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Amber Heard has a lot to say.
The actress, who has become more famous for her damaged relationship with Johnny Depp than anything she’s ever done on the big screen, will sit down this week across from Savannah Guthrie.
The Today Show interview (set to air on Tuesday and Wednesday) will mark the first time Heard has directly addressed the public since a jury of her peers found her guilty on June 1 of defamation against Johnny Depp.
Amber Heard appears here on The Today Show, discussing her defamation trial for the first time.
Does she blame said jury for the outcome?
No.
“I don’t blame them. I actually understand,” Heard said in a snippet from the interview released on Monday morning, adding of Depp and his perception nationwide:
“He’s a beloved character and people feel they know him. He’s a fantastic actor.”
The former couple battled for six week in court last moonth over a 2018 op-ed Heard wrote for The Washington Post in which she described surviving domestic abuse.
She did not name Depp in the piece, although the Pirates of the Caribbean star’s lawyers alleged the op-ed references claims she made during their divorce in 2016.
Depp then sued Heard for $50 million, claiming that the op-ed impacted his career in a negative fashion.
Heard countersued for $100 million. Depp has denied all allegations of abuse.
Over the course of the trial, it was hard to deny that popular opinion turned against Heard — especially across platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
“Even somebody who is sure I’m deserving of all this hate and vitriol, even if you think that I’m lying, you still couldnât tell me â look me in the eye and tell me â that you think on social media thereâs been a fair representation,” Heard said to Guthrie, citing the backlash against her.
“You cannot tell me that you think that this has been fair.”
Some numbers back up Heard’s assertion here.
On TikTok, for example, the hashtag #justiceforjohnnydepp had nearly 20 billion views on TikTok as of June… while #justiceforamberheard had over 80 million.
Hashtags such #amberheardisguilty had 900 million views on social media at that same time.
Yes, the jury was instructed to stay off social media, Heard’s legal team has insisted these trends still impacted the case.
“There’s no way they couldnât have been influenced by it, and it was horrible,â Heard’s attorney, Elaine Charlson Bredehoft, told Guthrie on TODAY on June 2.
“It really, really was lopsided.”
Earlier this month, the aforementioned jury awarded Depp $15 million in damages, but Heard will only have to shell out $10.35 million due to a Virginia law limiting punitive damages (the judge reduced the amount).
In her countersuit, Heard won one of the three defamation counts, and was awarded $2 million in damages.
Depp and his disturbingly loyal fans celebrated the verdict after it was read in court in Fairfax County, Virginia, with the actor saying the “jury gave me my life back” in a statement.
He also paid $60,000 to party afterward.
Heard, meanwhile, described the decision a “setback” for women. Her lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, said recently that her client plans to appeal the verdict.
In a statement also released on Monday, a spokesperson for Heard addressed why she decided to take part in the televised interview.
“Johnny Depp’s legal team blanketed the media for days after the verdict with numerous statements and interviews on television, and Depp himself did the same on social media.
“Ms. Heard simply intended to respond to what they aggressively did last week; she did so by expressing her thoughts and feelings, much of which she was not allowed to do on the witness stand,” the spokesperson said.
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