Introduction to Amber Heard’s New Role
Amber Heard has won her first acting role since her former husband Johnny Depp won a high-profile defamation lawsuit against her. The 39-year-old Texas-born actress is part of the ensemble cast for "Spirit of the People," a new play by Jeremy O. Harris, which will premiere at the Williamstown Theater Festival in July.
About the Play
The lineup also includes Jahava from "13 Reasons Why." According to the official description, "Spirit of the People" "confronts unpleasant truths about land and what it means to destroy it." Playwright Harris told Variety about his new project: "I wanted to challenge myself. The piece is half in Spanish and I don’t speak Spanish. The piece has a significant level of prose in it. I am not a prosistic clerk. I try many different things."
Amber Heard’s Recent Projects
The latest screen credits from Heard are 2023’s "In the Fire" and "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," although both projects were filmed in 2022 before the legal proceedings were broadcast on television. Heard and Depp divorced in 2017. She had filed for divorce proceedings a year earlier, citing irreconcilable differences and claimed domestic abuse.
The Defamation Lawsuit
Depp then brought a defamation lawsuit against the British newspaper "The Sun" about her description of him as a "wife-beater," which he lost. However, in 2022, he won a lawsuit of several million dollars against Heard after a jury found that an article she wrote in "The Washington Post" in 2018 was defamatory. The piece had been titled: "I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change."
Johnny Depp’s Recent Statements
Depp was not mentioned by name in the article, but his lawyers argued that it incorrectly implied that he was physically and sexually abusive while they were together. After six weeks of testimony and about 13 hours of deliberations, the jurors returned a verdict in favor of Depp. At the beginning of this week, Depp said there were three people in particular who made him "dirty" during the process. "As strange as I am, certain things can trust," the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star told The Sunday Times. "And my loyalty is the last thing everyone could question."
Depp’s Loyalty and Betrayal
Depp’s former agent, Tracey Jacobs, claimed during the trial that some studios had become "reluctant" to work with Depp because of his tardiness on set. The actor denied this. When talking about the "three people" who hurt him, Depp explained: "I will tell you what hurts. There are people and I think of three who made me dirty. These people were at my children’s parties. I put them in the air." The Edward Scissorhands star has not specially named anyone. The court proceedings became a point of dispute in Hollywood, with several prominent parties weighing in.
