Details of sex scenes Amber Heard was to play on screen were kept from her husband, Johnny Depp, court documents have revealed. The Pirates of the Caribbean star, who admits to having jealous feelings, told the judge hearing his London libel case against the Sun that he “was uncomfortable with the idea of her doing nudity”.
Evidence put together by lawyers working for Heard suggests that, during the last stages of their two-year marriage, trust had broken down to the extent that Depp wanted to prevent his wife wearing revealing outfits on the red carpet and from taking parts in films involving nude scenes.
A message from Heard’s assistant presented in court appeared to request that a breakdown of her daily work schedule was not shared with her husband’s team of personal assistants. Heard’s lawyers argued this showed she was worried about Depp’s response to any nude scenes she might be required to shoot.
Depp, 57, argued that he just offered professional advice when asked. Cross-examined at the Royal Courts of Justice last week, he said: “Ms Heard was uncomfortable being thought of as a sex object, and she was hoping to do better films with more meat to the part, if you will, and did not want to be objectified and did not want to have to do nude scenes any more.” The film star is suing the Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers, and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an article published in April 2018 that called him a “wife-beater,” which he denies, claiming his wife was the violent and manipulative partner.
Depp, who has had long-term relationships with the actress Winona Ryder, the model Kate Moss and the singer Vanessa Paradis, argues that Heard, whom he married in 2015, asked for his opinion on what kinds of roles to accept and what to wear in public. When Heard’s lawyers claimed that Depp tried to control her life, he responded: “Well, I would never tell her what to wear, but I would certainly make mention if I thought what she was wearing was completely against the grain of what she told me her wishes were, because I did not find it very helpful to what she was looking for in terms of being taken seriously as an actress. I told her she did not have to be naked in films.”
Heard’s legal team also alleged that a visit to her ailing friend, the 67-year-old novelist behind the film Hellraiser, Clive Barker, caused a serious row between the couple. Depp admitted to some jealousy, and confessed he was annoyed when he learned that Heard, 34, might work again with actor James Franco, who he believed had made inappropriate sexual advances to her. He said: “I was uncomfortable with that, yes, because it was quite inconsistent with the feelings that she had told me of.”
Asked whether he interfered with his wife’s film contracts, Depp replied: “She was upset that she was being objectified and she wanted to do deeper material, more profound, something where she could show her abilities as an actress.”
Asked why he had once described this as “actress bullshit”, Depp told the judge: “She was telling me how she did not want to be looked at as the pretty girl or did not want to have to get her breasts out or be nude in a film any more. And I said, ‘You do not have to.’ She wanted my advice, and I gave her my advice. Unfortunately, or fortunately, she continued to do the same type of films, and I thought to myself that she was above them.”
His attempts to influence Heard’s appearance, he said, were an attempt to steer her towards her goals.
The Sun’s defence relies on Heard’s allegations of 14 incidents of violence by Depp between 2013 and 2016, which he denies. The case continues.
