Johnny Depp Reflects on Legal Battles: ‘I Was a Crash Test Dummy for #MeToo’ and Has ‘No Regrets’

Johnny Depp has spoken out again about the legal battles that shaped much of his recent public life. In a new interview with The Sunday Times, he reflected on the accusations brought against him by his ex-wife Amber Heard and how they turned into years of court fights, intense media attention, and personal struggle.

He called himself a “crash test dummy for #MeToo”, referring to how the accusations against him were received when they first surfaced back in 2016. That was when Heard accused him of domestic abuse during their divorce. Those claims would later spark two major court cases—one in the U.K. and another in the U.S.—both of which became widely discussed events online and in the press.

Depp first went to court in the U.K. in 2020 after suing The Sun for calling him a “wife beater.” That case didn’t go in his favor, and the court ruled that the description was “substantially true.” Following the verdict, Depp said Warner Bros. asked him to step down from his role in the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise, which he did.

Things escalated with a second lawsuit in the U.S., where Depp sued Heard for defamation in 2019 after she published an op-ed in The Washington Post calling herself a survivor of abuse. That case went to trial in 2022 and was streamed live online.

The trial revealed a lot of disturbing details from their relationship and drew millions of viewers. In the end, the jury found that Heard had defamed Depp, but also said Depp had defamed Heard in his response.

Speaking about that trial, Depp said he wasn’t nervous the night before it began. “Look, it had gone far enough,” he said. “I knew I’d have to semi-eviscerate myself. Everyone was saying, ‘It’ll go away!’ But I can’t trust that. What will go away? The fiction pawned around the f—–g globe? No it won’t. If I don’t try to represent the truth it will be like I’ve actually committed the acts I am accused of.”

He added that he had to fight for the sake of his children and others who looked up to him. “So the night before the trial in Virginia I didn’t feel nervous. If you don’t have to memorize lines, if you’re just speaking the truth? Roll the dice.”

Depp also talked about how he got through the constant criticism and pressure. “Look, none of this was going be easy, but I didn’t care. I thought, ‘I’ll fight until the bitter f—–g end.’ And if I end up pumping gas? That’s all right. I’ve done that before.”

Now, Depp seems to be making his way back into the film world. He’s directing a new movie, Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness, and has also signed on to act in Day Drinker, a Lionsgate action-comedy with his Blow co-star Penelope Cruz. That film is planned to hit theaters in 2026.

When asked about how he feels looking back on everything, Depp said, “I have no regrets about anything, because, truly, what can we do about last week’s dinner? Not a f—–g thing.”

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