Amber Heard says Johnny Depp tried to prevent her from acting: 'A constant battle and negotiation'

Amber Heard testified Thursday that her ex-husband Johnny Depp discouraged her from working as an actress during their time together, describing the issue as a "constant battle and negotiation."

During her second day on the stand in Depp's defamation trial against her, Heard said Depp would get "angry" at her for fielding scripts, auditioning for roles, and meeting with production teams, citing Depp's paranoia about suspected affairs with her male costars.

According to Heard, she bargained with Depp for her to appear in the 2015 sequel Magic Mike XXL, which featured a predominantly male cast. Depp "reluctantly agreed" to her getting the part, Heard said, because of the lack of sex and kissing scenes. "I wasn't going to play a sexualized character," she testified. "I wore minimal makeup."

JIM LO SCALZO / POOL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Amber Heard in court

After Magic Mike XXL, Heard said, Depp "found pieces of audition pages" that were sent to her for another project and "blew up at me." She testified, "What he said to me was I didn't tell him. I didn't ask him. Because he didn't know about that audition that I hadn't done yet, he was furious at me. I ended up not doing that audition."

She continued: "He said, 'I'm trying to look out for you. You're saying you don't want to be objectified, but you're doing it.' It got more narrow and more narrow about what I could do."

Heard said it was "hard for me to work, justify working. Every audition, every meeting, every script I got was a negotiation or a fight. I had to justify it as if I was to say, 'Hey, let's have an open relationship.' I've always been really independent, and I never imagined not working. I've worked from the earliest time I can imagine. I come from parents who worked until they literally couldn't anymore. I never imagined myself having to explain my job or justify my job, but I did."

Claudette Barius/Warner Bros. Amber Heard in 'Magic Mike XXL'

According to Heard, Depp suspected her of having affairs with several male costars, including James Franco, with whom she appeared in Pineapple Express and The Adderall Diaries, and Eddie Redmayne, with whom she appeared in The Danish Girl. "He hated, hated James Franco," Heard testified. "He was accusing me of secretly having a thing with him in the past since we had done Pineapple Express together."

Depp is suing Heard for $50 million over her 2018 Washington Post op-ed chronicling her experiences as domestic abuse survivor. Though she never mentioned Depp by name, his lawyers maintain that the references to him (and Heard's previous public abuse allegations) are clear, and that the op-ed damaged his career and reputation. Heard has filed a $100 million countersuit, alleging that Depp and his legal team defamed her by referring to her abuse allegations as a "sexual violence hoax."

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