Johnny Depp's Agent Testifies Amber Heard's Accusations Were "Catastrophic" For Depp's Career

Johnny Depp’s former talent agent took the stand in the defamation trial and says the fallout from Amber Heard’s 2018 op-ed about domestic violence has been “catastrophic” for Depp’s career. Christian Carino at one time represented both Depp and Heard, and testified on Monday speaking on how the now-infamous Washington Post opinion piece published in December 2018 damaged Depp’s reputation in Hollywood.

Carino testified that it became clear, though conversations with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and CAA co-chair Bryan Lourd, that Disney had decided it could not continue to employ Depp. Carino said that the abuse claims were never openly discussed as the reason, but that it was simply “understood” within the industry.

Talent agent Jack Whigham said that he had “closed a deal” for Depp to star in Pirates Of The Caribbean 6 for $22.5 million. He said, however, that in early 2019 it “became clear [producers at Disney] were going in a different direction” that did not include Depp. “After the op-ed, it was impossible to get him a studio film, which is what we normally would have been focused on in that time period,” said Whigham.

Depp then resigned from his role in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, a Warner Bros. property, in November 2020 after losing his highly publicized U.K. libel lawsuit case against British tabloid The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater.”

Depp’s security guard also took the stand to talk about some arguments he witnessed, and that got Depp chuckling with a certain detail.