Amber Heard Says Her ‘Goal’ Is To Have People See Her ‘As A Human Being’

Actress Amber Heard spoke with TODAY co-host Savannah Guthrie again on Friday night on a Dateline special on NBC.

Heard had previously been sued by her ex-husband, actor Johnny Depp, for $50 million dollars over an op-ed she published in the Washington Post in 2018. In the op-ed, she declared herself a survivor of domestic violence but did not mention Depp by name. However, he claimed that he lost out on movie roles and her accusations ruined his reputation, which led to the lawsuit.

Exclusive Amber Heard  Dateline Interview Aired On Friday Night

Heard countersued for $100 million dollars, claiming that she also lost out on movie roles after one of Depp’s attorneys called her abuse allegations a “hoax.” The trial played out for most of May in a courtroom in Fairfax, Virginia. On June 1, a seven-person jury sided with the “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor and found that defamation had occurred in her op-ed and awarded Depp $15 million dollars: $10 million dollars in compensatory damages and $5 million dollars in punitive damages.

The $5 million dollars was later reduced to $350,000 dollars, the maximum allowed under Virginia state law. Heard was only awarded $2 million dollars for her countersuit.

Although one male member of the jury has since broken his silence and revealed that he and other members of the jury did not find Heard “believable,” the “Aquaman” actress insists that Depp was, in fact, abusive towards her.

Depp, who recently joined TikTok, has not given a public comment on the NBC interviews that Heard has participated in throughout the week.

A spokesperson for Depp told NBC, “It’s unfortunate that the defendant and her team are back to repeating and reimagining and re-litigating matters that have already been decided by the court.”

Before Friday night’s interview, a spokesperson for Amber Heard told The Blast that “If Mr. Depp or his team have a problem with this, we recommend that Johnny himself sit down with Savannah Gutherie for an hour and answer all her questions.”

Most of the Dateline special contained excerpts from the interviews already shown throughout the week, with news clips of the trial sprinkled in to fill in the gaps and provide more context to Heard’s statements.

Heard shared what she learned in the trial, saying, “What I learned in that trial is that it is never going to be good enough.”

“If you have proof, then it was a scheme. It was a hoax,” she continued. “If you don’t have proof, it didn’t happen. If you have a bruise, it’s fake. If you don’t have a bruise, then violence clearly didn’t hurt you. If you told people, then you’re hysterical. If you didn’t tell anyone, it didn’t happen.”

The “Zombieland” actress seemed to double down on statements that she made shortly after the verdict was announced, denouncing it as a “setback” for women.

Heard told Guthrie that she hopes the jury verdict won’t have “the chilling effect it may have on other people.”

“I worry about that,” she said, adding, “But if I can look you in the eye, Savannah, and say, ‘I’m still here,’ and maybe that serves to balance out some of the very, very real fear others may have about coming forward or speaking out.”

Heard maintained that she told the truth about her abuse allegations and would “stand by every word of my testimony to my dying day.”

Heard also said that she was not “vindictive” by participating in the interview and did not want others to see her as such.