerate’ himself.

“Look, it had gone far enough,” he told The Sunday Times. “Everyone was saying, ‘It’ll go away!’ But I can’t trust that. What will go away? The fiction pawned around the f***ing globe? No it won’t.”

Depp added that if he didn’t ‘try to represent the truth’ then it would be like he’d ‘actually committed the acts’ he was accused of.

“So the night before the trial in Virginia I didn’t feel nervous. If you don’t have to memorise lines, if you’re just speaking the truth? Roll the dice,” he said.

Depp said that while he knew none of it ‘was going to be easy’, he didn’t care.

“I’ll fight until the bitter f**king end.’ And if I end up pumping gas? That’s all right. I’ve done that before,” he added.

As the interviewer describes the actor as being ‘imprecise’ when talking about Heard, Depp goes on to slam those ‘fake motherf**kers’ who ‘did him dirty.’

Depp fans would shout death threats at Heard during the trial. (Cliff Owen/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images)

The actor has previously made claims about being shut out of Hollywood following his ex-wife’s claims and he went on to say: “And, look, I understand people who could not stand up [for me], because the most frightening thing to them was making the right choice.”

Depp then goes on to add that he was a ‘crash test dummy’ for the very important, powerful MeToo movement.

“And I sponged it, took it all in. And so I wanted from the hundreds of people I’ve met in that industry to see who was playing it safe,” he said.

After a pause, it is explained he ‘hissed’: “Better go woke!”