Sam Amico
Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against Amber Heard ended in victory, but it continues to make waves nonetheless.
A lot of that has to do with the fact newly unsealed court documents from the trial are coming to light. That includes some testimony from actress Ellen Barkin, who dated Depp in the 1990s and was introduced as a witness by Heard’s team during the trial.
Barkin painted Depp as aggressive, jealous and controlling.
“He gave me a quaalude and asked me if I wanted to f***,” she testified. “… He’s a yeller, he is verbally abusive. And those things you can see.”
During his libel case in the U.K., Depp claimed that Barkin had held a grudge for breaking off their relationship.
“She wanted more than a relationship, she wanted a proper relationship with me and I did not want that,” he told London’s High Court. “I didn’t feel the same about her as she did me and I suppose from that moment on she became very, very angry and since then I have not spoken to Ms. Barkin.”
He did not address Barkin’s claims during the Heard trial.
A jury awarded Depp $15 million after finding that Heard had in fact defamed him in an op-ed for the Washington Post, in which she claimed to be the victim of abuse. Heard was awarded $2 million in damages. She is currently appealing the verdict.
