Johnny Depp’s career was already in decline before the domestic abuse allegations

Johnny Depp’s career and finances were already in decline before Amber Heard’s domestic violence charges in 2018, witnesses in the actor’s defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife said on Thursday.

Johnny Depp “became the biggest movie star in the world” before “his star withered” from drugs and alcohol, said Tracey Jacobs, who was his agent for 30 years, before she was fired in October 2016.

“It became much more complicated” because of “his unprofessional attitude,” he said in prerecorded testimony broadcast at the Fairfax courthouse near Washington.

“I was constantly late for almost every movie” he was doing, he explained.

“Teams don’t like to wait hours for the star of the movie to show up and word gets out…that made people resistant to using it,” the agent said.

According to her, his drug and alcohol use also made him angrier and hindered him in his acting work. He regularly used a headset to have someone whisper his lines to him, Ms. Jacobs noted. She claimed never to have witnessed violent acts by the actor.

Episode 5 of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” saga, filmed in 2015 in Australia, had been interrupted for several weeks, because Johnny Depp had been hospitalized for having amputated a finger during an argument with his wife that had degenerated into an assault. particularly sordid sexual. .

The actor claims to have been injured by a bottle thrown by his wife, which she strongly denies.

Johnny Depp accuses Amber Heard of ruining her reputation and her career in ayant affirmed in a tribune published in 2018 by the Washington Post that she avait rose des conjugal violences deux ans plus tôt, alors qu’ils étaient mariés, sans toutefois citer your name.

He assures that these accusations have pushed the Disney studios to strip him of the role of the famous Captain Jack Sparrow for the sixth work of “Pirates” that he was going to convert.

But, Tracey Jacobs noted, “no one had committed to him getting the part.”

By 2016, “his star had faded and it was getting harder and harder to find roles for him because of his reputation,” he said.

The year before, he had received $25 million for filming “Pirates 5,” but only $5 million for “Murder on the Orient Express,” released in 2017, he said.

However, Johnny Depp continued to live with great expenses, said his former wealth manager Joel Mandel, who accompanied him since 1999 before being fired in 2016.

According to him, Johnny Depp earned around $600 million during that time.

But starting in 2010, Johnny Depp’s career was stumbled by “several sequels that didn’t work out,” he explained in his prerecorded testimony.

In 2015, he was “extremely concerned” about the actor’s financial situation. “Over time it became clear that there were problems with alcohol and drugs,” he said. “That was translating into a more erratic attitude.”

Treatment for his drug addiction cost $100,000 a month and he paid his full-time staff $300,000 a month, he said.

Deliberations will continue until May 27, after which the seven jurors will retire to deliberate.

The two actors began an affair in October 2011 before marrying in February 2015. Amber Heard, 36, filed for divorce in May 2016, accusing her husband of domestic violence. She had dropped the charges before she finalized the divorce in early 2017.

Johnny Depp, who claims to have never raised his hand to a woman, has already lost a first defamation lawsuit in London in 2020, against the British tabloid The Sun, which had called him a “violent husband”.