Depp warned Heard of bloodbath in recording played at libel trial

The Pirates of the Caribbean star is cross-examined on more explosive recordings of the celebrity couple crossing swords played to a court in Virginia.

Johnny Depp on the stand during his US$50m defamation trial against former wife Amber Heard. Picture: AFP

Johnny Depp warned Amber Heard that their arguments could escalate into a “bloodbath”, in audio recordings played to a court in Virginia on Monday.

“The next move, if I don’t walk away or just go out for a little while, it’s going to be a bloodbath, like it was on the island of course,” Depp said, in an apparent reference to his private island in the Caribbean.

Heard replied that “no one in their right mind is going to choose a bloodbath”.

Depp replied: “Then why has it been chosen so many times?”

He is suing Heard, 36, for libel over an opinion column published in The Washington Post in 2018, in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse”.

Although the article did not mention Depp, whom she began dating in 2012, married in 2015 and divorced 15 months later, it referred to a restraining order that she had sought against him. Depp, 58, claims that Heard destroyed his reputation and cost him a lucrative role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise.

The jury was played a recording of Heard telling Depp: “Put your f***ing cigarettes out on someone else, you f***ing have consequences for your actions. That’s it.”

Depp could be heard replying: “Shut up, fat arse.”

Heard said: “Yeah, you got me there.”

From the witness stand Depp said that the allegation was “another grossly exaggerated moment of Ms Heard. I didn’t put a cigarette out on her.”

He was shown a text he sent to Heard in March 2013, telling her that he “just thought you should know there exists a book titled Disco Bloodbath”.

In a subsequent text message that was shown to the court, Heard said: “We need that book! Is it about last Friday night by any chance?” Depp replied: “How can you make me smile about such a hideous moment? Yes it is. Funny bitch.”

Benjamin Rottenborn, Heard’s lawyer, showed the court a text message that Depp had sent to his security guard in 2016, in which he warned that the first person who mentioned his former wife’s name would get “a warning” and the second would have “his nose bit off, chewed up and swallowed by Johnny Depp”.

Jessica Meyers, Depp’s lawyer, asked him about his work on the Pirates of the Caribbean series and other films. “Alice in Wonderland,” said Depp, and then trailed off. “I’m so pathetic in terms of knowing what movies I have done, I am sorry, I don’t watch them. I feel better not watching them,” he said.

Amber Heard listens to Johnny Depp’s testimony. Picture: AFP

Then, provoking laughter in the courtroom, he asked: “What was the question again?”

He said that the end of his role in the Pirates franchise had left him with “the distinct sense of having been betrayed”.

Meyers also asked Depp about texts he had exchanged with the British actor Paul Bettany in 2013 in which he had said: “Let’s burn Amber!!!” and then added: “Let’s drown her before we burn her!!!”

Depp said that he and Bettany were fans of Monty Python. “The text that is about burning Ms Heard is, it’s directly from Monty Python and the sketch about burning witches, and then drowning the witches.”

He said Bettany’s relationship with Heard was “abominable”. He described a lunch, while Bettany was visiting Depp’s island with his wife and children, in which the Briton and Heard “got into some debate” and “she got mean, and she got loud”. Bettany’s 18-year-old son “voiced an opinion” and “she started to demean that young man to the point where he burst into tears,” Depp said.

The trial continues.

The Times