Johnny Depp Testifies He Never Abused Amber Heard In $50M Trial – Deadline

2nd Update, 1:23 PM: “I tend to be quite expressive in my writing,” a halting Johnny Depp said today on the stand of his $50 million defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.

After previous testimony Tuesday detailing his dysfunctional childhood and rise to international stardom, Depp shifted focus in the Virginia courtroom to the vile texts and other communications that have come out of attacks on his Rum Diary co-star. The actor also addressed his reported deep seated issues with drugs and drinks, laying a lot of the blame on his abusive mother and her “nerve pills”

“It was self-medication,” the former Pirates of the Caribbean star claimed.

With the seven-member jury and Heard herself sitting close-by, Depp explained he started using his mother’s pills at the age of 11 to “take the edge off.” He also claimed that he never took drugs or drank to “party” but to dull “the pain” Citing the “trauma” of his youth, Depp said his “quote, un-quote substance abuse that has been delivered by Ms. Heard is grossly embellished and sorry to say, a lot of it is plainly false.” He added: “it was an easy target for her to hit.”

“I am not some maniac who needs to be high or loaded all the time,” the 58-year old Depp asserted, also alleging that he had long periods of total sobriety in his life.

In fact, contrary to evidence presented in this case and in the week-old trial, Depp said that he was never been “out of control” on a film set or while working.

Making sure his version of events didn’t completely diverge from what others have said, Depp did admit that he was “addicted” to the prescription opioid Oxycodone after suffering a back injury from performing an action scene on 2011’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. “I was bite by the snake, and before you know it that monkey is on your back to stay.”

Depp added that once he finally kicked the drug, he vowed to stay off it no matter how much pain or discomfort he suffered, such as when one of his fingers were sliced off while filming in Australia in 2015.

With tales of Peter Frampton and Van Morrison records, Clockwork Orange and Last Tango in Paris soundtracks and writers like the Beat Generation and Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, Depp delved into his own style of scribbles after some prodding by his lawyer Jess Meyers.

“In my texts, in my emails, and my wrings you take the subject itself and you try to express it in your own vernacular,” he said, as the looming specter of hateful and threatening communications with the likes of self-described drug buddy and Avengers alum Paul Bettany, as well as members of his staff and medical team.

Knowing the damning portrait the texts and other communications paint of him and how effective they could be in Heard’s defense, especially with Bettany on the witness list, Depp took a risky preemptive approach hoping to defang the material.

“I am ashamed of some of the references made and embarrassed at the tome that in the heat of the moment, the heat of the pain I was feeling, went to dark places,” the actor said in a low voice. “Sometimes pain has to be dealt with humor, and sometimes dark very dark humor,” he went on to testify as Heard watched stone-faced.

“Sometimes you are exaggerating something you’ve done to make him understand you are a on Planet Question Mark,” Depp stated of the texts shared with the likes of Bettany that threatened to kill Heard, defile her and more.

Flipping the responsibility, Depp then declared he used horrible terms in texts in reaction to Heard’s claims of domestic abuse and more at his hands.

“After the unfortunate words of Ms. Heard made their way into my heart and my head and those are two very opposing things – and you are trying to find to the best way to express sometime to a friend,” Depp went on to say.

With less than hour left on today’s testimony, Depp’s attorney turned the actor towards describing how he met Heard and how their relationship developed.

Depp will return to the stand on Wednesday for more testimony and cross examination.

UPDATE, 12:29 PM: “Anonymity has left the building …that’s an odd thing to deal with,” Johnny Depp told a packed Virginia courtroom today as the one-time Oscar nominee continued his testimony in the $50 million defamation trial against Amber Heard.

“It all turned around, it went weird,” Depp added of the gifts and curses of the huge success of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and the security details subsequently required for himself, “the kiddies” and other members of his family

In what was an arched attempt at presenting the multi-millionaire as just a regularly guy to the Fairfax County jury and onlookers in and out of the court, Depp pushed back against the self-described “disturbing criminal acts” allegations of domestic abuse that his ex-wife and Rum Diary co-star has long claimed.

Spending most of his initial…