Johnny Depp lost out on $22.5 million deal for Pirates 6 after Amber Heard op-ed, manager claims

Johnny Depp's talent manager testified that Amber Heard's 2018 op-ed chronicling her experiences as a domestic violence survivor had a "catastrophic" impact on his client's career.

Jack Whigham, who represents Depp at Range Media Partners and previously repped him at CAA, said in remote testimony Monday that he "closed a deal" for Depp to earn $22.5 million to reprise his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film, but Disney decided to go in a "different direction" in the aftermath of Heard's Washington Post piece.

"After the op-ed, it was impossible to get him a studio film, which is what we normally would have been focused on in that time period," Whigham said, reiterating allegations put forth by Depp during his testimony in Fairfax, Va., last week. The actor claimed that his career was "done" from "the second the allegations were made against me," adding, "Once that happened, I lost then. No matter the outcome of this trial, I'll carry that for the rest of my days."

EW has reached out to Disney representatives for comment.

During direct examination last week, Depp testified that Disney approached him to take part in writing Pirates 6 prior to Heard's op-ed. Jack Sparrow, he said, was "a character I had built from the ground up and was something that I put a lot of myself [into]." He also said, "Having added much of myself, much of my own rewriting, the dialogue, the scenes, the jokes, I didn't quite understand how after that long relationship and quite a successful relationship with Disney that… suddenly I was guilty until proven innocent."

Depp added that he felt "betrayed" by Disney, as he felt the characters deserved a proper sendoff: "My feeling was that these characters should be able to have their proper goodbye. A franchise could only last for so long, and there's a way to end a franchise like that. And I thought that the characters deserved to have their way out of… to end the franchise on a very good note. And I planned on continuing until it was time to stop."

Depp is suing Heard for $50 million over her op-ed. Though she never mentioned Depp by name in the piece, his lawyers maintain the references to him are clear and the op-ed damaged his career and reputation. Heard filed a $100 million countersuit, alleging that Depp and his legal team defamed her by referring to her abuse allegations as a "sexual violence hoax." She is expected to take the stand Wednesday.

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