Johnny vs Amber: Depp’s lawyers shown calling Kate Moss to persuade her to testify in new documentary

In the new Discovery+ documentary, Johnny vs Amber: The US Trial, Johnny Depp’s lawyers are shown calling Kate Moss to persuade her to testify.

The documentary, released on Discovery+ on Tuesday (20 September), tells the inside story of the trial that was streamed around the world and watched by millions on social media.

Depp sued Heard for $50m (£40.1m) for allegedly implying he abused her in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed. Although she didn’t name him, he claimed that the article impacted his ability to work.

Heard had filed a countersuit accusing Depp of allegedly orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her and describing his own lawsuit as a continuation of “abuse and harassment”.

The new docuseries includes intimate access to Depp’s lawyers, legal experts and journalists, with the first of the two episodes investigating Depp’s side of the story.

At one point, Depp’s team – including Camille Vasquez – are shown calling Moss, who Depp dated between 1994 and 1998.

“I hoped we’d be able to convince Kate Moss to testify but everything I knew about Kate indicated she likely wouldn’t, because she’s an extremely private person and she has nothing to gain to testify,” Vasquez tells the cameras.

She is then shown on the phone to Moss or the model’s team, saying: “Any questions I can answer, if I can get a commitment from you as early as possible tomorrow, you can just send me a text.”

Moss did testify in the end, appearing at the trial via video link in March to deny Heard’s claim that Depp had pushed her down the stairs in the Nineties.

The model said that she did fall down a set of stairs when she and Depp were on holiday in Jamaica, but that he had helped her up at the time.

In June, a jury found that Heard had defamed Depp on all three counts and awarded him $10m (£8m) in compensatory damages and $5m (£4m) in punitive damages.

Heard was awarded $2m (£1.6m) in compensatory damages, but no punitive damages.

During a recent appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Moss told presenter Lauren Laverne why she chose to testify. “I know the truth about Johnny. I know he never kicked me down the stairs. I had to say that truth,” she said.

[via]