Johnny Depp was set to earn an impressive $22.5million for his role in the sixth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise before being dropped from the film following allegations of domestic violence. 

The actor’s agent Jack Whigham testified in Depp’s defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard Monday, telling the court the actress’s 2018 op-ed was ‘catastrophic’ for his career. 

Whigham noted that Heard’s piece, published in the Washington Post in December 2018, was ‘rather shocking because it was the first time I’d heard an allegation of sexual abuse.’ 

Depp, 58, is suing Heard for $50million, claiming she defamed him and destroyed his career after she wrote about being a survivor of domestic violence in the piece. 

The article did not mention Depp by name, but his lawyers say it was clear Heard, 36, was referencing the Hollywood leading man. 

Testifying live via video link, Whigham described the negative impact and damage the piece had on Depp’s reputation as a Hollywood star.

‘With respect to Johnny, it was catastrophic because it was coming from a first person account, it was not from a journalist, not someone observing, it was from someone saying this happened to me,’ the agent said.

In the two years after the op-ed was publication, between December 2018 and October 2020, Depp appeared in ‘zero’ studio films, Whigham told the court.

He said the actor scored a $22.5million deal with Disney to reprise his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean 6 but in 2019 learned the studio would not be casting him in the new installment.  

Disney instead decided it was going in a ‘different direction’, Whigham said, and was looking to develop a ‘Pirates project’ for actress Margot Robbie instead of featuring Depp. The movie is yet to be made.

Whigham noted that even when Depp was cast in the independent drama, Minimata, the movie struggled after the article came out.

Whigham said: ‘The op-ed came out in December right as we were going on Christmas break. 

‘Minimata was supposed to start (shooting) in January. It was very, very difficult to keep Minimata together.

‘The financing became shaky, Johnny’s fee came down in order to save the movie,’ the agent added. 

Whigham said after the op-ed ‘it was impossible to get him a studio film which is what we would have normally been focused on.’

During Whigham’s testimony the court heard about how much Depp earned for other movies.

For City of Lies, the 2018 movie about the investigations into the deaths of rappers Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur, Depp earned $8million.

Depp was paid $10million for the 2017 murder mystery Murder on the Orient Express.

For Fantastic Beasts 2 – Crimes of Grindelwald, the spin-off from the Harry Potter films which came out in 2018 and starred Depp in the lead role as Gellert Grindelwald, he was paid $13.5million.

Depp earned $3.5million for the 2018 comedy drama The Professor and $1million for Waiting for the Barbarians, the 2019 adaptation of the J. M. Coetzee novel.

Depp earned $3million for Minimata, which came out in 2020, Whigham told the court.

That means Depp earned a total of $38million between 2017 and 2020 for his acting.

During cross-examination, Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft questioned Whigham’s claims that the lucrative contract between Depp and Disney for the new film was a done deal. 

‘Do you have an explanation why there is not even a piece of paper … nothing that suggested Mr. Depp is going to be in Pirates 6 as Jack Sparrow?’ she asked.   

Whigham replied: ‘We would work on many deals where you wouldn’t see a contract, they would be a verbal agreement.’ 

The latest testimony helps support Depp’s claims that his long-running career in Hollywood suffered as a result of Heard’s op-ed. 

Richard Marks, an entertainment lawyer who has worked in Hollywood for decades, also told the jury about his assessment of the impact of Heard’s op-ed on Depp’s career.

Marks, testifying as an expert in the entertainment industry, said: ‘The op-ed damaged Mr. Depp, created a cancel situation if you will, harmed his reputation and ability to get work in the Hollywood industry’

Marks said that studios ‘wouldn’t want to hire an actor who has negativity following them, you wouldn’t want to pay to bring your brand down’.

He said: ‘That’s very important and especially in the last five years of MeToo movement, you wouldn’t want negativity, hiring an actor who ‘had been canceled’.

Asked what in particular might stop an actor getting hired, he said: ‘We’re talking illegal activity, criminal record but right now the pinnacle of negativity in Hollywood is being accused of domestic abuse, domestic violence. 

‘We’ve seen, almost immediately, terminations and cancelations for the investors to move away from that negativity’.

Marks said that the op-ed was so impactful because it was in the Washington Post, which he called a ‘flagship journal of American news’.

He said: ‘We’re not talking about a trade paper. It is geared to Hollywood. It says two years ago when I was getting my divorce, Amber Heard is saying, I was abused, Hollywood stood up for my abuser, not me the victim. Hollywood got the subject matter of the op-ed loud and clear

‘Amber Heard was calling out Hollywood for supporting since 2016 her abuser and she felt the wrath of Hollywood. She was calling them out to do something and on the eve of her biggest film, a big film for Hollywood. The publicity machine was in high gear. This was the height of her fame and she used it to call Hollywood out and they heard that plea loud and clear. It also got her publicity for her movie – it wasn’t a coincidence that date. In Hollywood the message was received that she was sending’.

Marks dismissed Depp’s reputation for lateness on sets saying that Hollywood has ‘always had divas like Marilyn Monroe who stay in her trailer for half a day’.

He said that the impact of the op-ed on Depp’s reputation was ‘devastating.’

He said: ‘It’s the type of claim, the MeToo claim, that has canceled a list of actors. Chris Noth recently, Frank Langella, newscasters, Les Moonves, now Johnny Depp is in their ranks. It’s devastating’.

Marks said that the effect of MeToo in Hollywood was that the ‘morals clause’ in actors’ contracts was returning so they could act ‘decisively’ in the event of these kind of allegations.

