Footage Shows James Franco Visiting Amber Heard Night Before Johnny Depp Divorce Filing

Amber Heard is currently on the stand for cross-examination in the fifth week of her $50 million defamation trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp. Depp’s legal team has been attempting to poke holes in her testimony which concluded on Monday, and this morning they released a video of Heard being visited by the actor James Franco the night before she filed for divorce from Depp.

Heard has claimed that the day before this visit, Depp was physically abusive towards her by throwing a cellphone at her, and submitted a photo of her bruised face to the court. Depp denies retelling of events and claims that he overheard the actress laughing about another incident being mentioned in the case where feces was left on his bed. Depp claims he just responded by taking the phone from Heard’s hand and speaking to the friend through it and didn’t strike her.

Police were called to Heard’s apartment following the altercation, but Heard didn’t cooperate with police and said on the stand that she “didn’t want the world to know,” about the alleged abuse and that she was trying to keep the Pirates Of The Caribbean star out of trouble.

The next night, May 22, 2016, surveillance footage shows Heard welcoming Franco, wearing a cap and large backpack, into the elevator of her apartment building. Heard confirmed the video’s validity, and said that Franco touched the side of her face where the alleged bruise was, before resting his head on her shoulder in a manner reflected in the footage. Heard would then file for divorce from Depp a day later, and seek a domestic violence restraining order soon after that.

Depp admitted during his time on the stand that he suspected Heard was having an affair with the Pineapple Express actor. Heard claimed in her own testimony that this suspicion boiled into a rage once during a flight in 2014 when he accused her of sleeping with Franco, and then “kicked me in the back,” so hard she fell onto the floor of the plane.

Other aspects of Heard’s intense cross-examination included her admitting to not donating her full $7 million divorce settlement to the ACLU and Children’s Hospital of LA as she claimed to in a 2018 interview. Heard said she still hopes to fulfill this pledge but blamed Depp’s suits against her as preventing her from fully financially committing to it. She has still donated over a million dollars to the ACLU according to the nonprofit’s COO, though some of it allegedly came from Elon Musk on the actress’ behalf.

Several aspects of Heard’s 2016 deposition about Depp were also interrogated by Depp’s attorneys during her cross-examination. Heard was scrutinized over some aspects of the video, in which she appeared to smile and roll her eyes while listening to an audio recording of Heard admitting to striking Depp, and Depp repeatedly referring to it as more aggressive punching. Heard claimed that this demeanor was because “I was sitting opposite a whole table of lawyers,” doing the same. When asked about her use of physical aggression during their relationship, Heard said, “I tried to defend myself when I could, but it was after years of not defending myself.”