Video Captures Contrast Between How Amber Heard & Johnny Depp Are Treated By Crowds Outside Court
Nobody should be treated that way.
Shutterstock / Matteo Chinellato Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s defamation suit has become one of the most high-profile legal disputes involving two public figures.
Yet, recently fans have taken the spotlight once again as the defamation trial continues.
Fans have flocked to the Virginia courthouse where the trial is taking place, creating a spectacle out of the trial.
Videos outside the court show crowds cheering Johnny Depp while heckling Amber Heard.
New footage released on May 17 via Twitter by legal correspondent, Chanley Shá Painter, reveals a mob of spectators waiting outside the courthouse for the two stars to leave for the day.
The first video shows fans screaming and shouting words of encouragement to Depp. Some also had handwritten signs waving around as he drove away in his tinted window vehicle.
Depp rolls his window down in the clip to wave and smile at the crowd, whose cries intensify as he drives by.
On the other hand, the video footage of Heard’s exit from the Virginia courthouse was unpleasant.
Heard was hidden in the car, but unlike Depp, she doesn’t wave to the large crowd as she drives by. The group, clearly aware of who is in the vehicle, begins to throw words of verbal abuse at her.
You can hear audience members calling her a “gold digger” and a “liar.” Another fan shouted, “Where’s the money?”
The video cuts to another clip of a vehicle driving out a different gate further down the road at the end of the footage.
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Presumed to be the car with Heard inside, it seemed that those in the vehicle were attempting to avoid the vocal mob. As the car pulls away from the courthouse, viewers can hear the audience booing.
The clips surfaced the same day that Heard testified about the harassment she experienced from Depp’s followers after claiming that Depp was “verbally and physically abusive” in 2016.
Amber Heard has spoken about the impacts of being crucified by the public.
On May 16, Heard testified that she faced harsh and bitter criticism from members of the media and Depp supporters after speaking out about his alleged abuse, claiming she had to “fight” for her career.
“It was hard for me to work. I was harassed. I am harassed on a daily basis, death threats,” she said.
“At the time, I thought it couldn’t be worse. Obviously now, from where I sit today, I know it gets a lot, a lot worse.”
While both actors have filed domestic abuse claims against one another, there is “compelling evidence that there was violence on both sides of this marriage,” according to Vox.
One of the most bizarre aspects of this case has been the outpouring of online support for Depp. People publicly profess their support for the actor and their certainty that Heard is a liar on multiple social media outlets such as Reddit, Twitter, and TikTok.
These sites have overwhelmingly backed Depp, with hashtags like ‘JusticeForJohnnyDepp” racking up nearly 3 billion views on TikTok.
Even Mel Magazine points out that if you read any of those posts, “you’d think Heard was on trial for a slew of violent crimes against Depp, not being sued over a newspaper column.”
There will always be different sides in situations like these, but to go to such lengths to dehumanize and harass a person takes things a tad too far.
It seems clear that the narrative of where this lawsuit originates has been long forgotten or altered.
Ashley Darkwa-Anto is a writer at YourTango who covers News & Entertainment.