After losing to Johnny Depp, Amber Heard gives her first interview: I spoke to power and I paid the price

Amber Heard is speaking out about her defamation case against ex-husband Johnny Depp, which resulted in a USD 50 million settlement. The Aquaman actress reiterated that she stands by every word she said on the stand in her first interview since her defeat, and she discussed her thoughts on the ruling in full.

Heard responded to the presenter of the Today Show, via ET Canada, when she questioned if the actress still stands by her statements, “Of course. To my dying day  will stand by every word of my testimony.” She then added, “I spoke [truth] to power, and I paid the price.” Heard talked about the immense backlash she had to endure during the grueling trial, “This was the most humiliating and horrible thing I’ve ever been through. I have never felt more removed from my own humanity. I felt less than human.”

The audio recordings were brought up by interviewer Savannah Guthrie, who questioned Heard about how her comments did not always line up,  “I am looking at a transcript that says he says, ‘You start physical fights,’ And you say, ‘I did start a physical fight. I can’t promise you I won’t get physical again.’” On being asked a straightforward question, Heard explained, “As I testified on the stand about this, is that when your life is at risk, not only will you take the blame for things that you shouldn’t take the blame for. But when you’re in an abusive dynamic, psychologically, emotionally, and physically, you don’t have the resources that, say, you or I do, with the luxury of saying, ‘Hey, this is black and white.’ Because it’s anything but when you’re living in it.”

As the interview progressed, the presenter addressed Heard with her now-famous audio recording in which she challenges Depp to sue her and goes on to say that no one will believe him since he is a guy. Heard said that the film was a fragment of a much lengthier conversation and that the context had been misrepresented. Guthrie also backed up Depp’s attorney’s claim that Heard’s testimony was the worst he’d ever heard, a “performance of a lifetime,” to which Heard quipped, “Says the lawyer for the man who convinced the world he had scissors for fingers?” She went on to note, “I had listened to weeks of testimony — insinuating that or saying quite directly that, you know, I’m a terrible actress. So I’m a bit confused how I could be both.”

In terms of Heard’s future plans, her counsel just stated in an interview that she intends to file an appeal against the landslide judgment.