Amber Heard says she doesn't want to be 'crucified' after Johnny Depp lawsuit

01 July 2023 , 08:31

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Amber Heard has opened up about the legal trial (Image: GETTY)

Amber Heard has insisted she just wants to be "appreciated as an actress", instead of being "crucified" for her explosive defamation trial against her ex-husband Johnny Depp.

The 37-year-old Aquaman star was sued last year by 60-year-old Johnny for defamation following a 2018 article Amber wrote for the Washington Post.

Johnny's lawyers said the article accused him of being an abuser, despite the Pirates of the Caribbean star not being named.

A jury returned a verdict in Johnny's favour and Amber's insurance company was ordered to pay $1million (£795,000) to her ex-husband.

She's now opened up about the trial and how it has impacted her career.

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"I just want to make movies and be appreciated, as an actress. I don't want to have to be crucified to be appreciated as one," she said in a new interview.

Amber Heard said she doesn't want to be 'crucified' (FABIO CAIA/REX/Shutterstock)

The actress said one of the big things she had to learn following the defamation lawsuit was that she is "not in control of stories people create around me".

She said she hopes to "appreciate [that] as a blessing further down the line and said she prefers not to have "stones thrown at me so much".

Speaking to Deadline about her new film In The Fire, Amber added: "I'm not telling you I have this amazing film career, but what I have is something that I've made, myself, and it has given me a lot to be able to contribute.

A jury returned a verdict in favour of her ex-husband (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

"The odds of that in this industry are really improbably but somehow, here I am. I think I've earned respect for that to be its own thing."

She also noted how the things she has "lived through" shouldn't define her and certainly aren't "gonna stop my career."

Following her explosive defamation trial with Johnny, Amber has kept a relatively low profile and moved to Spain with her young daughter.

Her first film since the trial is set in 1899 and follows a 38-year-old American psychiatrist who is called to solve the case of a disturbed child in Columbia after severe accusations that the child is in fact the Devil.

Scarlett O'Toole