Johnny Depp's Manager Claims Amber Heard's Op-Ed Cost Him $22.5 Million For 'Pirates Of Caribbean' Film

Johnny Depp is suing his ex-wife, Amber Heard, for defamation to the tune of $50 million after her Washington Post op-ed about being a victim of domestic abuse was published. Heard's defense has been that Depp was never mentioned by name in the article. Depp's lawyer, Benjamin Chew, acknowledged this fact and added, "It didn’t have to...Everyone in Hollywood knew exactly what she was talking about." He called this "defamation by implication."

Jack Whigham, Depp's ex-agent and current talent manager, took the stand on Monday. He made the revelation that Depp lost a multimillion-dollar deal after the allegations were made against him. 

Whigham said, that Depp had a $22.5 million deal in place to appear still unmade sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film, as per Deadline. Elaine Bredehoft, representing Heard, questioned Whigham if he had actually seen a document to this effect to which he admitted that he had not, saying "I have not seen $22.5 million written on a page." He also claimed that the op-ed had a devastating impact on Depp's acting career. "After the op-ed, it was impossible to get him a studio film," Whigham stated in court. Depp was dropped from the Fantastic Beasts franchise and later was also asked to step back from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

When Depp previously took to the stand he revealed that he will not be going back to play the role of Captain Jack Sparrow. “Two years had gone by of constant worldwide talk about me being this wife-beater," he said of being asked to step down from the film. "So I’m sure that Disney was trying to cut ties to be safe. The #MeToo movement was in full swing at that point.” Heard's attorney Ben Rottenborn had asked, "The fact is, Mr. Depp, if Disney came to you with $300 million and a million alpacas, nothing on this earth would get you to go back and work with Disney on a Pirates of the Caribbean film? Correct?" Depp responded, "That is true, Mr. Rottenborn." 

There were problems to keep other projects Depp was involved in up and running, as in the case of Minamata which saw a long delay in the release after Depp's image dropped. “It was very, very difficult to keep Minamata together,” Whigham noted. “The financing became shaky, the budget had to come down, Johnny’s fee came down in order to save the movie.” He also shared in court how Depp was paid $8 million for City of Lies in 2017, $10 million for his performance in 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express, $13.5 million for 2018’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and $1 million for the 2019 indie Waiting for the Barbarians.

These statements are to support the claim that Heard's op-ed had a detrimental impact on Depp's career prospects since he is claiming all the allegations against him are false.