This week, key Hollywood executives were asked to testify about the ongoing legal battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The couple split after less than a year of marriage in in 2016, with Heard requested a restraining order and accusing Depp of domestic violence, later providing what she says is photographic evidence of the abuse. Depp has vehemently denied any abuse allegations.
Later, Heard wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post that going public about the alleged abuse prompted Depp to attempt to blacklist her from her current projects, and now THR reports former Warner Bros. chairman Kevin Tsujihara has been asked to testify under oath about whether or not he aided in "blacklisting" Heard at Warner Bros. Depp allegedly pushed for Heard's firing from Aquaman and attempted to stem any further projects with the company down the line.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
"Jake Bloom and Bloom Hergott, being sued for over $60 million for gross breaches of their fiduciary duties including improperly swiping Johnny Depp’s back end film rights, desperately tried yesterday to join hands with others being sued for abusing Mr. Depp with media clickbait allegations of 'blacklisting' efforts," Depp's lawyer Adam Waldman told Refinery29 in a statement. "Grotesquely, it is the opposite of their assertion that is objectively true: according to the New York Post, 'senior executives at Warner Bros.,' who are the company's #Metoo leadership and personally close with Amber Heard, claimed a week ago Warner Bros. will throw Johnny Depp off the Fantastic Beasts franchise in which he stars because of Ms. Heard’s unambiguously disproven abuse hoax. One week later, Warner Bros has notably failed to make any statement correcting this news report. Ms. Heard continues to enjoy the public support of powerful institutions like L'Oréal, ACLU, the UN and the media despite the unambiguous evidence of her hoax and her documented history of violence. Will Warner Bros stand with real abuse victims or with hoaxsters who are chummy with their executives?"
Heard remained in her Aquaman role, but detailed other ways she was punished in the Washington Post op-ed.
“Friends and advisers told me I would never again work as an actress — that I would be blacklisted," she wrote. "A movie I was attached to recast my role. I had just shot a two-year campaign as the face of a global fashion brand, and the company dropped me. Questions arose as to whether I would be able to keep my role of Mera in the movies Justice League and Aquaman."
The op-ed does not name Depp, but he retaliated with a $50 million defamation lawsuit, his lawyers claiming the piece “depended on the central premise that Ms. Heard was a domestic abuse victim and that Mr. Depp perpetrated domestic violence against her" and that it was that "part of an elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity for Ms. Heard and advance her career."
Reps for Heard did not immediately respond to Refinery29's request for comment.