Topics: Amber Heard, Chris Rock, Hollywood, Johnny Depp, Oscars, Will Smith
Johnny Depp has spoken out again about his brutal defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard.
The year was 2022, and arguably two of the most talked about dramas coming out of Hollywood in recent years took place over a matter of weeks.
On March 27 of that year, Will Smith finally won an elusive Oscar - which many believed he should have landed decades earlier, but it came at a cost.
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The once-beloved actor lost a huge portion of his adoring fanbase after he stormed the stage at the Academy Awards to slap Chris Rock before yelling 'keep my wife's name out your f***ing mouth'.
Weeks later, Hollywood blew up again when Depp took Heard to court for defamation damages, winning all three cases against his former lover - who countersued him.
It all came about in 2018, when Heard wrote an op ed in The Washington Post, titled: "I spoke up against sexual violence - and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change."
The seven-week trial ultimately went in Depp's favor, and jurors gave the Ed Wood star $15 million in compensatory and punitive damages, as per the BBC.
Heard was also given $2 million in compensation after winning one of her three counter-claims against her ex-husband.
The pair married in 2015 before ultimately divorcing just two years later, and with the way everything went down, you'd imagine they probably share a mutual hate for one another.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Depp addressed the matter ahead of his new biopic Modi - which follows the life of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, who Depp also portrays in the film. This is his third directorial feature after 1997's The Brave and 1993's Stuff.
He said: "I can sit here this very second and think about all the hit pieces, and how everybody was against me, and yeah, yeah, yeah, he is off the map… endless stuff.
"I can remember it all. Went through it all. Some of it was not the most beautiful time, some of it was hilarious. Some of it was mad.
"The thing is, it simply just was, and it simply just is. So, for me, it happened. I learned, man. Everything that we experience, whether you’re given a snow cone or walking your dog, you learn something somewhere along the way."
Adding: "So I don’t have any ill feelings toward anyone. I don’t have this great reserve of hatred, because hatred requires caring. Why carry that baggage?"
So, it sounds like The Pirates of the Caribbean actor has moved on - as has Heard, who moved to Spain with her daughter due to public scrutiny.
When asked how, in the midst of everything that was going on in his personal life, he still manages to focus on the authenticity of his films, he said: "Oh yes, of course, it is my responsibility. But it is also helpful in certain instances, especially when things are crumbling all around."
