The Demonization of Amber Heard

On April 11, the trial in a defamation lawsuit between actress Amber Heard and actor Johnny Depp began in Virginia. The case is the result of a 2018 Washington Post opinion piece in which Heard identified herself as a survivor of domestic abuse. Although the piece does not name Depp, he leveled Heard with a $50 million defamation suit in 2019. Heard countersued Depp for $100 million in 2021, and the result has been a trial broadcast widely across television and the internet.

With the trial now in its final week, the world has watched as Heard’s legal team presented the court with numerous photos of the actress’s bruised face and lips, clumps of her hair ripped from her scalp, and alleged threats that Depp made against her, including threatening to kill her before pinning her down on a countertop and penetrating her with a liquor bottle. Heard’s team presented evidence that Depp wrote threatening messages to Heard on a wall, using his own blood, and texted that he wished Heard’s “rotting corpse was decomposing in the fucking trunk of a Honda Civic.”

Depp’s team, on the other hand, has attempted to diagnose Heard with a supposed histrionic personality disorder and has presented evidence that Heard has done wrong as well. Recordings presented in the trial revealed Heard’s propensity for mocking and belittling Depp; in one 2016 recording, she states, “Tell the world, Johnny. Tell them, ‘I, Johnny Depp, a man, a victim, too, of domestic violence.’” She also admitted that she had screamed at and hit Depp, and was questioned about previously having been arrested for domestic violence while with ex-partner Tasya Van Ree (although Van Ree has already come forward to state that the incident between herself and Heard was misrepresented).

And how has the public responded? Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are teeming with content that paints Depp as a loveable hero caught in the throes of an ex’s attempt to damage his career and accrue money. Depp stans are treating the trial like a fan convention, rushing his car upon his arrival to the court. They often refer to him lovingly as “Captain Jack,” sell merch based on his presumed innocence, and compile cutesy compilations of his courtroom reactions as though the trial were a sitcom.

As Heard continues to lay bare her experiences in court, the general public appears to hate her for it. Her emotional turmoil has become the subject of fodder for disparaging jokes and memes and even street art. Heard is dismissed as a liar, a gold-digging actress, and an abusive monster.

Try it yourself: search either “Depp” or “Heard” on TikTok, and you’ll find just as many videos romanticizing and aggrandizing Depp as there are videos and comments bashing and discrediting Heard. For instance, it wasn’t long after a clip of Heard wiping her nose while on the stand began circulating that Depp supporters began theorizing that she was doing cocaine in front of a crowded courtroom.

But the most overwhelming response to the trial has been victim blaming. Plenty of the content discrediting Heard as a survivor describes her emotional responses in court as nothing more than calculated acting. For instance, when footage was shown in court depicting a drunken Depp hurling a wine bottle at Heard, Depp supporters blamed Heard for having manipulated Depp into acting out. They ponder why she was recording him at all and ask why she married him in the first place if she was so unhappy.

Throughout the trial, Heard has described her relationship with Depp as an abusive one. For example, she articulated the dichotomy of experiencing Depp as a kind partner while sober but a violent enemy while under the influence. “Johnny on speed is very different from Johnny on opiates. Johnny on opiates is very different from Adderall and cocaine Johnny, which is very different from quaaludes Johnny," she stated. She detailed the occasions on which Depp tried to discourage her from taking acting jobs, assuring her that he’d take care of her, before openly criticizing her for considering roles that involved kissing and sex scenes and scant costuming. It’s relevant, here, how much more famous, influential, lauded, and revered Depp was (and increasingly is again) as an actor — he had more professional power. This is likely why, though the couple began dating in 2012, Heard said she didn’t start pushing back on Depp’s demands until 2014.

This trial continues to provide real-time examples of how easily victims can be painted as being complicit in or responsible for their own abuse — if they’re not lying about the abuse altogether. It’s as if the idea of a woman suffering abuse always feels automatically far-fetched and the idea a woman would fabricate claims of abuse for her own financial gain is a reasonable one. This trial has afforded those who react to claims of abuse with reflexive dubiousness the space to do so in an increasingly public forum. The echo chamber that has been created allows them to voice their blatant contempt for Heard, and have it perceived as concern for Depp, whom they’ve pegged as being this trial’s only victim.

In the Washington Post piece that launched this trial, Heard stated that she felt “the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out” after divorcing Depp. This trial is just another reinforcement that the credibility of victims will always be weighed against how beloved their abusers are.