Culture
Amber Heard Issues Unusual Statement Regarding Johnny Depp Trial, Discloses ‘Why I Don’t Want to Use My Voice Anymore’
Amber Heard Makes Rare Comments on Johnny Depp Legal Battles in New Documentary
Amber Heard, however, is still managing to convey her side of the story— though very carefully — in Silenced, the new documentary that reveals the impact of defamation lawsuits between the actress and her ex-husband Johnny Depp.
Taken at the age of 39, the actress is featured in Silenced, which is a documentary exposing how defamation laws can be manipulated to silence abuse victims. The documentary, which premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, Jan. 24, has Heard and director Selina Miles discussing the fallout from the highly publicized defamation cases between Depp, 62, and Heard.
“It’s not about me,” Heard tells director Selina Miles, as quoted by Variety. “I have been silenced. I am not here to defend myself. I do not want to narrate my life. Actually, I would rather just stop talking. Isn’t that the dilemma?”
Amber Heard Reflects on Speaking During The Sun Trial in Sundance Doc Silenced
Amber Heard keeps on addressing the consequences of her legal battles in Silenced, a documentary that is one of the films at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival which explores defamation laws being potentially weaponized against abuse survivors.
International human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson—who aided Heard when Johnny Depp sued British newspaper The Sun—also features in the film.
Heard, looking back at the U.K. trial, remembers the time when they debated whether she should go public with the news after the trial was over. “I remember at the close of the trial, the idea that I could say something to the press came up,” Heard says. She tells that Robinson asked her if she was sure while Heard was thinking, “If they throw things at me, it will just make the point more obvious.” She continues, “I had no idea it could be so bad, using my voice, as a woman.”
Besides that, the Sundance Film Festival website states that Silenced also tells of “Catalina Ruiz-Navarro’s fight for press freedom in Colombia,” and “Brittany Higgins’ battle within Australia’s political establishment.”
The film’s description reads: “When women speak out, the powerful systems seek to discredit and punish them.”
Amber Heard Says Speaking Out Gives Her Strength as a Mother in Silenced
Amber Heard in Silenced states that she gains strength by witnessing other people stand up against systems of power.
”It gives me strength seeing other people take on the fight. Women who are brave enough to talk about the power imbalance,” Heard states in the documentary. On the subject of being a mom, she states, “Every time I see my daughter’s face as she grows up and gradually gets out into the world … I think it’s possible for it to be better.”
He has three kids: twins Ocean and Agnes, and a daughter Oonagh Paige.
After Depp and Heard broke up in 2016, she blamed irreconcilable differences in the divorce petition and also requested a temporary restraining order against Depp after she alleged domestic violence. The two parties agreed on a divorce settlement of $7 million in the same year.
In the year 2019, March, Depp sued Heard for defamation after a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post was cited, which later became a focal point of their widely covered legal battle.
Johnny Depp secures a defamation verdict in U.S. court against Amber Heard, settlement closes case after appeals
In November 2020, Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit against The Sun was unsuccessful after the court decided that the newspaper’s portrayal of him as a “wife-beater” was “substantially true.” Amber Heard had given evidence at the trial that supported the allegations. Also, in March 2021, Depp’s application to get the decision overturned was rejected.
Seven months later, Depp’s U.S. defamation lawsuit against Heard came to trial in April 2022. Throughout a six-week trial, which was widely reported and stirred a great deal of public controversy, both Depp and Heard accused each other of physical, emotional, and mental abuse.
The jury agreed with the plaintiff, Heard, on all three defamation charges stemming from her 2018 Washington Post letter to the editor, and they instructed her to pay $10.35 million as compensation. On the other hand, Depp was given an order to pay $2 million after Heard won one out of the three claims in her countersuit.
Initially, both parties were set to appeal the verdict. However, they soon agreed on a deal under which Heard would pay Depp $1 million. Depp later confirmed that he would use the money to make donations to various charitable organizations.
