‘Depp V Heard’: The 8 Most Shocking Takeaways

Netflix’s Depp v Heard is a thorough look at a trial that social media thoroughly dissected — but if you think you know the whole story, think again. Sure, everyone in America was transfixed by Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard, but there was more to the story than what people saw on TikTok. That’s where the Netflix docuseries steps in; it aims to present the entire story in roughly chronological order, presenting all of the evidence — including everything that was omitted from the trial — side by side so that viewers can make their own decisions.

Or not, because your mind is probably already made up! And that’s another main point that Depp v Heard makes. While the truth may not have a bias, everyone’s view of the truth is incredibly biased. Two TikTok commentators can view the same piece of evidence differently, and a change in context can change perceptions. Reality is subjective on social media, and that made the Depp v Heard case a singular experience in the age of TikTok.

While you may think you know everything about the trial, Depp v Heard has a few moments that will make you go “hmmm…,” “huh?,” and “hold on — !” Here are eight such moments from the 3-part docuseries, now streaming on Netflix.

1. Johnny Depp’s reaction to Amber Heard was “yum”

   Depp first met Heard when she auditioned for — and landed — a part in the 2011 period piece rom-dram The Rum Diary. Depp and Heard hit it off instantly, talking about “old blues, books, music, and poetry,” developing a chemistry that came through in their work — especially a shower scene wherein their two characters become intimate. Heard testified that lines were “blurred” while filming that scene: “He grabbed my face, pulled me into him and really kissed me.” After work, Heard went to Depp’s trailer. Depp flirtatiously and playfully pushed Heard onto his “bed-sofa” and, looking at her, he said “yum.”

   Is this shocking? No. Is it weird? Not really! Is it kinda cringey? Kinda…? It’s just… considering all the places that this very disturbing trial goes, the fact that it all started with Depp looking at Heard and saying something as silly as “yum” is… it’s just something.

3. The “Wino Forever” tattoo

   The fact that Johnny Depp had a tattoo that read “Winona Forever” that he changed to “Wino Forever” after their breakup is a kind of bar trivia knowledge that pop culture obsessives have stored in their brains. Amber Heard, however, had a question upon seeing the odd little tattoo on Depp’s arm. She asked what it said, he answered, and she laughed because “it didn’t look like it said [Wino Forever] at all.” Then Depp, according to Heard, slapped her across the face and said, “You think it’s so funny? You think it’s funny, bitch?” Then, Heard, alleges, he slapped her again for laughing at his tattoo. According to Head, that began a pattern of physical abuse that would ultimately lead to their divorce and everything that followed.

4. Depp actually coined the term “megapint”

   While questioning Depp about the video of the actor, as Depp puts it, “assaulting a few cabinets,” Heard’s attorney Ben Rottenborn asks if Depp had been drinking beforehand. He specifically asks if Depp had poured himself a “megapint” of wine. This bizarre turn of phrase understandably became the source of meme after meme, partly because it’s a weird thing for a lawyer to say and also because Depp’s most popular movie character is a tipsy AF pirate. But as Depp v Heard points out, Rottenborn did not coin the phrase megapint. Despite Depp’s incredulous response to the term, Depp actually first said “megapint” during the U.K. libel trial.

   Credit where credit is due.

5. We know who pooped the bed… sort of

   During the trial, Depp accused Heard of leaving a sizable poop on his side of their bed. In her defense, Heard said that the poop was most likely left by her dog, who suffered from intestinal issues. Depp scoffed at this on the stand, saying that their dogs were tiny little Yorkies. This preposterous exchange, coupled with the fact that Amber’s last name rhymes with “turd,” proved to be easy fodder for online ridicule. So, who pooped the bed? The docuseries again inserts transcripts from the libel trial in the U.K. where a text from Depp is read into evidence. It reads:

   “Will you squat in front of the door of the master bedroom and leave a giant coil of dookie so that Amber steps in it and think that it’s one of the dogs, primarily Boo has a major problem. It’ll be funny.”

   This text proves that 1. Depp knew that Boo had an intestinal problem, and 2. It’s not unlikely that Boo could leave a human-sized poop. Additional text messages from Heard established that Boo’s intestinal problems were an ongoing concern long before the infamous poop incident. Did Boo do it? It’s not as far-fetched a theory as y’all thought!

6. Milani Cosmetics got involved for no reason

   As part of her defense, Heard’s lawyer told the jury that the actress kept a makeup palette in her purse for the duration of her relationship with Depp and became very skilled at covering up the bruises that he gave her. After seeing this in the trial, the cosmetics company that made the specific palette in the lawyer’s hands did more than make a statement: they made a TikTok. Milani Cosmetics created a TikTok showing off the palette, literally pointing out — with a finger, as is the way of TikTok — that it was released in 2017. Heard filed for divorce in 2016, meaning that she could not have used that palette.

