Amber Heard Says Her 'Goal' Is To Have People See Her 'As A Human Being'

Actress Amber Heard spoke with TODAY co-host Savannah Guthrie again on Friday night on a Dateline special on NBC.

Heard had previously been sued by her ex-husband, actor Johnny Depp, for $50 million dollars over an op-ed she published in the Washington Post in 2018. In the op-ed, she declared herself a survivor of domestic violence but did not mention Depp by name. However, he claimed that he lost out on movie roles and her accusations ruined his reputation, which led to the lawsuit.

Heard countersued for $100 million dollars, claiming that she also lost out on movie roles after one of Depp's attorneys called her abuse allegations a "hoax." The trial played out for most of May in a courtroom in Fairfax, Virginia. On June 1, a seven-person jury sided with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor and found that defamation had occurred in her op-ed and awarded Depp $15 million dollars: $10 million dollars in compensatory damages and $5 million dollars in punitive damages.

The $5 million dollars was later reduced to $350,000 dollars, the maximum allowed under Virginia state law. Heard was only awarded $2 million dollars for her countersuit.

Although one male member of the jury has since broken his silence and revealed that he and other members of the jury did not find Heard "believable," the "Aquaman" actress insists that Depp was, in fact, abusive towards her.

Depp, who recently joined TikTok, has not given a public comment on the NBC interviews that Heard has participated in throughout the week.

A spokesperson for Depp told NBC, “It’s unfortunate that the defendant and her team are back to repeating and reimagining and re-litigating matters that have already been decided by the court.”

Before Friday night's interview, a spokesperson for Amber Heard told The Blast that "If Mr. Depp or his team have a problem with this, we recommend that Johnny himself sit down with Savannah Gutherie for an hour and answer all her questions."

Most of the Dateline special contained excerpts from the interviews already shown throughout the week, with news clips of the trial sprinkled in to fill in the gaps and provide more context to Heard's statements.

Heard shared what she learned in the trial, saying, "What I learned in that trial is that it is never going to be good enough."

"If you have proof, then it was a scheme. It was a hoax," she continued. "If you don’t have proof, it didn’t happen. If you have a bruise, it’s fake. If you don’t have a bruise, then violence clearly didn’t hurt you. If you told people, then you’re hysterical. If you didn’t tell anyone, it didn’t happen."

The "Zombieland" actress seemed to double down on statements that she made shortly after the verdict was announced, denouncing it as a "setback" for women.

Heard told Guthrie that she hopes the jury verdict won't have "the chilling effect it may have on other people."

"I worry about that," she said, adding, "But if I can look you in the eye, Savannah, and say, ‘I’m still here,’ and maybe that serves to balance out some of the very, very real fear others may have about coming forward or speaking out."

Heard maintained that she told the truth about her abuse allegations and would “stand by every word of my testimony to my dying day.”

Heard also said that she was not "vindictive" by participating in the interview and did not want others to see her as such.

“My goal, the only thing I can for hope for at this point, I just want people to see me as a human being,” she said.

"The Adderall Diaries" actress also turned over "a binder" full of therapy notes to NBC, which she claims proves her allegations of abuse. However, these notes were not admissible in court due to hearsay. Heard told her therapist what happened and her therapist documented the incidents in her notes, but her therapist was not present to witness the abuse firsthand.

Guthrie told viewers watching at home that the therapy notes go “as far back as 2012, Amber was talking about physical abuse. In January of that year, she told her therapist Depp hit her and threw her on the floor. Eight months after that, he ripped her nightgown, threw her on the bed, and, in 2013, he threw her against a wall and threatened to kill her.”

Depp has vehemently denied that he ever abused her and, as Guthrie pointed out, Amber Heard is the only one of Depp's past partners to accuse him of physical violence.

Heard responded, “Look what happened to me when I came forward. Would you?”

Guthrie told Amber Heard that the jury thought she was lying during her testimony, which she delivered three weeks into the trial.

Heard said, “I’ll put it this way: How could they make a judgment, how could they not come to that conclusion? They had sat in those seats and heard for over three weeks of non-stop relentless testimony from paid employees and towards the end of the trial, randos, as I say.”

“I don’t blame [the jury]," she went on. "I actually understand he is a beloved character and people feel they know him. He’s a fantastic actor."

"After listening to three and a half weeks of testimony about how I was a non-credible person, not to believe a word that came out of my mouth," she continued. "I’m a hysterical woman. I’m crazy. I can’t be trusted over and over again."

However, Guthrie pointed out that there were audio clips played during the trial when Heard openly admits to hitting - but not punching - Depp.

Heard insisted, "what you hear in those clips is not evidence of what was happening. It was evidence of a negotiation, of how to talk about that with your abuser."

Ultimately, Amber Heard is sticking with her story that she experienced physical, emotional, sexual, and psychological abuse at the hands of her ex-husband.

At one point in the interview, Guthrie directly asked Heard, “He said he never hit you. Is that a lie?”

“Yes,” Heard responded.