Paul Bettany Says Having Problematic Johnny Depp Texts Made Public Was Unpleasant

Johnny Depp is part of a very public and ongoing domestic abuse and libel case with his ex-wife, Amber Heard. The actor has been relentlessly fighting the legal battle for the last three years. Now, James Franco and Elon Musk may also weigh in on Johnny Depp’s libel lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard.

Paul Bettany’s messages to Depp regarding the latter’s ex-wife Amber Heard were publicized during a trial in 2020. He has now commented on the process. The  aggressive and unpleasant text messages exchanged between himself and Johnny Depp were supposed to be private.

Bettany plays J.A.R.V.I.S. / Vision in MCU. He is currently promoting A Very British Scandal. He told the Independent it was a really difficult subject to talk about. He also mentioned that he was concerned doing so would just pour fuel on the fire.

“Can you imagine what it would be like, honestly, to have a bunch of lawyers go through every one of your emails and texts for 10 years? All I can tell you is that it was an unpleasant feeling.”

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The problematic texts were read aloud in court in 2020 by barristers for News Group International, which Depp was suing after a column by Dan Wootton in the Sun referred to him as a “wife beater”. The messages call Amber Heard a “beaver”, “witch” etc. They also call for “drowning” and “burning” her.

Bettany: I’m not sure we should burn Amber, She is delightful company and pleasing on the eye. We could of course do the English course of action and perform a drowning test. Thoughts? You have a swimming pool.

Depp: Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will f**k her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead.

Bettany: My thoughts entirely. Let’s be certain before we pronounce her a witch.

Depp was even questioned in court about Bettany being one of his “drug buddies.” The actor answered that the pair had taken drugs together and drunk alcohol. Depp lost the libel case and was replaced by Mads Mikkelsen in the upcoming third instalment of JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts movie franchise.

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