Amber Heard Responds To Being Vilified On Social Media In First Post-Trial Interview
"Even if you think that I’m lying, you still couldn’t look me in the eye and tell me that you think on social media there’s been a fair representation."
Amber Heard has given her first TV interview since the infamous defamation proceedings started by her ex-husband Johnny Depp.
While the full interview is yet to air in the US, clips have been released that show Heard claiming that she’s been unfairly represented on social media.
“Even somebody who is sure I’m deserving of all this hate and vitriol, even if you think that I’m lying, you still couldn’t look me in the eye and tell me that you think on social media there’s been a fair representation,” Heard says. “You cannot tell me that you think that this has been fair.”
.@savannahguthrie sat down for an exclusive conversation with #AmberHeard. "You cannot tell me that you think that this has been fair,” Heard shared, in reference to social media representation. pic.twitter.com/56Ju7pYg1x
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 13, 2022
The actress, who is 23 years Depp’s junior, added: “I don’t care what one thinks about me or what judgments you want to make about what happened in the privacy of my own home, in my marriage, behind closed doors. I don’t presume the average person should know these things. And so I don’t take it personally.”
She says in the interview that she doesn’t blame the jury for supporting Depp, who ended up awarding him a total of $15 million USD in damages.
“I don’t blame them,” she said. “I actually understand. He’s a beloved character and people feel they know him. He’s a fantastic actor.”
Depp made a defamation claim against Heard for a Washington Post op-ed entitled: “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.” Depp claimed that the article defamed him as a perpetrator of that abuse.
Bizarrely, every waking moment of that trial was televised, which led to decontextualised snippets from the trial being shared on social media.
Much of this content ended up ridiculing Heard — even as she broke down in tears describing alleged instances of abuse — and venerating the 59-year-old actor Johnny Depp for his apparent bon mots. The Guardian called the trial an “orgy of misogyny” while the New York Times lambasted the relentlessness of “TikTok’s Amber Heard Hate Machine.”
Heard’s attorney confirmed on June 2 that she would be appealing the verdict.
Watch moments from Amber Heard’s interview with NBC reporter Savannah Guthrie below.
Photo credit: Consolidated News Pictures, Getty Images