Paul Bettany says what bothered him most about having his private messages with Johnny Depp read out in court wasn’t the jokes. It was being presented to the world as one of Depp’s close friends.
In an interview with The Times published Thursday, October 15, the 55-year-old actor said he and Depp had already been out of touch for years by the time the texts became public, and the two have had no contact since. Among all the accusations the former couple traded, Bettany said, that portrayal struck him as “the most odd” part. He was speaking while promoting his Disney+ series VisionQuest.
He said, “I hadn’t spoken to Johnny in years when that happened and I haven’t spoken to him since. I was being painted as this close friend of a guy I hadn’t spoken to in years and, honestly, amid all the s--- two celebrities threw at each other, that bit was the most odd,” he said.
“So I decided to say nothing because, I think, people know me. I’ve been married 23 years [to actress Jennifer Connelly] and, for what I do, I live an incredibly quiet life,” Bettany added. “Everybody kind of thought this is probably a nothing burger — and left it alone.”
What the messages said
The texts date to 2013, when Depp and Bettany were working together. The two appeared in three films between 2010 and 2015. In one message, Depp wrote, “Lets burn Amber.” Bettany replied in the same mock-medieval spirit. He said he wasn’t sure Heard was a witch and suggested a “drowning test” instead, adding that he had a pool. On the stand, Depp said the exchange was a riff on Monty Python and was never meant literally.
The messages surfaced first in Depp’s 2020 U.K. libel suit against the publisher of The Sun, which he lost. They came up again during his 2022 U.S. defamation trial against Heard. In that trial, Depp described Bettany as a good friend. and claimed Heard disliked Bettany because of their friendship.
Bettany had once spoken warmly of Depp in public. In a 2016 post on X, then Twitter, he described Depp as among the kindest and gentlest people he knew. The post appears to have disappeared when Bettany left the platform.
Not the first time he’s addressed it
Bettany also discussed the texts with The Times in 2022. He called the experience embarrassing and said the messages had been stripped of context. He said he had known Depp before Depp’s marriage to Heard but not during it, so he had no first-hand view of the relationship. He also said he doubted anyone with a smartphone would be comfortable having lawyers comb through their private messages.
The legal backdrop
Depp, 63, and Heard, 40, began dating in 2013, married in 2015, and split the following year. In 2018, Heard wrote a Washington Post op-ed describing herself as a survivor of domestic abuse. The piece did not name Depp, but he sued her for defamation, arguing it clearly referred to him. Heard countersued, accusing Depp of orchestrating a smear campaign against her.
In 2022, a Virginia jury largely sided with Depp and awarded him $15 million. That amount was later reduced under the state’s cap on punitive damages. Heard won one of her three counterclaims and was awarded $2 million. The two settled in December 2022, and Heard paid Depp $1 million in June 2023. A source close to Depp said at the time that he planned to split the money among five charities, as noted by People.