"... he said, pointing to the fact that Heard would have 'unusual reaction' over small things, such as if he didn’t go to bed at the same time as her.... The actor said that when Heard made her allegations, people in the entertainment industry — where he never had problems over a career of 30-plus years — began to think he was a 'fraud.' ... 'Very strange, when one day you’re Cinderella, so to speak, and then 0.6 seconds [later], you’re Quasimodo. I didn’t deserve that, nor did my children, or the people who had believed in me all these years. . . . I pride myself on honesty. I pride myself on truth,' he said. 'Truth is the only thing I’m interested in. Lies build upon lies build upon lies. It’s too much to cover. I’m obsessed with the truth.'... Depp was also asked about [his text message about her] 'rotting corpse is decomposing' in the 'trunk of a Honda Civic.' Depp said his language and vocabulary was influenced by authors such as Hunter S. Thompson, Philip K. Dick, J.D. Salinger and James Joyce, and sometimes he had a tendency to exaggerate. 'I am ashamed of some of the references I made... I tend to be quite expressive in my writing and after the unfortunate words of Ms. Heard made their way into my heart and my head, those are two very opposing things...."
From "Depp takes stand, says Heard’s abuse allegations are untrue, ‘heinous’" (WaPo).
At YouTube, there are many clips, long and short, if you want to see how he looks and sounds. He speaks very slowly, haltingly, and often touches his face.
How do you judge the testimony of an actor? He ought to be able to sell the script. Maybe you end up assessing his acting. The writer at the NY Post, Maureen Callahan sneers at his acting/testimony, in "Johnny sinks to new Depps: Star’s testimony a disaster class in acting":
With his knitted eyebrows, shy smiles directed to his ex-wife, his apologies over proper gender terminology, a thoughtful “bless you” to a sneezer in the courtroom — it was easy to forget that this was a spoiled actor who blew up his Disney franchise over drug use, who squandered his $650 million fortune, who asked his private female nurse for drugs he described as “some f–king knock-out yum-yum” and for “some morphine to see if my tongue and penis touch,” who described Heard in texts as “this waste of a c-m-guzzler” and a “dangling, overused flappy fish market” who he would like to set on fire and then “f–k her corpse” . . . et cetera.
And like the best actors on press junkets, Depp treated every question asked by his lawyer — questions he surely heard over and over in hours of courtroom prep — as if he was hearing them for the very first time. His answers sounded totally off-the-cuff. At times, the questions seemed to take him by surprise. He does vulnerability well. In fact, Depp was so charming I found myself wanting to believe him — even as I knew, really, this was just another act by a dark star, imploding.
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33 comments:
He's an actor. He can act on stage and film, but everyone can act in real life. Everyone does act in real life.
How do you judge the testimony of two actors? Will Amber Heard be believed because people think Depp is the better actor, therefore she must be telling the truth?
Actors can often be volatile folks. Much like many of the rest of us. This is about money. He has more than does she. She wants a nibble.
I am guessing a prenup that locked things up. She wants to break it. Not saying it didn’t happen, but a civil suit? Didn’t they already do a criminal suit? Look at her IMDB page. Not much going on there. Yeah, I get he’s quirky. Doesn’t mean he’s violent.
But, just my opinion.
GrapeApe
He's a movie actor. His normal working life - reciting words others have written - is full of retakes and reframes. No retakes sitting on the stand unless upon appeal.
I don't know who these people are or who's suing who but they're not after the court to affirm that enough is enough. Taking the matter to court is itself the expression that enough is enough.
When you cannot know you tend to default to your tribe (men vs women) as you can always find some past experience, real or imagined, that justifies it. Or if not your tribe then how you associate one party or the other with something you value or disdain. The court of public opinion is useless. And yet that is where Depp's livelihood is dependent.
His list of 'conditions' was something.
Not surprised that his 'concierge addiction nurse' saw and heard nothing, as that is what she is paid to do.
All women are actors.
No one knows what goes on behind closed doors? Depp has always been a loon, but not out of line with what you might expect from the strange life of a long-time celebrity. His weirdness seemed to manifest in unhealthy fears, not violence. Manipulation maybe, but not abuse.
I don't envy the jury, who have to tell the difference between which one is closer to the truth about which facts and which one is merely the better actor, the better manipulator.
