Johnny Depp: 'Getting finger sliced by vodka bottle closest I came to breakdown'

20 April 2022, 21:53

Johnny Depp has said the moment after his finger was sliced off by a vodka bottle during an argument with Amber Heard was "probably the closest I've ever been" to a nervous breakdown.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star has been giving evidence in a defamation trial in Virginia, and recounted on Wednesday graphic detail about the alleged incident.

He said his finger was left looking "like Vesuvius" after the encounter he claimed happened in Australia in March 2015.

Mr Depp is suing Amber Heard, his former partner, for libel over a 2018 article she wrote in the Washington Post.

His lawyers say it falsely implies he physically and sexually abused her.

Mr Depp was asked about his claim that Ms Heard, also a film star, threw two vodka bottles at him, and said he wrote "lies that I had caught her in" in blood on the wall.

"She threw the large bottle and it made contact and shattered everywhere," he told the court.

"I honestly didn't feel the pain at all at first, I felt no pain whatsoever. What I felt was heat and I felt as if something was dripping down my hand.

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"I looked down and realised that the tip of my finger had been severed and I was looking directly at my bone sticking out, and the meaty portion of the inside of your finger.

"Blood was just pouring out and... I don't know what a nervous breakdown feels like, but that's probably the closest I've ever been. Nothing made sense.

"I knew in my mind and in my heart, this is not life. No-one should have to go through this."

He went on: "I started to write in my own blood on the walls little reminders from our past that essentially represented lies that she had told me, lies that I had caught her in."

Mr Depp said he called a doctor from his bathroom but lied about how the injury happened, claiming it got smashed in "large accordion doors".

"I lied because I did not want to disclose... that it had been Ms Heard that had thrown a vodka bottle at me and then took my finger off," he said.

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"I didn't want to get her in trouble.

"I tried to keep things as easy as possible for everyone, I did not want to put her name in the mix."

Previously, Ms Heard said she was abused during the Australia trip, calling it a "three-day hostage situation".

Following claims by Ms Heard's lawyers that substance use triggered violent episodes, Mr Depp said he was "more inspired" to turn to drugs and drinking because of the "constant clashes" between the pair.

"There wasn't a day that she would wake up and you'd expect something would hit the fan, and pretty much like clockwork it did," he said.

"I had to have something to distance me and distance my heart from those verbal attacks, I had to have something to be able to maintain me."

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Mr Depp said that his marriage to Ms Heard started to feel like he was "in a relationship" with his mother.

"Things started coming up and I was suddenly just wrong about everything," he said.

"If you tried to explain yourself and correct the problem, the misunderstanding, it would then begin to heighten as Ms Heard was unable to be wrong.

"It just didn't happen, she couldn't be wrong."

The case continues.