Johnny Depp plays Bob Marley as courtroom drama heats up
Published:Friday | April 29, 2022 | 12:09 AM
Exodus by Bob Marley and the Wailers was the song of choice for Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp, as the courtroom drama starring him and his ex-wife Amber Heard entered its 10th day last Wednesday.
According to reports in the Daily Mail, Exodus was blaring from Depp’s black SUV as he pulled up to court, where he was greeted by fans, who had signs saying ‘Justice for Johnny’.
Exodus is both the name of a song and the title of Bob Marley and the Wailers’s 1977 album. Reggae music is often described as ‘one of the most soothing, uplifting, and therapeutic music genres to listen to and there is really never a bad time to start listening’.
The three-times Oscar-nominated Depp is the globally famous star of more than 50 Hollywood movies grossing $10 billion. He brought a $50-million defamation suit against Heard in March 2019 after she published an op-ed in The Washington Post the previous December. Heard’s article discussed the treatment of women in sexual assault cases and referred to herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse,” but did not mention Depp by name.
The actor then filed for defamation, stating: ‘Ms Heard is not a victim of domestic abuse; she is a perpetrator.’ He said that the article had damaged his career, as days after the publication he was dropped from his role in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. His career was already floundering following he and Heard’s tabloid fodder break-up in 2017.
After failing to get Depp’s defamation lawsuit dismissed, the 36-year-old Heard then filed a $100-million countersuit, claiming that he defamed her when his legal team referred to her claims as “fake” and a “sexual violence hoax”.
On Thursday, court exhibits from the defamation trial revealed that Heard had threatened to publicly serve Depp with a restraining order if he did not continue to financially support her lifestyle after she filed for divorc. Jurors were reportedly shown a letter which Heard’s attorney had sent to Depp’s legal team in May 2016, just a few days after she filed to end their marriage. Heard issued a list of financial and property demands, promising to “keep this matter out of the spotlight” if her requests were granted. Among her demands was the “exclusive use and possession” of the black Range Rover she drove, with Depp continuing to make payments towards the vehicle. She also wanted to carry on living rent free in three of Depp’s LA penthouses and asked for her estranged husband to cover $125,000 of her legal and accounting fees.
The long-postponed trial comes after Depp lost a similar suit accusing News Group Newspapers, the UK publisher of the tabloid, The Sun, of libel in 2020.
The two actors met on the set of The Rum Diary in 2011, and married four years later – then Heard filed for divorce 15 months later amid a slew of domestic violence allegations.
They had released a joint statement when their divorce was finalised, saying, “Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love.”