I always liked Johnny Depp and some of the other actors of that generation (Winona Ryder, etc. -- but not the ones related to Martin Sheen or in the Brat Pack). We weren't quite the same age, but I guess we were close enough for me to relish how the early Nineties actors took the spotlight away from the older ones in the way that early Eighties musicians displaced the tired Seventies acts. There was an appealing freshness back then that lingers in the memory after everyone has wilted.
Johnny, like Nick Cage, also had the endearing qualities of a guy who could lose tens of millions through absence of mind (or persistent substance abuse). Real-life versions of the distracted, brain-dead show biz millionaires Bill Nighy always seems to be playing. The tragic farce going on now reminds me of Ben Franklin's famous saying "Marry a lesbian, repent at haste." Or was it "Marry a lesbian, litigate at leisure"? All the lawyering probably doesn't do much for Johnny's bottom line, anymore than the lesbianing did for his state of mind.
Didn’t he declare bankruptcy a few years ago? He had something like 5 mansions worldwide and couldn’t support them. Lost $650 million. Is there actually any money to fight over or is this more about getting cameras pointed at them?
where he never had problems over a career of 30-plus years
I love Johnny, but you don't lose millions without people having a problem with you. Maybe Johnny was in Europe or stoned all the time and didn't know it, but there must have been talk. Stars are always the last to know when their careers are in trouble.
His daughter is a successful actress in France now, so maybe she can help him out and tide him over until his next payday.
’dangling, overused flappy fish market’
I didn’t even know they owned a business…
Maybe his acting here is bad because he's not acting.
He was pretty good in Donnie Brasco. Other than that, meh. Nick Cage is actually a great actor and nutjob. Having not read anything but the headlines, my impression is this is a case of NHI.
it was easy to forget that this was a spoiled actor who blew up his Disney franchise over drug use
Talking about Prince? M.Jackson? W. Huston?
The whole dichotomy the left exhibits over Drugs is just their constant double standard.
'Addiction is not failing of character....unless I need a cudgel to beat them.'
"I want to clarify: I’m not an actor. I lie for a living." - Johnny Depp June 2017 as blogged on this site
"I pride myself on honesty. I pride myself on truth,' [Depp] said. 'Truth is the only thing I’m interested in. Lies build upon lies build upon lies. It’s too much to cover. - Johnny Depp April 2022
Professional liar, amateur truth teller. Maybe no real internal inconsistency but the emphasis on truth and lies in his current statement immediately brought my mind back to his previous statement where he, possibly unintentionally, called to assassinate Trump.
First, both Depp and Heard are actors. Actors have an uncommon talent for emotional floating -- all great actors can jump into a new/temporary mood at the drop of a hat. This is their greatest strength professionally, but a disaster in the real world where relationships require stability and predictability. So, a short and bitter Hollywood marriage is routine and to be expected. Yawn.
Second, Depp returned to fame with his crazy, unstable performance in Pirate of the Caribbean. He was great because he was weird. This should surprise no one, but perhaps Heard turned a blind eye because of his power, fame, and wealth. "It'll do wonders for your career and put you on the A List."
Third, by all appearances Heard is all-out-crazy and likely pure evil too. This stands in contrast to her ultra standard beauty. She's a line-art, textbook version of a beautiful white European woman. Nothing odd or quirky about her appearance at all. Zero. This leads to the (routine male) error of assuming that beauty is more than skin deep. It ain't, which is something most men learn by their 20s. There are lots of hidden crazies in this world. But Depp, weird and living in DeppLand may have missed obvious signs...or wanted a great A List visual pairing with Heard.
"The female of the species is more deadly than the male." - Space (1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLcmNf0jjVw
stage actors have to stay in character for many minutes at a stretch. Film actors, not so much. Sitting there, pretending to talk to somebody who isn't really there, you're looking at a camera and a bunch of crew and lights, and it's "Let's have five seconds of confusion. Now five seconds of annoyed confusion. Okay, the lines to Tom from 'He said....'"
Saw a pic of, iirc, Gary Cooper doing something about the French Foreign Legion. Looking haggard, ragged, facing the bad guys. Looking at a dozen crew and cameras.
Not the same as carrying off a character for as long as it takes including how the character would react to unforeseen contingencies.
Depp reminds me of Brando: possibly the best actor of his generation and, in his personal life, a loon. Can you imagine what cancel culture would've done to Brando?
Why is this case in Fairfax, Virginia?
