Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Johnny Vs. Amber’ on Discovery+, A Doc About Depp And Heard’s Troubled History And Not Their Current Testimony

The two-part Discovery+ doc Johnny vs. Amber delves backward in time to 2020 and Johnny Depp’s libel suit against British tabloid The Sun. Since Amber Heard was the paper’s star witness, the trial dredged up the couple’s dicey personal history, much of which has surfaced again in Depp’s current defamation trial against Heard, which is being held in Virginia but streaming online to the delight of celeb news junkies and the social media chatter-verse. Discovery+ seems to be positioning Johnny vs. Amber as a kind of primer for their ongoing bickering. 

JOHNNY VS AMBER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Amber Heard is being interviewed on a program called Young Hollywood. “Johnny’s a wonderful person to work with,” she says. “He’s got so much to offer. I think he’s just – he’s almost too good for the industry.” That quote is then aligned with one from Johnny Depp himself. “Meeting an actress like Amber Heard, it’s like walking into a room and meeting Lauren Bacall. She’s quite something, you know.”

The Gist: It’s been almost two years since Johnny Depp’s libel case against The Sun was settled, so it’s not a spoiler to say the actor lost. In the aftermath, he departed the Fantastic Beasts movies and unsuccessfully tried for an appeal before pivoting to the current trial, where he’s suing Heard for defamation over her Washington Post op-ed which he says labels him a domestic abuser. Johnny vs. Amber has nothing to do with the current case – it was first released in 2021. Instead, it covers the celebrity couple’s contentious union, their divorce, and a stockpile of texts, voice recordings, and cell phone footage that are supposed to prove who’s lying about domestic abuse. If Heard is lying, then Depp’s libel suit against The Sun – he was called a “wife-beater” in one of its articles – is validated. But if Depp is lying, the tabloid and their star witness are vindicated. In the verdict, it was found that the article’s assertions were “substantially true.”

Johnny vs. Amber is presented from each of their perspectives across two segments. In the first segment, “Johnny’s Story,” his legal team presents their defense. Solicitor Jenny Afia says it’s “Johnny’s life and reputation on trial,” while lead counsel David Sherborne says Depp’s candor regarding his struggles with drugs and alcohol abuse gives him credibility. A smattering of footage lifted from celebrity gossip shows builds in background, from Depp and Heard meeting on the set of The Rum Diary, to the escalation of their romance and its subsequent flame-out in a hail of restraining orders and depositions for divorce proceedings. There’s also a memory lane segment that amounts to a Johnny Depp sizzle reel, clips from Edward Scissorhands and even 21 Jump Street that are meant to re-establish the actor’s status as a Hollywood outsider. Then Bill “Breano” Hanti appears, who played in the band The Kidz with Depp. Heard “got inside John’s head,” he says. “He was drinking and drugging to the point of insanity.”

Whatever the verdict in the British trial, and whoever emerges triumphant in Virginia, the texts, voice recordings, and footage that appear in Johnny vs. Amber is notable for anyone interested in celebrity minutiae. A video in the kitchen of their West Hollywood home that features an agitated Depp guzzling wine from a goblet, or the mutual recordings of their “therapeutic process” where the couple declares their undying love. The revelation that Depp not only is aware of his behavior under the influence, but that he gives the side of himself a name, “The Monster.” And the arguing. Always the arguing. It’s a peek inside a relationship that would be troubled even if these two weren’t famous.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Depp has already testified in John C. Depp II v. Amber Laura Heard. But his ex-wife will once again take the witness stand when the trial kicks back into gear Monday, May 16th. Heard plans to call her ex-husband as well as Ellen Barkin to testify. (Here’s how to stream the Depp v. Heard trial.)

Our Take: All of the suing, counter suing, testifying, and speechifying happening in Depp v. Heard has predictably ignited social media, from aggressive “Justice for Johnny” posters in the livestream’s comment field, to the usual polarization on Twitter, to TikTok doing what it does, taking things into theater of the bizarre territory with people acting out Amber Heard’s testimony and impersonating Johnny Depp’s mannerisms. So given how much the current trial has fueled the celebrity news gossip train, there’s some context to be gained by Johnny vs. Amber and its coverage of the earlier trial in London. Maybe you’re watching the ongoing court proceedings, and didn’t know about the earlier court proceedings. Maybe you didn’t know about Heard’s documentation of Depp’s behavior, or that the couple was forced to publicly apologize to Australia for not declaring their dogs when they lived there for a stint in 2015. But in the latter bit, as Johnny vs. Amber plays audio over static images of the mansion they rented lifted off an Australian real estate site, it begins to feel like the doc isn’t relating any information that couldn’t be gleaned from five minutes of googling.

Sex and Skin: Nothing overtly salacious here. Lots and lots of cussing between Heard and Depp, however, on the recordings that play. At one point, during an argument in a San Francisco hotel room in July 2016, Depp calls Heard “A leftover, fucking, over-the-hill stripper.” Yikes.

Parting Shot: The final moments of the “Johnny’s Story” episode of Johnny vs. Amber are devoted to reaffirming his legal team’s position in Depp v News Group Newspapers Ltd, and setting up the narrative of the series’ second part, “Amber’s Story.” “His ex-wife, who is accusing him of all this nonsense,” Depp’s lead counsel David Sherborne says, “all of this shit, as he describes it, is lying in his bed. And that is, we say, such a powerful point in demonstrating that these allegations are untrue.” Then Sasha Wass QC, lead counsel for The Sun, highlights Depp’s documented history of drug and alcohol abuse before another recording of Depp speaking to Heard. “Baby, please, please, please, don’t let the monster out…”

Sleeper Star: We’ll go with Johnny Depp’s very specific diction and manner of description here, which hasn’t gone unnoticed in the storm of social media chatter surrounding the ongoing defamation case in Fairfax County, Virginia. “This finger, which I now call ‘Little Richard,’ the tip of the finger was severed,” he says in a 2018 deposition. “All the bones in here, completely shattered. It looked like Vesuvius.”

Most Pilot-y Line: When it comes to bickering celebrities, Channel 4 News Correspondent Minnie Stephenson emphasizes the distinction between it occurring on private islands and in public courtrooms. “This was the story which gave you, kind of, unparalleled access to the lives of celebrities who mostly live on private islands, get about on private jets, and this was a moment where you could sort of see, in excruciating detail, what was going on behind the scenes.”

Our Call: SKIP IT. Johnny vs. Amber offers some background on Depp and Heard’s difficult relationship, but it isn’t essential to understanding or following along with the pair’s current court proceedings.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges