Amber Heard Was Asked About Taunting Johnny Depp On Tape & She Said It Was An 'Excerpt'
A jury found that Amber Heard defamed Johnny Depp, but the actress says she has no plans to backtrack on what she said about him in court.
Heard doubled down on her accusations that Depp abused her and deflected questions about her on-tape statements to him, while speaking to NBC's Savannah Guthrie.
"To my dying day, (I) will stand by every word of my testimony," Heard said in a newly-released clip from the interview, which NBC unveiled on Tuesday. The clip is from a 60-minute sit-down interview that's slated to run Friday, as Heard begins to open up about the defamation trial.
The jury sided with Depp and awarded him $15 million in damages for defamation on June 1, after the former married couple accused one another of abuse over the course of the six-week trial. Heard also got $2 million in damages for convincing the jury of part of her case, but that was well short of the $100 million she wanted.
In the new clip, Guthrie challenged Heard on a bit of her testimony by reading out a tape transcript where she told Depp: "I did start a physical fight. I can't promise you I won't get physical again."
"You're telling me today, 'I never started a physical fight,' and here you are on tape saying you did," Guthrie said.
Heard defended herself by saying that in an abusive relationship, "you take the blame for things that you shouldn't take the blame for." She then added that things are "anything" but black and white when you're living it.
Heard has accused Depp of physically abusing her many times, although he has denied ever striking her.
Heard was also grilled about one of the most viral audio clips played in court, in which she can be heard taunting Depp and daring him to tell people that he's been abused. The clip became especially popular among Depp's supporters.
"Tell the world, Johnny. Tell them, I, Johnny Depp, I'm a victim of domestic abuse," Heard said in the recording played in court. "And see how many people believe or side with you."
Heard said that was a 20-second clip that wasn't "representative" of the two-to-three-hour fight that it was excerpted from.
Later in the interview, Heard shot down claims from Depp's side that she gave "the performance of a lifetime" in court.
"Says the lawyer for the man who convinced the world he had scissors for fingers?" she said, taking a shot at Depp's Edward Scissorhands role.
Heard also defended her Washington Post op-ed that triggered Depp's lawsuit in the first place, saying that it was protected free speech.
"The First Amendment protects free speech," Guthrie pointed out. "It doesn't protect lies that amount to defamation, and that was the issue in the case."
Heard responded by echoing a line from her op-ed. "That's all I spoke," she said. "And I spoke it to power. And I paid the price."
A spokesperson for the actress told Narcity that Heard did the interview to express her "thoughts and feelings, much of which she was not allowed to do on the witness stand."
