Like many, in the last month or so I have heard, seen and read so much about the defamation court case that has been going on between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. For those not familiar, Depp and Heard were married from 2015-2017 and then in 2018 Heard wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post that claimed she had endured sexual violence in the past. Depp’s name was never mentioned in the article but because of their marriage, the public treated him differently.
Depp also felt he saw a decline in the amount of acting roles he got after the article was published and he even got fired from one of his most well known series: The Pirates of the Caribbean. This led to him filing the defamation case against Heard. As an actor, the thing that makes the most money is your reputation and he said he felt Heard had damaged his reputation when she decided to publish the article.
Personally, I think as a celebrity it is very important what opinions you put out into the world. For a long time sexual assault and violence was a touchy subject and it was hard to speak out about it like Heard suggested. It is important for women to have a voice and there is no way to know what really happened between Depp and Heard behind closed doors. However, I still appreciate she was willing to write an opinion piece advocating for women like she did.
That being said, everything I saw about this case seemed like a huge publicity stunt for some parties. Like I stated before, a celebrity’s reputation means everything and I think Heard’s reputation took a huge hit because of this case. There were so many ridiculous moments it seemed because of the questions that Heard’s lawyers would ask. Plus, to have their lives so openly discussed, I think many people would feel embarrassed if they had their lives on display like that.
It seemed like every time I went on Instagram or Tik Tok, every other post was a snippet of the witness from that particular day, someone explaining what happened and what it meant or a meme of Heard crying on the stand. But yet I was relieved to see this last week they had finally reached a verdict and I would be able to see more of my normal feed on social media. The jury ruled unanimously in favor of Depp and he will receive $50 million in damages, which seems like an insane number, but maybe makes sense compared to all the jobs he lost because of the article.
While watching cases like this unfold can be entertaining, it’s also important to pay attention to other breaking events that happen too. I think it’s common that people get distracted by the happenings of celebrities and forget to see the state of the world around them sometimes.
