Johnny Depp took the stand on Tuesday at his $50 million defamation trial against Amber Heard, claiming his ex-wife "embellished" the extent of his substance abuse.
Depp, 58, sued Heard, 35, for defamation in 2018 after she penned an op-ed for the Washington Post, claiming to be a victim of domestic abuse. While Heard didn't name Depp in the piece, the actor maintains that his reputation has suffered considerably as a result.
Depp said during his testimony on Tuesday, per HuffPost: "The characterization of my 'substance abuse’ that’s been delivered by Ms. Heard is grossly embellished and, I’m sorry to say, but a lot of it is just plainly false.
"I think it was an easy target for her to hit because once you’ve trusted somebody for a certain amount of years and you’ve told them all the secrets of your life, that information then of course can be used against you, especially if it’s taken to a point that is teetering on impossible."
During filming for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Depp injured his back and a doctor prescribed him Roxicodone - an opioid. He recalled having reservations about taking the medicine as he had seen friends over the years become addicted to pills. Ultimately, he, too, became addicted.
"I was bit by the snake," he said, per BuzzFeed News. "And before you know it, that monkey is on your back to stay."
Depp explained that he began to detox during his relationship with Heard.
"I am not some maniac who needs to be high or loaded all the time," he said.
The actor also revealed that he started taking drugs at the age of 11, when he swallowed some of his mother's nerve pills "to escape feeling so much."
"[It’s] a pretty young age to do that, I can’t say that I’m proud of admitting to that, but I have to say that I knew not what else to do," Depp said after recounting his turbulent childhood with an allegedly abusive mother.
When asked to describe how he felt about Heard early on in their relationship, he said she was "too good to be true."
Depp said his ex-wife was "attentive," "loving," "smart," "funny" and "understanding." He said they shared a number of things in common and that for over a year, their relationship "was amazing," - until it suddenly turned sour.
"I worked quite a lot. When I would come home from work, I would come in the house or hotel and she would sit me down on the couch and give me a glass of wine and take my boots off, set them to the side ― and I’d never experienced anything like that in my life," he said. "It became a regular thing that she did, this kind of routine."
The actor recounted how one evening he returned home from work to find Heard on the phone, so he proceeded to take off his own boots. However, according to him, Heard was unhappy with this otherwise mundane action and supposedly told him: "That’s my job, you don’t do that."
"I felt that strange," he testified. "And then once you notice something like that, then you start to notice the little tidbits ― and then within a year, year and a half, she had become another person, almost."