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Amber Heard appears startled as Johnny Depp approaches her in very AWKWARD moment in court

The exes appeared to briefly make eye contact before a frightened Heard took a step back and a court officer put his hand toward Depp's chest

FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA — Amber Heard and Johnny Depp almost locked eyes with each other as they came face to face in court following her sensational testimony on Thursday, May 5.

Heard, 36, was stepping down from the witness stand for a court recess after testifying that Depp, 58, allegedly abused her with a bottle. Depp, who is blind in one eye and nearsighted in the other, appeared to walk towards Heard's direction, where the exit was. The exes appeared to briefly make eye contact before a frightened Heard took a step back and a court officer put his hand toward Depp's chest. The 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star then turned away as a female court officer escorted his ex-wife to her seat. Depp went out the back of the courthouse for a smoke during the break.

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Social media was inundated with various takes on Heard's apparent startlement. "We hear #AmberHeard admitting to hitting #JohnnyDepp yet the court security sees fit to hold him back when they accidentally come face to face. Men fighting gender stereotypes," one fan opined. Some accused Heard of bad acting. "Lucky for her, the jury wasn't in the room to see her awful acting," a tweet read. "Overacting even in recoiling. That's some B-Grade movie-level acting," another offered.
 
"She probably recoiled when she took a dump in the bed too," someone else quipped, while another said it was difficult to gauge the authenticity of both Heard and Depp's emotions as they are both trained actors, writing, "Thing is, they're both trained actors (one more so than the other). How is the jury to know what is an accurate representation of how they're feeling, and what is put on? I think this is likely to make or break the outcome."

Depp has avoided making eye contact with Heard throughout the defamation trial that began on April 11. The 'Edward Scissorhands' star, who has been taking notes throughout the trial, is suing his ex-wife for defamation after she claimed to be “a public figure representing domestic abuse" in a 2018 op-ed for the Washington Post. While Depp wasn't mentioned by name, his lawyers have argued the incendiary piece damaged their client's reputation and destroyed his future prospects in Hollywood.

During direct examination, Heard described a violent altercation in March 2015 when she and Depp were staying in Australia as the latter worked on the fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” installment. Heard claimed they argued over Depp's drinking before he threatened to cut her up with a broken bottle of booze. She said he proceeded to rip apart her clothes and penetrated her with a bottle during the fight. Depp was left with a severed finger after the incident and trashed the mansion where they were situated. Heard told the jury that Depp wrote on the walls of the home with blood from his fingertip.

“As Mr. Depp’s counsel correctly predicted in their opening statements last month, Ms. Heard did indeed deliver ‘the performance of her life’ in her direct examination,” a Depp spox told the New York Post in a statement.