When the ruling came, it seemed like we should see it coming. Actor Johnny Depp succeeded with everything he tried. He managed to break down his ex-wife Amber Heard’s credibility and have her convicted of defamation after she wrote a column in which she described herself as a woman who had been subjected to domestic violence. Two years ago, Depp lost a similar case in London, where he had gone to court after the newspaper The Sun had described him as a “wife banker”. This time he posed with a larger arsenal of lawyers and witnesses, and made sure that a global audience of fans, opponents and viewers repeatedly had Heard described as unstable and violent from the witness box. It was played by audio recordings of quarrels between the two where she was scornful and aggressive, and admitted to beating him. This did not match the image she had given of herself as a pure victim. At the same time, Depp’s own dark sides were also brought to light, including very crude text messages he had written about Heard. The couple’s cohabitation therapist thought they had both been violent. The whole case, which was broadcast live from the courtroom, became a portrait of a dysfunctional relationship in which Heard and Depp, who had both grown up with violent parents, apparently brought out something old and ugly in each other. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard at the Venice Film Festival in 2015. Photo: GIUSEPPE CACACE / AFP What emerged was also a story that was more tangled and complex than what our culture likes to relate to. Because it is so difficult to know what has happened between two people behind closed doors, cases like this often end up being about credibility. Historically, women have often experienced being rejected or belittled when they told about violence and abuse, because there was always a possibility that those who did not want to believe them could question everything they said. When the #metoo campaign gained such tremendous power when it swept the world in 2017, it had something to do with the pent-up rage from crowds of women who had chosen to remain silent rather than risk having their reputation destroyed. But there were cases where #metoo went far in the opposite direction. The case that started it all, the roll-out of the series of abuses and abuses committed by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, was zealously researched by New York Times reporters, who had asked their sources to present old text messages and release psychologists from the duty of confidentiality to cover up their stories of sexual harassment and extortion. The case was waterproof and unassailable. After the fall of Weinstein, several other stars and great fishermen who had abused their power for years and decades also had to retire into disgrace. But in some of the settlements that followed, an accusation became almost synonymous with a verdict. Some men had their careers ruined without the stories being told about them being followed in the seams. The accusations against US Senator Al Franken, for example, were to prove to be weakly grounded and partly politically motivated. But when the details behind the case became known, Franken had long since been pressured to resign. The danger of murder lay latent in #metoo, if not legally, then socially and culturally. The Depp case may thus turn out to be a watershed, perhaps the first example of a man being able to fight back after becoming a pariah. The awareness that a case can be more complex than what one party claims, or completely different, is a pure good. Everyone who is accused must have the opportunity to defend themselves, and the opportunity to win. No one is hurt by being reminded of this. But in other ways, the showdown between Heard and Depp is disappointing. Johnny Depp’s numerous and ardent fans have ended up in a kind of alliance with a group that has viewed mistrust on #metoo in general, and spent the last few weeks throwing scorn and incitement and all sorts of conspiratorial accusations against Amber Heard. Amber Heard and sister Whitney Heard (left) leave the courtroom after the verdict. Photo: Lamkey Rod / CNP / ABACA / Abaca Aided by robotic accounts and algorithms, this led to an unparalleled demonization, which will no doubt scare victims of violence and abuse to come forward with their story, if they think they may be exposed to something similar. For still we can not say that we know exactly what happened in the chamber of Depp and Heard’s explosive marriage. After all, this trial was not really about who was violent against whom, but about Heard’s story of what had happened was so distorted that she committed a crime by giving her husband a clear role as a villain. There is a lot that is uncertain also in the future. Amber Heard anchors the ruling. Despite the victory, the case may have left so many bruises on Johnny Depp’s reputation that he will strive to get as big roles as he could once count on – in a career that was in any case weak on luck, and which was based on big , commercial projects and lazy sequels rather than the portraits of sensitive and eccentric men that made him a star in the first place, once in the searching nineties. But in any case, he remains the man who refused to stay down. Now it is Heard who has fallen, and Depp who is on the way up again, after they have both pulled each other far, far down. See also:
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