Marks said that he was working with Kevin Spacey when he was accused of sexual misconduct and he was cut out of a film about the Getty family and the House of Cards series was ‘redone to get rid of the notion Hollywood would support an abuser’.

At one point Depp laughed and jokingly appeared to take offense as negative headlines about him were read out to the court.

The actor snickered as Heard’s lawyer Adam Nadelhaft read out one article which said he had a ‘run of movie flops’.

Asked about the article Marks defended Depp and said: ‘Every actor has ups and downs, Mr Depp has had a career that’s decades long.’

Nadelhaft read out another article which read that ‘Mr Depp is on his way to becoming the most overpaid actor in Hollywood’.

Marks dismissed the piece as being written by a ‘smartypants’.

To another article which said that ‘Johnny Depp has become Hollywood’s biggest joke’, Marks said that ‘Netflix is a joke’.

Depp appeared amused as the headlines were read, flexing his eyebrows as if mulling them over and smiling.

Marks became sarcastic when asked about how the Washington Post op-ed didn’t even name Depp.

He told Nadelhaft: ‘Does she (Heard) have another husband who abused her?’

Asked about the 2020 libel trial in London – where a judge ruled the claim Depp was a wife beater was ‘substantially true’ – Marks issued another dry response.

He said: ‘We thought we got rid of the UK in 1776 but we’re still following it’.

Later in the trial Monday, the court heard from Douglas Bania, an intellectual property analyst who assessed the damage to Depp’s reputation through analyzing online articles written about him.

Bania said that before Heards’s allegations of domestic violence in 2016, the most popular Google search results for Depp were about his career and his characters.

After 2016 the ‘majority of those results turned negative’ and after the op-ed came out in 2018 they focused on not just the allegations but Depp’s drinking and drug use, Bania said.

Bania also looked at Depp’s Q Score, which is a method used to assess how popular public figures and celebrities are.

According to Bania, after Heard made her allegations his positive Q score went down from 35 to 29.

His negative Q score went from 11 to 15, meaning more people disliked him.

Bania said: ‘The public perception of Mr Depp has been damaged.

‘They like him less and they dislike him more.’ 

During the testimony of Erin Falati, Heard’s former nurse, the court was shown texts and nursing notes that gave insight into her mental unrest.

In March 2015, after Heard returned from the incident in Australia, Falati texted Whitney Heard, Heard’s sister, checking if she was OK.

Falati wrote: ‘Thank goodness she must be exhausted. You want me to come to the loft or is she safe and sound asleep?’

Whitney replied: ‘Safe? No she is not, kept saying she wants to kill herself.’ 

In her nursing notes from November that year, Falati wrote that Heard had been ‘experiencing increased anxiety’ with ‘several outbursts of anger and rage’

Falati told the court that she was there to ‘in layman’s terms, calm things down a bit.’ 

She recalled one incident in London in 2014 when Heard was ‘very angry’ because she thought her phone had been hacked.

In a note in her nursing log on December 17, 2015, Falati described how Heard was ‘weepy and sad’ and ‘slouched’ after a row with Depp.

Heard had a ‘visible bright red blood appearing at the center of lower lip’ that was ‘actively bleeding.’ 

The notes stated that Heard’s ‘head is bruised and she lost clumps of hair in altercation’ – she was advised to get it checked out.

In a note in the nursing log from May 26, 2016, after the divorce was filed, Falati said Heard felt it was the ‘hardest’ time of her life and that she ‘can’t deal with the negative publicity.’ 

The court was also shown photos Heard had sent to the nurse days earlier that showed the actress with red marks on her face.

Falati told the court there was reddening of the skin on Heard but said she was not an expert.  

Judge Penney Azcarate called an early end to Monday’s proceedings before Falati could finish her testimony and be questioned by Depp’s lawyers. 

The trial will resume Tuesday morning at 10am.  

Meanwhile, legions of fans have come to Depp’s defense after hearing his testimony last week, with a petition calling for his ex-wife to be axed from upcoming sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom  reaching three million signatures Monday. 

Supporters of the actor are pleading with filmmakers DC and Warner Bros to ditch the actress from the sequel, Aquaman 2, which is due to be released next March.

Heard starred as Mera in the original film in 2018 alongside Jason Momoa and Nicole Kidman.

Critics believe she should suffer the same fate Depp did when he was dropped by Disney in his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the sixth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean – after Heard’s op-ed. 

‘I will not be going to view Aquaman 2 movie if Amber is playing the role,’ one fan tweeted. ‘I love Jason Momoa, I can’t support a project that fires the victim and kept the abuser in their films.’ 

Another said: ‘I don’t care if Amber Heard’s Aquaman 2 screen time is reduced to 10min. I won’t watch it until they reduce it to 0.’

Heard is countersuing for $100million. Up until now she has watched on as the actor has made multiple allegations about her alleged behavior during their tumultuous relationship.

If the petition, which is already rapidly rising, reaches 4,500,000 signatures it will become one of the top signed on Charge.org. 

It states: ‘Amber Heard has been exposed as a domestic abuser by Johnny Depp. 

‘In his lawsuit, Johnny Depp describes many incidents of domestic abuse that he suffered at the hands of his (then) wife Amber Heard, including one incident where she punched him twice in the face and another where she shattered his finger with a vodka bottle, and his finger had to be surgically reattached.  

‘He will bear the scar from that for the rest of his life.’

It continues: ‘Men are victims of domestic abuse, just like women. This must be recognized, and action must be taken to prevent a known abuser from being celebrated within the entertainment industry. 

‘Do the right thing. Remove Amber Heard from Aquaman 2.’ 

The A-list trial in Virginia, started on April 11 and is set to last another three weeks.