Not buying it. Howard Stern criticized Johnny Depp for his “dramatic” testimony in his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard.
“I was completely unaware how entertaining the Johnny Depp, Amber Heard trial is,” Stern, 68, said on the Monday, April 25, episode of SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show.
The radio host proceeded to slam Depp, 58, for how he addressed the court during his multiple appearances on the stand over the last month.
“The reason he wanted that, he wanted it televised, is that’s what narcissists do,” Stern explained via IndieWire, referring to the fact that the case is available to the public. “They think they can talk their way out of anything.”
The comedian confessed that he thinks the Pirates of the Caribbean star is a “huge narcissist,” explaining, “What I mean by that is — he figured, ‘I’ll put this on TV and because I’m so persuasive and because I’m so smart, I’m such a wonderful guy.’”
Depp, who was married to the Aquaman actress from 2015 to 2017, is suing Heard, 36, for defamation in response to an op-ed she penned in 2018. In the piece, Heard detailed her alleged experience as a survivor of abuse, seemingly talking about the Sweeney Todd actor.
The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory star took the stand in Virginia on April 19 to “clear the record” about Heard’s allegations of domestic abuse, asserting, “Never did I myself reach the point of striking Ms. Heard in any way, nor have I ever struck any woman in my life.”
Depp then slammed his ex-wife, saying, “It’s pretty strange when one day you’re Cinderella, so to speak, then 0.6 seconds you’re Quasimodo.”
The Lone Ranger actor — who shares daughter Lily-Rose, 22, and son Jack, 20, with ex Vanessa Paradis — fired back at Heard for her slanderous op-ed. “I didn’t deserve that, nor did my children, nor did the people who have believed in me for all these years,” he said in court. “I didn’t want any of those people to believe that I had done them wrong or lied to them or that I was a fraud. I pride myself on honesty.”
Stern, for his part, revealed on Monday that he didn’t believe what Depp was saying about the alleged abuse and his marriage to Heard.
“If he isn’t acting — I mean, he’s so overacting, ’cause he’s writing his own material as he goes along. You know, I got to tell you, he’s wrong,” he said on the radio show. “He shouldn’t be putting this on TV in any shape.”
The America’s Got Talent judge noted that while Depp may have thought, “I will charm the pants off of America at the trial,” it appears to have backfired.
“It’s not going well for you, it’s not going well for her. It’s not going well for anybody. You sound like two battling children,” Stern added. “It’s just coming off really badly.”
Depp completed his cross-examination on Monday amid the ongoing trail. Heard, for her part, has yet to take the stand.
The exes’ current lawsuit is the latest legal battle they’ve been entwined in since they split. The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them actor previously lost a libel suit against U.K.’s The Sun for referring to him as a “wife beater” in 2018 after Heard’s op-ed came out.
Ahead of the April trial, Heard issued a statement about the case while announcing that she was taking a break from social media before heading to Virginia.
“I never named him, rather I wrote about the price women pay for speaking against men in power,” she wrote via Instagram earlier this month. “I continue to pay that price, but hopefully, when this case concludes, I can move on and so can Johnny. I have always maintained a love for Johnny and it brings me great pain to have to live out the details of our past life together in from of the world.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