   Even though it was pointed out that the defense never said “Milani Cosmetics,” never claimed that Heard used that specific palette, and was likely using that palette as a general example of a color-correcting palette, this caused social media to lose their damn minds and was treated as a smoking gun. People were also weirded out by the fact that a major corporation would weigh in on a defamation case, especially one involving domestic abuse. Milani ultimately pulled the TikTok and released a statement:

   “Our video was to verify the claim that our eagle-eyed and loyal fanbase made about the product named in the trial. Milani Cosmetics is not taking a formal stance on the trial, evidence, or future outcome of the case.”

7. Amber Heard has donated money to charities

   During the trial, Depp’s lawyer questioned Heard about claims she had made regarding donating the $7 million she received from her divorce from Depp to charities. Heard once again stated that she had donated money to the ACLU and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Depp’s lawyer, however, had an issue with her word choice. Camille Vasquez restated her question, emphasizing her choice of words: “Sitting here today, you have not donated the seven million dollars — donated, not pledged, donated — the seven million dollar divorce settlement to charity.” Heard then said that she uses pledge and donate synonymously, and thus TikTok was set off again.

   As the doc puts into context, the ACLU and the press do use the terms “pledge” and “donate” synonymously. And then the doc hits you with this text:

   The ACLU attributed $1.3 million towards a plan to donate $3.5 million over the next ten years.

   The Los Angeles Children’s Hospital testified that as of June 2018, they had received $250,000 in connection with the $3.5 million pledge.

   During the trial, the ACLU’s COO Terence Dougherty confirmed Heard’s donations and testified that he had no reason to believe that he was “not aware of any indication that Ms. Heard has decided to no longer pay additional amounts.” As for why her payments stopped in 2018, Heard claims that legal expenses springing from Depp suing her in May 2019 are at least partly to blame.

   “I still fully intend on honoring all of my pledges,” said Heard during the trial, in a moment not included in the docuseries. “I would love him to stop suing me so I can.”

8. The jury was not sequestered!

   Seriously — the jury was not sequestered. The judge did remind the members that they were not to discuss the case with anyone outside of the jury, and she did remind them that they were to not look at any media coverage of the case, including any social media posts. But, as plenty of social media pundits wondered while the case was unfolding, how could the jury avoid all of this commentary? Even if they remained off of the internet completely for six weeks, what are the odds that everyone they know would do the same, or resist the urge to tell them about things like the Milani Cosmetics TikTok video?

   In a post-trial interview, Heard’s lawyer Elaine Charlson Bredehoft said that she believed the jury was swayed by social media. “They went home every night. They have families, the families are on social media… they had a ten-day break in the middle because of the judicial conference. There’s no way they couldn’t have been influenced by it and it was horrible.” For the record, Bredehoft was against having cameras in the courtroom, which ultimately gave TikTok so much footage to work with.

   Depp’s lawyers also gave an interview post-trial and said the opposite. “I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that the jurors violated their oath,” said Depp’s lawyer Benjamin Chew. Camille Vasquez added, “It is everywhere, but at the same time, they were admonished every single night, and they had a tremendous amount of respect for the court and the process and they were doing the best that they could.”

9. What were the Deuters texts?

   During the trial, the defense tried to read a series of text messages sent from Depp’s assistant Stephen Deuters to Heard into evidence. The texts were previously deemed not relevant to the trial, though, and were therefore forbidden from being entered into evidence. The fact that Depp’s lawyers worked hard to keep the texts out of evidence was one of the few times that social media raised an eyebrow at Depp’s team, because you’d only work that hard to keep detrimental evidence out of the courtroom. After the trial and Depp’s victory, the actor’s fanbase raised just over $3,000 to unseal the 6,600 pages of evidence that wasn’t admitted into the trial, including the Deuters texts.

   It turns out that Stephen Deuters’ texts tell a different story about an incident on a plane that Heard alleged to have happened:

   The line from Depp’s assistant — “When I told him he kicked you, he cried” — is the key line, but since the lawsuit was about defamation and not specifically abuse Heard alleged to have suffered on a plane, Depp’s team was able to keep it out of evidence.

   There’s also the fact that even the veracity of these texts has been called into question, with Deuters claiming that the texts were “heavily doctored” and that he had never witnessed Depp abuse Heard. Apparently, these texts were in a different format than all of the other texts that Heard turned over, which further complicated the issue. Nothing in this court case is simple.