Johnny Depp’s former Hollywood agent has claimed he was dropped from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise because of domestic abuse allegations made by Amber Heard.
Johnny and Amber’s former agent Christian Carino, who works for Creative Arts Agency, said in a videotaped deposition: “My opinion is that it was related to the accusations that Amber has made.”
Mr. Carino said it was never explicitly stated by Disney that Johnny was being dropped from the Pirates franchise because of Amber’s abuse allegations, but it was “understood.”
Johnny, who testified earlier on his own behalf, blamed Amber’s accusations for the loss of his lucrative role in Pirates of the Caribbean as Captain Jack Sparrow.
Johnny launched a $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife in 2019, after she wrote about being an alleged victim of domestic violence in an op-ed for the Washington Post in December 2018.
While his name was excluded from the piece, Johnny’s legal team have argued that the op-ed implied that he “perpetrated domestic violence against her.”
Amber has countersued Johnny, asking for $100 million and claiming she suffered “rampant physical violence and abuse” at his hands.
Back in November 2020, Johnny lost his highly publicised UK libel lawsuit case against British tabloid The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater.”
The court upheld that the tabloid’s claims were “substantially true,” and Amber testified to back up the claims.
In March 2021, his attempt to overturn the decision was overruled.
However, in this case, he is suing Amber directly.
The former couple are currently squaring off at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia, and the trial is expected to last until late May.
Mr. Carino was also asked about Amber’s relationship with billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, that followed her divorce from Johnny.
Johnny’s lawyers read out August 2017 text messages between Mr. Carino and Amber.
In a message to Mr. Carino, Amber wrote about her breakup with Elon Musk: “Dealing with breakup. I hate when things go public. See, I’m so sad.”
Mr. Carino replied: “You weren’t in love with him and you told me 1,000 times you were just filling space. Why would you be sad if you weren’t in love with him to begin with?”
Amber replied: “I know but I wanted time to grieve and recover in my own time.”
When asked if Amber was referring to Johnny or Elon in that statement, Mr. Carino said: “I don’t know.”
Mr. Carino also provided Amber with some advice: “You could avoid all this if you stopped dating uber-famous people. You can be with a big man who isn’t famous.”
Testifying last week, Johnny said the allegations that he was a “drunken, cocaine-fueled menace who beat women” have cost him “everything.”
He denied ever physically abusing Amber and claimed that she was the one who was frequently violent.
Johnny and Amber met in 2009 on the set of the filmThe Rum Diary and were married in February 2015.
Their divorce was finalised two years later.
