For some background of my view/ standing point, I’m not a fan of Depp or Heard. I do think Depp is insanely talented and I enjoyed his movies. And despite the recent trend to bash him, he’s a versatile actor and not ‘one note’ at all (I saw some people argued that ‘calling Depp an actor is a stretch’, and Edward Scissorhands and Sweeney Todd are just the same character. Like, how?) . I also like Heard as Mera and wanted her to reprised her role.
When the story broke years ago, I’m surprised but I initially took Amber’s claims seriously and sympathized with her. Then I followed the case because, well, she’s Mera. I found too many weird things and inconsistencies. Like how her bruise pictures have no swelling and moving places or disappearing in a day. I’m aware that she has a prior domestic violence record with her previous partner before Depp. Depp’s past exes are defending him online and Winona Ryder was being bashed because of it. Depp’s daughter Lily Rose also defended her father and got bullied whenever she posted a pic of her father on her social media so she stopped.
And then Amber went to court for temporary restraining order against Depp and voila, paparazzi were there (meant that someone notified them) and she, although not needed to attend made a dramatic presence. Plain black clothing, bruise in her face, exaggerated dead eyes, made head motions and tilts to show off her bruised part of her face more to paparazzi, and these:
She was crying in her car but in a same breath was seen with clear eyes and neutral expression when she thought no photograph was taken. Her friend, Raquel ‘Rocky’ Pennington ducked her head accordingly to Amber’s crying to make sure paparazzi have a clear, photo friendly zone of Amber’s crying face.
And then, a day later, there are paparazzi candid pics of her makeup free face with her being very happy and without bruises.
Oh.
Of course, years later and now there are more visual proof like from elevator camera to show her makeup free face without any injuries:
But at the time, I only saw pics before that and I knew something was fishy.
Especially so because of the timing of her filing. At the time, Depp was not in the state, during the week of his daughter’s birthday and his movie premiere, and a few days after his mother’s death.
I thought maybe it was a possibly toxic relationship and they are both could be abusive, but I only know some of the story. I still supported both JD (Depp) and Heard career, and never said anything about that side of Amber in this forum.
And then, in 2019, I saw her 2016 deposition video of her then-dismissed domestic violence claim against JD (you can YouTube this, it contains harsh words). I can tell she’s lying right away. I disturbed with not only her unconvincing acting and behavior but also smiles and smirks at some point during the video, either duping delight or sadistic glee because she was smiling whenever audio recording of her discussion with JD that was playing, mentions about how Amber hurt and hit him, or when attorney asked her about her was hitting JD or not.
Now, in 2020, the clear audio of what was played during her deposition available online. I can’t link it because it contains full blown strong words.
Those recordings were made for their marriage therapy and both aware of the recordings and Amber was the one who recorded them on her phone and hooo boy.
There’s no denying that she’s the abuser, aggressor, and Johnny is her victim. It was full of gaslighting, mocking, bullying, shaming, shifting blames, victim blaming, deflecting, etc, basically textbook abuser in action. At some point she gave JD Xanax when JD stood for himself more, claimed that, ‘the other already wore off’. She shamed JD for not wanting violence and always ran away from her every time their fights turned violent. She wanted JD to stay and fight her, shamed him for not wanting to be physically hurt by her or not wanting to fight her. She’s angry that JD asked his bodyguard Travis for help, shamed him (again) and insinuated that JD better to reward Travis some sexual favors for that. When JD pleaded her to stopped being violent, she said she can’t promise she wouldn’t get physical again because if she’s angry sometimes she loses it.
If this what she was like when she knew she was being recorded for their marriage therapy and she thought it made her looked good and ‘in the right’, then I can’t imagine how it went when it was completely private.
The funny thing is that she provided photos (with metadata) of her on the day she appeared in the court with bruised face, but in the series of those pictures, there are also pictures of her without makeup or bruise happily celebrating with her friends later that day like this (at the court at 8 AM, drinking wine with friends at 13 PM). Yes, the lady that was pictured drinking with her is Raquel ‘Rocky’ Pennington, the same lady that ducked her head in the car so paparazzi can photographed Amber’s crying face on cue.
Bonus:
At the time of divorce, Amber via TMZ released a famous video of Depp smashing cupboards and pissed in the kitchen. At the end, Depp realized that he was secretly recorded and then grab the phone and it went black. It has been speculated that Depp beat her up afterwards.
That video actually was edited, in full video (you can search for it, I can’t posted it because of the language) you can see Amber set the camera, provoked Depp while tried to appear innocent, Depp refused to engaged with her words and said that something happened to him that didn’t happened to Amber. And after Depp grabbed the phone and dumped it, he actually leave the room without touched her while Amber chuckled, pick the phone, followed him and then stopped, and clear view of her face without any injuries whatsoever. If you pause at the right time, you can see her smirk.
Depp always claimed that he never abuse her back and whenever any incident happen, he will leave the room. This video proved that and how Amber just act and never actually scared of him.
