Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany's Texts About 'Drowning' Amber Heard Divide Fans

Johnny Depp's past text messages were presented as evidence in court on Thursday amid the actor's ongoing defamation suit against his ex-wife, Amber Heard.

The Pirates of the Caribbean actor testified about using recreational drugs with WandaVision actor Paul Bettany and musician Marilyn Manson.

Heard's attorney Ben Rottenborn showed the court text exchanges between Bettany and Depp including one in which the two actors once joked about killing Heard.

Texts from June 2013 showed Depp and Bettany joking about how to kill Heard, with Depp writing: "Let's burn Amber!!!"

Paul wrote back: "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 replied: "Let's drown her before we burn her!!! I will f*** her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead."

Then Bettany replied: "My thoughts entirely! Lets be CERTAIN before we pronounce her a witch."

In many text messages read out, Depp called Heard explicit names like "ugly c***," "worthless hooker" and "filthy whore."

"When I write something, when I write a text, especially if I'm in a particularly impassioned place it's a canvas, it's a painting," he said in court, having previously said that he has a dark sense of humor.

Fans have been divided in their reactions to the texts on Twitter.

"paul bettany is not getting dragged enough for those texts," reads one tweet.

While another added: "Naur cuz those text messages that Johnny Depp sent to Paul Bettany don't even come close to the level of s***tiness of Amber Heard admitting to starting a physical fight and abusing him."

One Twitter user labeled the text messages "violent" and wrote: "Reminder that Paul Bettany enabled and joined in on Depp's violent texts and had the audacity to tweet this s***."

Another person tweeted: "Amber Heard is clearly the aggressor in the Johnny Depp situation, but all the blind support for him doesn't sit right with me—this man exchanged texts with Paul Bettany about burning her and raping her corpse. He's not a good man if he's bringing up sexual violence."

Depp is suing his ex-wife for defamation over an op-ed she wrote about domestic violence in The Washington Post in 2018. While Depp was not named in the article, his lawyers argue that Heard's implication is obvious.

Meanwhile, Heard is countersuing for $100 million for nuisance, with her attorneys arguing that the op-ed was a matter of public interest.

The trial is taking place in a Fairfax, Virginia courthouse.

Bettany previously said he was "embarrassed" to have his texts made public, telling The Times earlier this year: "I knew him before. But we hadn't spoken for years. During the marriage I didn't know them. So I wasn't around for any of that. We live in a world without context."

Bettany also told The Independent back in December 2021: "You suddenly have one of the most scabrous newspapers in London and their lawyers pouring through your texts for the last 10 years.

"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."