Amber Heard calls out ‘unfair’ role of social media in Johnny Depp case

Amber Heard doesn’t blame jurors for ruling against her in the defamation trial pitting her against her fellow actor and former husband Johnny Depp over domestic abuse allegations, but she did dismiss the social media commentary surrounding the case as “unfair” to her, she said in her first remarks since the blockbuster verdict.

Heard made the statements during a sit-down interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, a preview of which aired on Monday morning on the network’s Today show.

“I don’t blame [the jury] – I actually understand,” Heard said of the verdict favoring Depp. “He’s a beloved character, and people feel they know him. He’s a fantastic actor.”

Heard, however, was critical of social media commentators, saying they were unduly and overwhelmingly on Depp’s side throughout the seven-week trial. An NBC article accompanying the preview of Heard’s interview noted how the TikTok hashtag #justiceforjohnnydepp had nearly 20bn views while #justiceforamberheard racked up about 80m.

Meanwhile, #amberheardisguilty and similarly themed hashtags accumulated 900m views, NBC reported.

“I don’t care what one thinks about me or what judgments you want to make about what happened in the privacy of my own home, in my marriage, behind closed doors,” Heard said. “I don’t presume the average person should know those things. And so I don’t take it personally.

“But even somebody who is sure I’m deserving of all this hate and vitriol, even if you think that I’m lying, you still couldn’t look me in the eye and tell me that you think on social media there’s been a fair representation. You cannot tell me that you think that this has been fair.”

A jury in a Virginia court on 1 June awarded Depp $15m for three counts of defamation that he claimed were inflicted on him by Heard in a 2018 Washington Post editorial. Heard did not name Depp in the piece, in which she described herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse”.

The judge presiding over the case later reduced the award to the actor who once starred in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise to $10.35m.

Heard at the trial won on one counterclaim, with jurors giving the Aquaman actor $2m after she argued that a Depp press agent defamed her by calling her allegations “an abuse hoax” aimed at capitalizing on the #MeToo movement.

The jury’s verdict capped off proceedings that featured dozens of witnesses and experts weighing in on whether Depp was abusive to Heard – or vice versa – during their 15-month marriage which ended in 2016. Heard has said she intends to appeal against the decision from jurors while Depp thanked them for, as he put it, giving him his life back.

Both actors testified at length during the trial.

In a statement on Monday, a spokesperson for Heard said the actor’s interview with Guthrie was a reaction to Depp’s post-verdict media appearances.

“Ms Heard simply intended to respond to what they aggressively did … [and] she did so by expressing her thoughts and feelings, much of which she was not allowed to do on the witness stand,” the statement added.

Heard’s interview is scheduled to air Tuesday and Wednesday on the Today show and Friday at 8pm ET on Dateline NBC.