Amber Heard ‘opposes Johnny Depp’s request to delay defamation trial’

Amber Heard has reportedly opposed her former husband Johnny Depp’s request to delay their £37 million ($50 million) defamation trial so he can film Fantastic Beasts 3 in London.   

According to The Sun, the actress, 34, accused the screen star, 57, of making ‘no effort whatsoever’ to follow their planned court dates in January next year and is treating the judge as ‘subservient’ in papers filed on Saturday.

The Hidden Palms star is said to have claimed she’s due to film Aquaman 2 in February 2021, with her schedule potentially being at risk of clashing with the case if Johnny’s motion is accepted. 

The Texan’s lawyers reportedly wrote against the appeal: ‘Although Mr Depp had been contacted in late June or July with the proposed filming dates, he did not alert them to the trial dates.

‘Mr Depp decided that, rather than speak with his employer to work his film commitments around his trial, he asks this court to subserviently reschedule around his employment and the entire film schedule and production.’

Pirates of The Caribbean actor Johnny, who is suing Amber for libel in Virginia, filed documents in Fairfax County on August 21, to push back the case until anywhere between March and June 2021.

The court had set the trial to run from January 11 to January 28, although Warner Bros. recently revealed they plan on filming his fantasy sequel from October until February next year. 

Johnny is slated to return as Gellert Grindelwald, who was teased in a brief cameo in 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them, before his starring role in 2018’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. 

‘When the Court set the current trial date in this case, Mr. Depp understood that Warner Bros. planned to shoot‘Fantastic Beasts 3 in London long before January 11, 2021,’ an excerpt from the court filing read. 

The court documents also included a letter sent by Warner Bros. Senior Vice President of Legal Affairs, Glenn A. Eckerle, revealing the production schedule. 

It added that the All the Boys Love Mandy Lane star would not ‘suffer any unfair prejudice’ from the trial being delayed until later in 2021.  

The award-winning thespian wrapped up his 16-day libel trial against The Sun in July. Johnny is suing the newspaper over an April 2018 article that suggested he was a ‘wife beater’. 

Explicit details of the pair’s turbulent marriage has dominated headlines, as each accused the other of domestic violence. 

One claim included Johnny bashing Amber’s head into a fridge and sending texts threatening to cut off Elon Musk’s penis after suspecting they were having an affair.

Judgment in the High Court trial in London is not expected to be delivered by Mr Justice Nicol until late September, giving his lawyers enough time to prepare for his US defamation case against Amber.

In the US proceedings, Johnny is suing Amber for $50 million over a 2018 article she wrote in the Washington Post in which she describes herself as being a domestic abuse survivor. 

It will feature all the same witnesses that appeared on behalf of either Depp or Heard in London and is also based on the same bombshell evidence that was produced at the High Court over the past few weeks.

The US hearing will also result in the former couple – who were married from 2015 until 2017 – returning to the witness box again to divulge details of their stormy relationship, which have already generated widespread publicity around the world. 

Last month, Amber claimed Johnny ‘organised and orchestrated’ an internet ‘smear campaign’ against her, US court documents reveal.

The documents insisted the father-of-two attempted to ‘defame Ms Heard and interfere with her reputation, career and livelihood’ through an online trolling campaign.

She said her ex and his lawyer Adam Waldman arranged for both authentic Twitter accounts and fake ‘bots’ to ‘smear and harass’ the Aquaman star.

The papers allege Waldman ‘is publicly associated with Russian individuals with the capability to organise such attacks’. 

MailOnline has contacted Amber and Johnny’s representatives for further comment.