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Johnny Depp v Amber Heard: Here's what James Franco could be quizzed over

While Johnny Depp's attorneys say that James Franco was in a relationship with Heard while she was married to Depp, Heard's legal team denied the claims
PUBLISHED APR 13, 2022
James Franco could be quizzed over whether he had an affair with Heard (Jason Merritt/Getty Images for Art of Elysium and Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
James Franco could be quizzed over whether he had an affair with Heard (Jason Merritt/Getty Images for Art of Elysium and Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Actor Johnny Depp's defamation trial against Amber Heard has begun in Fairfax, Virginia, with jury selection. Judge Penney Azcarate ordered deputies to ensure that the proceedings do not become a media circus, and the two of them were subsequently brought into the courthouse in secrecy. Both Depp and Heard were pictured looking somber. 

The co-stars are again set to face each other as the trial begins, having been delayed during the pandemic. The trial will reportedly be lengthy, taking place over seven weeks with just a week's break in May. While the jury selection began on Monday, April 11, the trial is expected to fully get underway on Tuesday, April 12. Both the stars will appear in-person to give their testimonies.

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High-profile stars came up in court during the UK trial, and the same is going to happen this time. James Franco and Elon Musk, for Heard, and Paul Bettany, for Depp, feature on witness lists for the US case. Also featured are representatives of the Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros, and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Court documents filed in March state that evidence will be given by Bettany, Franco, and Musk virtually. On the list are also family members, security guards, assistants, and others who worked around the ex-couple.

What could James Franco be quizzed over at the trial?

According to Page Six, Franco, 43, will be quizzed over whether he had an affair with Heard while she and Depp were still married. 'The Disaster Artist' star was served after surveillance footage from May 2016 showed him getting into an elevator with Heard hours after Depp allegedly gave her a black eye. Franco will possibly be asked if he saw the bruises on her face, and whether he knew about the alleged abuse.

While Depp's attorney's say that Franco was in a relationship with Heard while she was married to Depp, Heard's legal team has denied the claims. The team has said that Franco lived in the building at the time of the incident and they simply took the elevator together. Franco and Heard were reportedly seen leaving the elevator together on the penthouse floor where Depp and Heard shared an apartment. 

Franco has been in the center of controversies after he acknowledged last year that he slept with students of an acting school that he ran previously. In 'The Jess Cagle Podcast', Franco said that he is now working to improve his behavior after struggling with sex addiction. Franco said that while teaching, he “did sleep with students, and that was wrong”, adding that he did not start the school to lure women for sexual purposes. "I [was] completely blind to power dynamics or anything like that, but also completely blind to people's feelings," Franco said. “I suppose at the time, my thinking was if it’s consensual, OK,” he said. "At the time I was not clearheaded.”

This was the first time Franco has commented about accusations that were leveled against him nearly four years ago. Back then, as many as five women had accused Franco of inappropriate conduct. In October 2019, two women filed a civil suit against the actor, claiming that he exploited aspiring actors at his school and duped young women into shooting explicit sex scenes.

"[Sex is] such a powerful drug. And I got hooked on it for 20 more years," Franco said. "And the insidious part of that is that I stayed sober from alcohol all that time. So, and I went to meetings all that time. I even tried to sponsor other people. And so in my head, it was like, 'oh, I'm sober. I'm living a spiritual life'. Where on the side, I'm acting out now in all these other ways. And I couldn't see it." The actor admitted that he could never be faithful to anybody.

The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are preparing to square off over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post, where she called herself a domestic violence survivor. Depp has claimed that he was booted from the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise because Heard's op-ed clearly implicated that he was the abuser. The article, however, did not mention Depp by name. The actor sued for $50 million and Heard countersued for $100 million, claiming Depp ran a smear campaign for years in an attempt to silence her and destroy her acting career.

Depp and Heard began dating after meeting on the set of the 2011 film 'The Rum Diary'. They got married in Los Angeles in February 2015. In 2016, Heard obtained a restraining order against Depp, accusing him of abuse. Depp, however, denied the claims, saying that her accusations were a "choreographed hoax”. In 2019, the two settled their divorce out of court. At the time, Heard said she had donated her $7m (£5.5m) settlement to charity. Depp later accused her of lying about it. 

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