Johnny Depp says he called Warner Bros. to curb 'their worries' after Amber Heard's 'Aquaman' audition
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Kirsten Acuna
May 26, 2022, 07:50 IST
Johnny Depp is seen on the stand during his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia on May 25, 2022.REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool
Johnny Depp said his ex-wife, Amber Heard, asked him to reach out to Warner Bros. about "Aquaman."
Depp said he "painted a beautiful picture" of Heard to WB execs to curb "worries" about casting her.
"For a few years, I had had a multi-film deal with Warner Bros., and so we'd been in business together. So, I knew these people. I'd been on films with them," Depp said Wednesday of his relationship with the studio, adding that Heard "asked me if I would speak to them."
"I was informed by Ms. Heard that the film was going to be shooting in Australia and that was of concern to her,"he said when asked what happened after Heard's audition for 2018's "Aquaman."
Depp said he made a phone call to three Warner Bros.' film executives, including former chairman and CEO of WB entertainment Kevin Tsujihara, former president of marketing Sue Kroll, and former president of creative development Greg Silverman, in which he "painted a beautiful picture" of Heard for them.
When asked the result of speaking with the studio heads, Depp said, "I can only say that ultimately she did get the job in the film. So hopefully, I suppose, I had curbed their worries to some degree."
"I saw it. I saw the emails. I saw the texts," Heard said without further clarification.
On Wednesday, Depp was asked on the stand if he tried to get Heard "fired" from "Aquaman," to which the actor repeatedly responded, "No."
Depp texted his sister in 2016 about wanting Heard removed from a WB film, expressing concern over the 'Fantastic Beasts' and DC franchises
Later during the trial on Wednesday, Depp was shown a text message — dated June 4, 2016 — that he apparently sent to his sister Christi Dembrowski. The text, shown in court, read: "I want her replaced on that WB film!!!"
Depp confirmed that the text was about Heard, but was not asked to confirm which WB film he was referencing.
When asked what he was trying to convey in the text message, Depp started to explain, "Warner Bros.' was about to find, they were about to find themselves in quite a dilemma as the person they had just cast —"
Depp was cut off and the question was rephrased. The actor was then asked to explain the text to his sister without expressing what the studio may have felt.
"Honestly, I felt responsibility for having gone to those people and painted such a beautiful picture," Depp said. "I felt it was my responsibility to get the truth to Warner Bros. about what they were going to end up facing down the line, which was two franchises that would be causing problems for one another."
Depp said any bad press that came out about him at that time "was a non-stop fire" that could potentially impact the projects in a negative way.
At the time, as Heard was in the DC franchise, Depp was in Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter" prequel series, "Fantastic Beasts." In November 2020, Depp wrote in a typed letter shared on Instagram that he was asked to resign from his role as the franchise's villain, Grindelwald.
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Depp said WB was getting 'quite upset' over his bad press
While on the stand, Depp shared even more insights into how the studio felt over negative headlines about his relationship with Heard in the press.
"Warner Bros. was starting to get quite upset about some of the things that were being said about me in the press that were constant, constant, constant hit pieces," Depp said.
In 2018, Rolling Stone published a feature, "The Trouble With Johnny Depp," on the actor's marriage "gone very wrong" and a lavish lifestyle he couldn't afford. A 2018 article in the UK's The Sun described Depp as a "wife-beater." Depp was asked about the latter on the stand.
"On one level, yes, it's just acting. It's just movies, but it's business and it's your word," he added. "And I had given my word to them and I felt responsible that I had to tell them exactly what was going on and that it was gonna end up ugly."
"Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" will now debut in theaters on March 17, 2023. The first film grossed over $1 billion at the box office, becoming one of DC's best-performing movies for the studio.
"The size of the role in the film that she had was determined in the early development of the script, which would be in 2018," Hamada said. "The character's involvement in the story was sort of what it was from the beginning."
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