A jury’s decision that both Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were defamed ended the six-week trial, which also raised the question of whether the two actors will be able to overcome the damage to their reputations.

The jury’s verdict

Wednesday’s verdict in Virginia found that Depp was defamed by three statements made in an op-ed written by his ex-wife in which Heard said he was a victim of abuse.

The jury awarded him more than 10 million dollars. The jury also concluded that Heard was defamed by a Depp lawyer who accused her of creating a detailed hoax around her abuse allegations. She received $2 million in damages.

Experts talk about the future of actors

Depp hoped the libel suit would help restore his reputation. However, legal and entertainment experts said both actors’ reputations have been affected by unsavory details about their brief marriage that came to light during the televised trial watched by millions.” Both will be back to work, but I think it will be a while before a major studio deems them ‘safe’ enough to bet on,” said former entertainment lawyer Matthew Belloni, who writes about the Hollywood business for the newsletter informative Puck.

“The personal baggage that was revealed at trial was too unpleasant for a studio to want to deal with,” he said.

The case captivated viewers who followed the television coverage, including passionate fans on social media who dissected the actors’ mannerisms, costume choices, and drug and alcohol use. Both artists emerge with unclear perspectives. Depp, a three-time Oscar nominee for best actor, was a bankable star until recent years, with credits including the role of Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. However, he lost that role and was also replaced in the third installment of Fantastic Beasts.

Heard’s acting career has been more modest, with her only two upcoming roles being in a small movie and an Aquaman sequel due out next year.

Eric Rose, a crisis management and communications expert in Los Angeles, called the trial a “classic murder-suicide” in terms of damage to both careers.

“From a reputation management perspective, there can be no winners,” he said. “They have bloodied each other. Now it becomes harder for the studios to cast any of the actors. You’re potentially alienating a large segment of your audience who may not like the fact that you’ve cast Johnny or Amber for a specific project because the feelings are so strong. now”.

Heard, who attended court Wednesday and was stoic as the verdict was read, said she is heartbroken by what she described as a setback for women in general.

“I am even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It’s a setback. It turns back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly humiliated. It pushes back the idea that violence against women should be taken seriously,” she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account.

Heard’s attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, told CBS Mornings that her client plans to file an appeal.

Depp, who was not in court on Wednesday, said: “The jury gave me my life back. I truly accept it with humility.”

“I hope that my quest for the truth to be told has helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those who support them never give up,” she said in a statement posted on Instagram.

Depp sued Heard for defamation in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post in which the actress described herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.”. The essay never mentioned Depp’s name.

The jury found in Depp’s favor on all three of his claims related to specific statements in the article.

In evaluating Heard’s counterclaims, jurors considered three statements from a Depp attorney, who called her allegations a hoax. They found that one of them defamed her when the lawyer claimed that she and her friends “spilled some wine and mistreated the place, cleared up her stories” and called the police.

While the case ostensibly involved defamation, most of the testimony focused on whether Heard had been physically and sexually abused, as she claimed. Heard listed more than a dozen alleged assaults, including a fight in Australia, where Depp was filming a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, in which Depp lost the tip of her middle finger, and Heard said she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle.

Depp said he never hit Heard and that she was the abuser, though Heard’s lawyers highlighted years-old text messages Depp sent apologizing to Heard for his behavior, as well as profane text messages he sent to a friend in the that Depp said he wanted to kill Heard and desecrate her corpse.

Brett Ward, a family law attorney in New York, said Depp made himself a more credible witness by admitting he used drugs and alcohol and could be a difficult person. But he said Depp also ran the risk of making those moments more memorable for audiences than his film work.

“He says he did this for his children. Having watched the entire trial, I don’t think he did his kids any favors by airing all this dirty laundry,” Ward said in an interview.

“If this paid off for Johnny Depp, we will know in five years if he is re-established as a top-notch Hollywood actor. If not? I think he’s made a terrible mistake because most people aren’t going to remember his distinguished career in Hollywood. They will remember this trial.”