As part of Amber Heard’s interview with Today host Savannah Guthrie, pieces of the conversation have been released letting the public know in advance what the actress has yet to say about the trial Johnny Depp launched against her for defamation.
In the second part of Heard’s interview, the actress revealed that to this day, she still fears that her voice will not be heard and be taken into account as a victim of domestic violence because that is what defamation lawsuits are “meant to do”.
When asked by Guthrie if she is “nervous about what she can say now”, Amber responded saying that she is indeed scared of what could come any time she tries to speak out.
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“I’m scared that no matter what I do, no matter what I say or how I say it, every step that I take, will present another opportunity for sort of silencing, which is what I guess a defamation lawsuit is meant to do. It’s meant to take your voice.”
She went on to explain that the op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post as a “public figure victim of domestic violence” and an opportunity for her to lend her voice to “a bigger cultural conversation that we were having at the time”.
Amber continued saying that despite everything she and Johnny Depp have been through, she still has love for him.
“I loved him with all my heart, and I tried the best I could to make a deeply broken relationship work, and I couldn’t. I have no bad feelings or ill will toward him at all.”
Experts consider the interview a failure
Crisis management experts consulted by Insider agree on one thing: Amber Heard’s interview was a failure, was too soon and it didn’t help her restore her damaged image due to the lack of trust she showed during the trial.
Juda Engelmayer, president of HeraldPR, said that one of the biggest failures of Heard was her inability to recognize that she wasn’t credible during the trial and she didn’t hold herself accountable for it, but rather blamed social media and Johnny Depp’s stardom.
For Danny Deraney, a Los Angeles-based crisis communications expert, the interview was too soon and Amber rushed into doing press days after the trial.
“It’s almost like she went rogue …I would’ve probably not allowed my client or at least I would’ve definitely lobbied against her doing this,” he said to Insider.
On June 1, after a six-week trial in Virginia, the jury proclaimed a verdict in favor of Johnny Depp, ruling that Amber Heard had to pay 15 million dollars for implying in the op-ed that he was the domestic violence perpetrator, which later resulted in damages in his career and images. On the other hand, Heard was awarded 2 million in damages after one of Depp’s lawyers defamed her.
