Johnny Depp calls 2022 Amber Heard libel trial ‘a soap opera’

Two years after Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s defamation trial, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor is calling the courtroom experience a “soap opera.”
The comment was made Tuesday while musing about his similarities to Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, the subject of “Modi − Three Days on the Wing of Madness,” during a press conference at the 2024 San Sebastián International Film Festival in Spain.
“Each (character) has their story because I’m sure we can say that I’ve been through a number of things here and there,” Depp, who also directed the film, said in footage shared by The Hollywood Reporter. “You know, I’m all right. I think we’ve all been through a number of things, ultimately. Maybe yours didn’t turn into a soap opera. I mean, televised, in fact.”
The actor-turned-director added, “We all experience and go through what we go through, and those things that we are able to live and remember and use, this is your stripes; you never forget them.”
Depp sued ex-wife Amber Heard in 2019, claiming she defamed him in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she said she was a victim of domestic abuse without specifically naming him. A Virginia jury in 2022 awarded him more than $10 million in damages following six weeks of widely watched testimony, during which both parties and witnesses testified about alleged abuse over the course of their 15-month marriage.
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Meanwhile, Heard won $2 million in damages from her countersuit over Depp’s lawyer calling her claims a hoax. In December 2022, the former couple agreed to a settlement in the defamation case, with Heard paying Depp $1 million that he pledged to charity.
“Modi,” based on Dennis McIntyre’s play “Modigliani,” stars Riccardo Scamarcio as the painter and sculptor, who worked in Paris and rubbed elbows with the likes of Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera and Jean Cocteau. The film depicts a slice of Madigliani’s life in 1916.
Right before the press conference at the Spanish film festival, international journalists reportedly boycotted covering “Modi” after publicists reduced their time and access to interviewing Depp and the film’s stars. Per Variety and Deadline, the 12 interviewers were offered the opportunity to speak to the trio for 20 minutes as a group after initially being given 15 minutes in two groups of six.
What got Depp on board to direct his second feature film was a call from Al Pacino, who’s credited as a co-producer.
“What interested me, initially about the idea of making the film was a very strange phone call from Al Pacino saying, ‘Eh, you remember that Modigliani thing I was going to do years ago, I think you should direct it,'” Depp told reporters at the press conference.
“For some reason, Al saw me somehow driving this strange machine. I mean, when Pacino speaks, you must listen. So I ran with it.”
Depp also indicated he was happy to be behind the camera for this venture.
“I didn’t have to be in it, which is much more fun,” Depp said. Later, he added of the experience: “I realized my job was not a director at all. I was merely there to capture. I was just there to snap that instant.”
“This every day was a gas because I got to learn from these guys,” he said of his cast, which comprises Scamarcio, Pacino, Antonia Desplat, Stephen Graham, Bruno Gouery and Sally Phillips.
“But I’ll never do it again, never again,” he said before backtracking. “No, I might. Sorry, I apologize; I might.”