Johnny-Depp.org

Upside Down

May 2016 brought the news that Amber Heard had filed for divorce, and alleged she had been the victim of domestic violence during her marriage to Johnny. This turned Johnny’s life upside down, and he vehemently denied the accusations.

Amongst all the turmoil of being accused of domestic violence, Johnny reprised his role of the Hatter in Tim Burtons ‘Alice through the looking glass’, and had secretly been signed to star as Gellart Grindlewald in the Fantastic Beasts franchise.
In 2017 Johnny stared in the film ‘The Black Ghiandola’ a film written by a terminally ill teenager as part of the ‘Make a Film’ Foundation, a non profit agency. Captain Jack called again, so Johnny reprised the role for Pirates 5, and he stared in an ensemble cast with Kenneth Branagh, in ‘Murder on the Orient Express’. Johnny loved be reunited with Dame Judi Dench, who he’d previously worked with on ‘Chocolat’ and is very fond of, as she is of him.

Johnny’s divorce from Amber Heard was finalised in January 2017, but unfortunately there was still a long way to go before Johnny removes her from his life…
Although Johnny, at this time, is gaining a lot of negativity in the press, due to AH’s accusations, 2018 is a busy year for Johnny. He is involved in 5 films!

He starred as the voice of Sherlock Gnomes in an animated movie of the same name, and had a cameo in ‘London Fields’ (originally filmed in 2016). ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald’ meant we got to see Johnny’s brilliance as Gellert Grindlewald.

Another film Johnny starred in this year was ‘The Professor’ also known as ‘Richard says Goodbye’. He plays Richard, a buttoned-up professor, who is told he has stage 4 cancer. The film follows how he deals with it over his final months. It’s a great, moving film.
Johnny also worked on ‘City of Lies’ which his production company produced. A film about the murder of the Notorious B.I.G. These last couple of films seem to have been buried by the film industry, due the bad press Johnny was receiving.

2019 Johnny played Cornol Joll in ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ and in 2020 he starred as W. Eugene Smith, the Photo journalist, who revealed the effects caused to the people of Minamata, by pollution being dumped into their water supply, by a large corporation. Johnny gained great praise for his portrayal, with some critics calling it ‘his best role in years’.

In 2020 alot of Johnny’s time was taken up by a court case he had brought against ‘The Sun’ newspaper and Dan Wotton, in the UK, after they labelled him a ‘Wife Beater’ on their front cover. This case did not have a Jury, so the decision that the accusations ‘were mostly true’ was decided by the Judge alone. Devastating news for Johnny. He moved to appeal, but unfortunately this was denied.

So, after the massive disappointment of losing the trial in the UK, in 2019 Johnny decided to sue his ex-wife Amber Heard, for defamation, after she wrote an Op-Ed, claiming to be a victim of domestic violence, in 2018. Johnny was not named in the Op-Ed, but he argued that he lost out on millions of dollars of film contracts and work due to the article.

After long delays due to the COVID19 outbreak at the beginning of 2020, the trial started in Virginia on the 11th of April 2022, until the 1st of June 2022. The trial was shown on Court TV, You Tube live, and followed closely by social media.

Johnny laid his life bare, for all to see, and revealed he was actually the victim of abuse, by Amber Heard. He talked about his difficult childhood in which he and his siblings were abused by their mum and was open about his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction. It was revealed that many of Ambers friends lived off of Johnny for the years he was with Amber Heard. The court heard, through recordings that Amber made, Amber verbally abusing Johnny, belittling him and mocking him.

Johnny also revealed how losing his contract with Disney (due to Heard’s allegations) and Warner Brothers has affected his career and family.

Johnny’s legal team, led by Ben Chew, and Camille Vasquez, did an amazing job, and showed Amber up, proving Amber’s lies for what they were.

Finally, after a few days of deliberation, the jury unanimously found Amber guilty on all three statements of defamation, and it was done with actual malice. The jury awarded Johnny $10 Million in damages and $5 million in punitive damages (reduced to $350,000, due to a cap on the award by Virginia law).

Johnny was in the UK for the result and thanked the jury for giving him his life back. He celebrated at a pub in Newcastle, and then by joining his great friend Jeff Beck on his tour of the UK and into Europe.

He continued touring with Jeff through June and July, and then in August he began filming for his next film ‘La Favorite’ in Paris.

So, this is where we leave our hero for now…

Filming his latest movie, from October, joining Jeff Beck on his American leg of the tour, and developing a new film about artist Modigliani…

Truely hoping, he is enjoying his freedom, and living his life again. We can’t wait to see what you do next!

See also: Trials · Family info

#14 Rising from the Ashes »