Johnny Depp’s lawyers have told the Court of Appeal that the actor did not get a fair trial in his libel lawsuit against the U.K. publication The Sun. For years, Depp ranked as one of the biggest stars and highest-paid actors in Hollywood, thanks to his performance as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and his starring roles in a number of other blockbuster films. However, the actor has sadly fallen from grace in recent years due to a number of controversies, including a public lawsuit.
Since 2016, Depp has been in the midst of a messy legal battle with his ex-wife and Aquaman star Amber Heard. After their divorce, Heard obtained a restraining order against Depp, accusing him of physically and verbally abusing her. In November, Depp lost the libel case against British tabloid The Sun, which referred to him as a “wife-beater” in a 2018 article. After hearing testimonies from both Depp and Heard, Justice Andrew Nicol from the Royal Courts of Justice in London dismissed Depp’s claim, saying that he believed the accusations against Depp in the article to be “substantially true.” The judge found that 12 of the 14 alleged incidents of domestic violence described by the publication did take place, stating that he believed Depp assaulted Heard on multiple occasions, including a time in 2015 that Heard described as a “three-day hostage situation” in Australia.
However, according to The Guardian, in documents filed with the Court of Appeal, Depp’s lawyers claim that the actor did not receive a fair trial. Depp’s lawyers called Nicol’s ruling that Depp assaulted Heard and made her fear for her life “manifestly unsafe” and “plainly wrong,” saying they will ask the court to “set aside the judgment and order a new trial.” Depp’s barrister David Sherborne wrote that Nicol “concluded that the appellant was guilty of serious physical assaults without taking account of or even acknowledging that Ms Heard had been untruthful in her evidence, without testing her account against the documentary evidence and the evidence of other witnesses, and without making any findings that he disbelieved those witnesses.”
Depp’s legal issues and public controversies have led to the actor essentially becoming blacklisted from Hollywood. Shortly after the court ruling in November, Depp announced that he was asked by Warner Bros. to step down from his role as Grindelwald in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts 3. Most recently, Depp was let go from the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Houdini series, in which he was set to portray famous illusionist Harry Houdini. Disney has also reportedly blocked Depp’s return to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, pursuing a Margot Robbie-led reboot instead. A recent in-depth article from THR even reported one studio head calling Depp a liability, saying “you simply can’t work with him now.”
Depp’s legal battles are far from over, as he still suing Heard for defamation over an op-ed piece she wrote for The Washington Post in 2018 and is facing a lawsuit from a crew member who accused Depp of punching him on set on 2018’s City of Lies, which will go to trial in 2021. Now with Depp asking for a new trial in the libel case, it seems that the actor will not have time, nor will be asked to take on many more projects in the near future.
