Johnny Depp was to be paid $22.5 million for a sixth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, but after ex-wife Amber Heard accused him of domestic violence, Disney scrapped the projectthe actor’s agent said Monday.
Jack Whigham, who testified by video in a courtroom outside Washington, where a high-profile trial between the ex-spouses has been going on for three weeks, said: Heard’s column in the Washington Post was “catastrophic” for Depp’s Hollywood career.
“After the op-ed it was impossible to get him a studio film,” Whigham told the seven-person jury hearing the case in Virginia court.
Whigham, Depp’s agent since 2016, said a deal had been reached with Disney for the actor to return as Captain Jack Sparrow in a sixth installment of the lucrative “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise.
“We closed the deal at 22.5 million dollars,” he said.
But Disney decided to go in a “different direction” following the December 2018 publication of Heard’s Post op-ed, Whigham said.
“I contacted them successfully, but I couldn’t rescue the role in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ for Johnny,” he said.
Depp sued heard for defamation for the column she wrote for the Post, in which he described himself as a “public figure representing domestic violence”.
Heard, 36, who had a leading role in the film “Aquaman,” never named Depp, 58, but the actor sued her for implying he was an abuser and is seeking $50 million in damages.
The Texas-born Heard countersued, asking for $100 million and claiming she suffered “unrestrained physical violence and abuse” at his hands. Depp has denied physically abusing Heard and claimed at trial that she was the one who was frequently violent in the relationship.
Whigham, questioned by Heard’s attorneys, said that the deal with disney on Depp’s compensation for a new “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie was “verbal” and that there was no signed contract.
“There was an understanding of what the deal was going to be,” he explained.
“For your safety”
Whigham also detailed Depp’s compensation for other movies he made in 2017. He said he received $8 million for “City of Lies,” $10 million for “Murder on the Orient Express,” and $13.5 million for “City of Lies.” dollars for “Fantastic Beasts”.
In 2018, he “wanted to take some time for himself” and shot “only” two independent films in the fall: “The Professor” for $3.5 million and “Waiting for the Barbarians” for $1 million, Whigham added.
In January 2019, he was to be paid $3 million for a movie called “Minamata,” the agent said.
But “it was very, very difficult to sustain the project,” Whigham said. “Financing became shaky, the budget had to be cut, Johnny’s cache was lowered to save the movie.”
Travis McGivern, a member of Depp’s security team, also testified Monday.
McGivern said he was present at an argument between the couple in his Los Angeles penthouse during which Heard punched Depp in the face, threw a can of Red Bull at him and spat on him.
The bodyguard said he escorted Depp “for his safety.”
“My job is to ensure the safety and well-being of my clients,” he said. “It was time to do my job and get him out of there.”
Depp filed the defamation lawsuit in the United States after losing a libel case in London in November 2020 that he brought against the British tabloid The Sun for calling him a “wife beater”. The actor sued his publishers in a lawsuit that exposed his drug and alcohol abuse.
Depp, a three-time Oscar nominee, and Heard met in 2009 on the set of the film “The Rum Diary” and married in February 2015. Their divorce was finalized two years later.