“There is no evidence that God ever interfered in the affairs of man. The hand of earth is stretched uselessly towards heaven. From the clouds there comes no help.”
—- Johnny Depp, Master Thespian
""The female of the species is more deadly than the male." - Space (1996)"
That didn't begin in 1996. See Rudyard Kipling — "The Female of the Species."
1 When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
2 He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
3 But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
4 For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
5 When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man,
6 He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can.
7 But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail.
8 For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
9 When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,
10 They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws.
11 'Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale.
12 For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
13 Man's timid heart is bursting with the things he must not say,
14 For the Woman that God gave him isn't his to give away;
15 But when hunter meets with husbands, each confirms the other's tale --
16 The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
17 Man, a bear in most relations -- worm and savage otherwise, --
18 Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise.
19 Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
20 To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.
21 Fear, or foolishness, impels him, ere he lay the wicked low,
22 To concede some form of trial even to his fiercest foe.
23 Mirth obscene diverts his anger --- Doubt and Pity oft perplex
24 Him in dealing with an issue -- to the scandal of The Sex!
25 But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame
26 Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and engined for the same,
27 And to serve that single issue, lest the generations fail,
28 The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.
29 She who faces Death by torture for each life beneath her breast
30 May not deal in doubt or pity -- must not swerve for fact or jest.
31 These be purely male diversions -- not in these her honour dwells.
32 She the Other Law we live by, is that Law and nothing else.
33 She can bring no more to living than the powers that make her great
34 As the Mother of the Infant and the Mistress of the Mate.
35 And when Babe and Man are lacking and she strides unchained to claim
36 Her right as femme (and baron), her equipment is the same.
37 She is wedded to convictions -- in default of grosser ties;
38 Her contentions are her children, Heaven help him who denies! --
39 He will meet no suave discussion, but the instant, white-hot, wild,
40 Wakened female of the species warring as for spouse and child.
41 Unprovoked and awful charges -- even so the she-bear fights,
42 Speech that drips, corrodes, and poisons -- even so the cobra bites,
43 Scientific vivisection of one nerve till it is raw
44 And the victim writhes in anguish -- like the Jesuit with the squaw!
45 So it cames that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer
46 With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her
47 Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands
48 To some God of Abstract Justice -- which no woman understands.
49 And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him
50 Must command but may not govern -- shall enthral but not enslave him.
51 And She knows, because She warns him, and Her instincts never fail,
52 That the Female of Her Species is more deadly than the Male.
Believe all women. Wait...What?
Touching the face a lot is a classic tell of liars.
Acting on stage and film is a respected art form. It isn't really a form of lying because it comes with no consequences. If someone paid Depp to walk into court yesterday and perform the same script, he would have done it exceedingly well. This wasn't an acting gig, though. Depp isn't a sociopath like, for example, Jen Psaki or Taylor Lorenz.
Last night I watched Platoon: Brothers in Arms, a 2018 documentary on the making of the movie Platoon. I found it interesting.
I didn't realize Johnny Depp was even in Platoon until last night. My thought watching him speak in that slow halting manner was that he had speech issues.
"Dark star imploding". Cool phrase.....There's something about the destruction or, rather, the self destruction of a superstar that serves some dark, atavistic need....In Dionysian rituals, they were said to tear apart a lamb and eat his flesh. The Christian faith incorporated some of the Dionysian mysteries into their religion...Johnny Depp is being crucified. It's a corporate process. He's choosing the hill on which he wishes his agony to be seen. The press chooses the nails and does the heavy lifting so far as erecting the cross and hammering the nails. We are the crowd at Golgotha waiting for the death throes to pass so we can feast on the offering.
He's about a thousand times better at acting than she is, so if that's the criteria, she's already lost...
Seems perfect 420 witness.
All accounts agree that these are both horrible people, who have been horrible to each other. If they weren't beautiful and famous no one would care.
I watched one of the videos and he didn't touch his face more than once or twice. Actually he sounded kind of boring, though obviously wounded. Didn't their marriage counselor testify that Amber was the nuttier, more volatile of the two, and the instigator of virtually all of the violent episodes?
There's also the generational angle: nobody is likely to be very compatible or very happy with someone 23 years younger. Boomers and Millennials are like oil and water, though maybe if they had waited until he got to his eighties and she reached her sixties they'd have had more of a chance.
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