Johnny Depp confirmed in court on his second day testifying at his $50 million defamation trial against Amber Heard that he will never return to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
The actor, 58, testified that Disney had dropped him from the sixth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean just days after the publication of a December 2018 op-ed authored by his ex-wife for The Washington Post.
Depp was not mentioned by name in the op-ed, however, he maintains that the piece undeniably defamed him.
Yesterday, he was cross-examined by Heard's attorney, Ben Rottenborn, who asked him if he would ever return to the Disney franchise for which he is perhaps best known.
Per Variety, Rottenborn said: “The fact is, Mr Depp, if Disney came to you with $300 million and a million alpacas, nothing on this earth would get you to go back and work with Disney on a Pirates of the Caribbean film? Correct?”
Depp responded: “That is true, Mr Rottenborn.”
Rottenborn also suggested to the jury that Disney had been reluctant to work with Depp before his client's op-ed was published. The lawyer even brought up an October 2018 Daily Mail article that alleged Depp was "out as Jack Sparrow."
"I wasn’t aware of that, but it doesn’t surprise me," Depp responded. "Two years had gone by of constant worldwide talk about me being this wife-beater. So I’m sure that Disney was trying to cut ties to be safe."
Depp also complained that Disney was still happy to profit off his image in the movies, considering his character Jack Sparrow is still featured in amusement parks all over the world.
“They didn’t remove my character from the rides,” he said. “They didn’t stop selling dolls of Captain Jack Sparrow. They didn’t stop selling anything. They just didn’t want there to be something trailing behind me that they’d find.”
Depp is suing his ex-wife for the hefty sum of $50 million, claiming she defamed him in her op-ed despite the fact that his name was not mentioned in it.
He said: "I would be a real simpleton to not think that there was an effect on my career based on Ms. Heard’s words, whether they mentioned my name or not."
